Monuments, Testimony, and Memory
In 2001, Jewish museum designed by world renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind to tell Non-Jewish the story and sufferings of Jews in Germany. It is also used to commemorate the Jews who died in the torturing. This Jewish Museum is opened with grand celebrations by the Germans which shows how welcoming/ positive they are in recognising this museum in Germany. They thought that the opening of this museum would mean the end of Nazi.
As one German put it; “the Germans are absolutely crazy about this museum.” When asked why, this scholar (an expert on anti-Semitism} responded that because of the enormous effort and capital expended, the Germans feel that this signals the end of the Nazi past, finally putting the Germans on the “right” side after fully learning the necessary lessons from the past. He maintained that the museum symbolizes the total acceptance of Jews in Germany and a final act of absolution for the Germans. Richard McBee September 16, 2001 Published in The Jewish Press
Jewish Museum consisted of two parts. The old part, Kollegienhaus, a former courthouse and also the new part, a zig-zag structure designed by Daniel Libeskind. The entrance to this new dramatic structure by Daniel Libeskind is actually attached to the old building. There is no proper entrance to this museum. Visitors will enter the stately cream colored Baroque palace of the former Berlin Municipal Museum. Then, visitors will follow an underground passageway, a steep ramp to Libeskind building. These underground tunnels are divided into three paths showing different pathways taken by the Jews. The long and steep road leads to the ‘Axis of Continuity’ which leads to the exhibition space as well. The second pathway leads to the ‘Axis Exile and Emmigration’ leads to daylight as well as a garden. The whole garden plank is set on a surface that is slanted in two directions simultaneously, giving sense of imbalance as one tries to orientate between the sky, the trees and sliced views of the surrounding architecture.
This best symbolises the instability and chaos undergone even by those whom managed to get out of German. The plants growing above the pillars symbolises hope for those whom escaped. The third pathway would be the ‘Axis of Holocaust’. This is a dead end. Series of dark windows line the corridor. There are also displays of personal items of those who did not survive in the Holocaust. You can imagine the high steep tunnel getting narrower and darker approaching towards the end. Silence makes the space creepier.
This shows the end of Jewish life in Germany.
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Besides, another important element would be the ‘Void’, a 20m tall empty space which slices across the whole building in a straight line showing the absence of Jewish citizens to the Germans. They give visual expression to the loss of Jewish life in Germany. German citizens are prohibited from entering the Jewish shops with “Star of David” logo stick outside the shop. This is Hitler’s way of slowly spoiling and bringing down Jewish economy in German. Jewish in Germany are never respected and are tortured badly by Nazi. The floor of the Void is fully covered with thousand of round metal discs with open mouth faces named ‘Shaleket’ designed by Menashe Kadishman.
As for the exterior look of the building, Libeskind design it in such a way that it shows some kind of massiveness and toughness, high and huge tall walls of zinc. The material is chosen based on old Berlin tradition. The amazing thing is the untreated alloy of titanium and zinc will oxidise and change color when exposed to sunlight and weather. The openings across the building is also carefully designed by Libeskind to give the structure aesthetic value as well as creating the Jewish ‘feeling’ interiorly. Besides, Libeskind makes use of natural light to light up and also decorate the spaces making the space interesting to visitors. Several lines which intersects with each other following certain matrix formed the openings of the Jewish museum, making the plain and dull facade attractive.
Basically, Libeskind was inspired by three aspects when he was designing the Jewish Museum. Libeskind got his idea from the “Star of David” used at that time by Nazi to discriminate the Jewish shops and German shops and that shops with this logo means that it is a “Jewish shop” and German locals are not allowed to buy from them. This is one of the way Hitler used to force Jews to death. By spoiling Jews economy and forcing them out of the country.. The shape of Jewish Museum by Libeskind is a reminiscent of “Star of David”.
On the other hand, being a musician himself, Libeskind was pretty much inspired by the three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg named Moses and Aron, eventhough the third act was unfinished. It is a response in drama form to the anti-Jew movements in the German and also a drama to express himself as a Jew being forced to leave. As the opera was unfinished, Libeskind aimed at completing it in the design of Jewish Museum.
Thirdly, Libeskind read the book ‘Gedenkbuch’ which contains all the names of those Jews deported and died in Holocaust. In addition, Libeskind also based his design on Walter Benjamin’s One Way Street comprising 60 sections which determines the number of section in the museum’s zig-zag section.
Based on my understanding on the design of this museum, I think David Libeskind managed to potray the story of Jews in German to the public with this amazing piece of architecture. The whole piece of architecture seems to bring us back to the Nazi era and tell us the story of how Jews are treated by the anti-Semitic team during Nazi era. All parts of the Jewish Museum reminds us of the Jews, either they survived(being deported) or being pressurized to death by Nazis. It is amazing that every part of the structure, out from the form until details of the openings are all related to the sad history of Jews in German. For example, in the Axis of Holocaust, personal items of those died are exhibited giving us a clear image of how badly are Jews being treated by Germans at that time.
As for Malaysia, our history icon would be our National Museum located at Jalan Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. Our National Museum is a building which houses and cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic or of historical importance and these things is made available for public viewing. Our National Museum was built after independence in 1959 and was officiated by our Third Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Syed Putra Al-Haj Ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail on 31st August 1963.
To symbolise our nation’s culture, the architect, decided to build our National museum in a traditional Malay style( Rumah Gadang-Minagkabau architecture), blending in a little modern style. This makes it up to date with modern architecture as well as carrying our national identity in the architecture. The two large murals of Italian glass mosaic placed at the front facade of the structure depict the development of Malaysia over the years. Our National Museum is a typical three storied structure of neo-traditional Malay house which houses four exhibition galleries exhibiting Malaysia’s history and vast cultural diversity. The four art galleries comprises of the Prehistory Gallery, The Early Malay Kingdom Gallery, Colonial Era Gallery and the Malaysia Today Gallery.
The Prehistory Gallery shows visitors from the formation of Malay Archipelago and also all the historical sites in Malaysia. For example, exhibited is the Perak Man dated 10,000-11,000 years. Also showcases history of Malaysia from the ‘Paleolitic Era’, ‘Neolitic era’ and so on. Early Malay Kingdom shows visitors history of Malaccan Empire, trading, as well as Islam religion. Colonial era gallery shows history of Malaysia more towards independence, formation of our Nation. Malaysia Today Gallery shows more of nationalistic movements towards independence, development of Malaysia until today.
Among things exhibited other than historical texts are weapons, ceramics, shipwreck porcelains, coins, medals and so on. There is also a central hall in which the highlighted architecture is the finishes for the floor which are blue geometric-design mosaic tiles from Pakistan together with the intricate carved panels on the ceiling. The central Hall of this museum is meant for temporary exhibitions/ foreign exhibitions.
I found out that although our National Museum’s architecture managed to portray traditional Malay culture with the use of traditional Malay houses architecture; it does not show diversity of cultures in Malaysia well with the architecture. The architecture of the Museum doesn’t give non-Malaysians the image of cultural diversities in Malaysia. For example, if we are to compare the Jewish Museum in Berlin as to Malaysia’s National Museum, we can see how the architect design in such a way that the architecture presents itself well to the visitors, while in Malaysia, architecture is still not very dramatic as compared to Jewish Museum. Our Museum tells us story merely through its collections of artifacts, exhibitions, research, publications, educational and public programs rather the architecture itself doesn’t speak.
In my opinion, Malaysian heroes, our heroes can be best commemorated with architecture and as well as the historical items left behind by our heroes. As Libeskind has said, “It is the responsibility of architecture and culture to address events and history” It is best to commemorate with architecture as “A building and a city are always present across time and across history. The act of building transforms the culture of a city.”
As a conclusion, culture and history of a Nation are strongly related to architecture. It is important for us, as Architects to preserve our Nation’s history with architecture. We could keep a Nation’s history and show other people our unique culture by expressing it through Architecture. In simple words, Architecture, eventhough it can’t speak like us, but it can present itself well through different kind of expressions(designs) like the way Jewish Museum presents the story of Jews to public.
~Malaysia Tanah Tumpahnya Darahku~
=)=)=)
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