The Bebelplatz, Berlin

The Bebelplatz, Berlin

Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels made Bebelplatz (then called Opernplatz) infamous on 10th May 1933, when he used the square across from Humboldt University to burn 20,000 books by 'immoral' authors of whom the Nazis did not approve.

Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels made Bebelplatz (then called Opernplatz) infamous on 10th May 1933, when he used the square across from Humboldt University to burn 20,000 books by 'immoral' authors of whom the Nazis did not approve. Their list included Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Arnold Zweig, Kurt Tucholsky and Sigmund Freud. Today a monument is the reminder, though it blames Nazi students for the episode. When entering the square it's easy to miss the monument. Look dead centre: the monument is underground. A piece of plexiglass allows the viewer to look underground into a large, white room, filled with entirely empty, blank white bookcases. The absence of books reminds the viewer just what was lost here: ideas. But the event did reveal things to come, as author and philosopher Heinrich Heine, whose books were burned, said in 1821: 'This was only the foreplay. Where they burn books, they will also burn people'. He was correct.