Designed by Danish architect Dorte Mandrup Photo: Dorte Mandrup Architects
By Bettina Goemener
The new exile museum is to be built behind the ruins of the former Anhalter Bahnhof. From there, the flight into exile began for many of the persecuted.
Her escape from the Nazis into exile began at Anhalter Bahnhof. The writers Alfred Döblin, Heinrich Mann and Bertolt Brecht left here, as did many unknown people.
The Exile Museum, a private foundation under the patronage of Herta Müller, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and former Federal President Joachim Gauck, would like to tell about the fate of those who fled abroad, but also about the people who today have to set off into the unknown.
The building is to be built behind the ruined portal Photo: Dorte Mandrup Architects
The museum is to be located in the open space between the portal ruins of the former Anhalter Bahnhof and the adjacent football field. The winning design by Danish architect Dorte Mandrup from Copenhagen takes up the arches, gates and bridges of the old station building, but reinterprets them. The start of construction is planned for 2026. The costs are 60 million euros, 20 million have so far been collected from private sources.
Andre Schmitz Photo: Ralf Lutter
Board member André Schmitz: “We actually assumed that we would raise the funds privately, but then Corona came along.
We now also need funds from the federal government, it would be nice if Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth would do even more for this. Because there hasn’t been a place of remembrance that closes the gap to today like the Exile Museum.”