Target site summary: ‘Prinz Albrecht Terrain’, Berlin

Until 1945, Prinz Albrecht Terrain, bounded by Prinz-Albrecht Strasse (now Niederkirchnerstrasse), Wilhelm Strasse and Anhalter Strasse was occupied by the headquarters of several of the institutions of NS security apparatus, including the GeStaPo and SS. The site also provided detention, interrogation and torture facilities. By the early 1960s wrecked buildings had been demolished and the ground cleared. Later, parts of the terrain were used for car parking, as building materials depot and for off-road driving. Around 1980 various organisations called for a monument to be built on the site. A 1983 architectural competition for a memorial and park on the site came to nothing. A temporary exhibition, ‘Topography of Terror’, based around the excavations of cellars of the former secret police HQ was mounted in 1987 and has been partly maintained to date. In 1992 a new competition for the design of a memorial and documentation centre was held. Construction of the prize-winning design was ceremoniously commenced in 1995, although the construction costs had yet to be raised. Construction was halted owing to lack of money and the half-built documentation centre was recently demolished. [May 2005]

Survey: PR-B-100505 carried out by Anthony Auerbach assisted by Henrikke Nielsen, 10 May 2005, 275 photographs