Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Peter Eisenman designed 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights on a sloping field, and he has consistently refused to explain what they mean. That's the point. There's no prescribed emotion, no guided interpretation. Some people feel claustrophobia as the blocks rise above their heads. Others feel calm. Children sometimes play hide-and-seek between them, which has caused controversy, though Eisenman himself has said he doesn't mind.

The number 2,711 has no symbolic significance — Eisenman has confirmed this. The field covers 19,000 square metres, roughly the size of three football pitches, on land that was part of the Nazi government quarter. The slabs are coated with an anti-graffiti chemical made by Degussa — a company whose subsidiary, Degesch, produced Zyklon B, the gas used in concentration camp chambers. When this was discovered during construction, it caused a painful public debate about whether to continue. They did.

Beneath the field is an underground information centre that most visitors don't know about. It contains the names and brief biographies of all known Jewish Holocaust victims, sourced from Yad Vashem. One room displays letters and postcards written by victims. Another projects names onto the floor, one by one — reading them all would take approximately six years, seven months, and twenty-seven days.