Daniel Libeskind (right), a visiting professor at the School of Architecture, discusses a model with third-year architecture student Tark Park. Libeskind has received international attention for his Jewish Museum of Berlin.

Architect Libeskind tells how he conveyed 'the real'
and 'the invisible' in new Jewish Museum of Berlin

The date Nov. 9 holds layers of significance for architect Daniel Libeskind, the inaugural Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the School of Architecture. On Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis looted and destroyed thousands of Jewish institutions and private property in a frenzy of anti-Semitism known as Kristallnacht (night of broken glass). For Libeskind, the child of Holocaust survivors, that event has strong resonance. His parents suffered through the war in a slave labor camp, and most of his extended family was murdered. He was born just after the war in Poland, where his family remained for 11 years before emigrating to Israel and ultimately, the United States. Years later, Libeskind returned to Berlin to live, and on Nov. 9, 1989, he was there when the Berlin Wall came down. He had recently moved to Germany to design a Jewish museum for that city -- his first building after years of teaching and writing about architecture. Ground-breaking for the museum took place on Nov. 9, 1992. Because of the complications of the site and the dramatic changes Germany was going through, it took seven years to complete. The museum, still officially closed and empty of exhibits, is already attracting 2,000 visitors a day, seven days a week. They are escorted by guides, who conduct 30 daily tours in seven languages. The museum will display art, artifacts and historical documents, beginning in 2000. Finally, this year, Libeskind spoke to a capacity crowd at the Law School on Nov. 9, bringing his personal experience, his thoughts about architecture, and his sense of history to bear on the topic of "The Ethics of Memorializing: the Jewish Mu-seum of Berlin." "When I was invited by the Berlin Senate in 1988 to participate in this competition for the Jewish Museum," Libeskind said, "I felt that this was not a program I had to invent or a building I had to research, rather one in which I was implicated from the beginning, having lost most of my family in the Holocaust and myself having been born only a few hundred kilometers east of Berlin in Lodz, Poland." Libeskind feels strongly that it "will never be easy to show history in all its complexity, all its ambiguity, all its reverberations, from the infinite past into the future." But that is exactly the task he set for himself in creating the Jewish Museum. "It's been my fate that all my projects are intrinsically problematic," he said in an interview earlier in the day. "There are the logistics, the engineering challenges of the site, and the need to create something that is not just conceptual or programmatic. I'm interested in spiritual topography, multiple interpretations. I don't just design neutral boxes to hold objects. I try to convey the complex, the real, not the ideal." With the Jewish Museum of Berlin, there was the added challenge of presenting the long, rich history and culture of the Jewish community of Germany, with its infinite linkages to the general culture -- what he called "the Jewish dimension that cuts through the history"-- while still communicating the horror of the Holocaust. His solution is an angular set of spaces that suggest a broken star of David and an architecture that is stark and powerful. "History should not be romanticized," says Libeskind. Through slides, the architect took the audience through the building, which connects with a baroque-era traditional museum, the Collegienhaus, by way of a steep descent and an underground corridor. "The entrance is underground, taking you from the world of German Enlightenment to counter-enlightenment," he said. The museum has three main spaces: an outdoor "garden of exile," the "stair of continuity," and the "Holocaust tower." The E.T.A. Hoffman Garden is made up of 49 thick, rectangular concrete columns set in a grid, seven by seven. The land slopes dramatically, and the horizon appears tilted and disorienting. The columns are meant to represent the exile and emigration of Jews from Germany. Forty-eight columns contain soil from Berlin and stand for 1948, the year the State of Israel was established. The 49th column, in the center, contains soil from Jerusalem and represents Berlin. Growing on top of each column is a willow oak. Eventually, these horizontal plants will fill in and create a natural roof over the garden, explained the architect. The largest section of the building is the main stair, which represents the continuation of Berlin's history and leads to the exhibition spaces. Its huge, blank walls have narrow windows that "stab" the concrete at angles that correspond to the pre-war location of the homes of murdered Jews whose family name was Berlin or a variant of it. The final axis leads to a dead end, a tower that forms a void within the museum. It is almost 90 feet high, open at the top and made of raw concrete. The space is unheated and un-airconditioned, deliberately uncomfortable and stark. Visitors to the void find themselves cut off from the rest of the museum and the city beyond, which they can hear, but not see. Libeskind noted that people fall silent when they arrive at this place, and some are so disconcerted that they panic and bolt back inside the museum. To cross from one area to another, visitors traverse 60 bridges that open into the void. As the architect intended, there is no avoiding the Holocaust in Libeskind's building; there is no avoiding history. "I wanted the building to express the invisible. It's not just based on geometrics," he said. "Much of Berlin is what you don't see. My museum is organized around the less-visible Berlin." The School of Architecture and the David and Goldie Blanksteen Lectureship in Jewish Ethics of Yale Hillel sponsored Libeskind's visit to Yale and the exhibition on display in the Art & Architecture Gallery, 180 York St., through Nov. 20. -- By Gila Reinstein T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Bulldogs gear up for 'The Game' Donoghue, biodiversity expert, will join EEB Study proves aspirin alone prevents future heart attacks Academy of the Arts pays tribute to Stern Environmental Law Institute lauds Speth Yale moves forward with biomedical engineering program Columbia's Chase named deputy dean of medical education Endowed Professorships Nobel Peace Prize winner to take part in discussion of East Timor Veteran White House correspondent to give Poynter Lecture Long history of legends surrounds 'The Game' Yale, Harvard Glee Clubs mark century of making harmony on eve of 'The Game' Study reveals why 'Lonesome George' snubs potential mates Noted alumnus describes 'dramatic' changes in the world of sports Architect Libeskind tells how he conveyed 'the real' and 'the invisible' in new Jewish Museum of Berlin Bone loss from steroid use is easily preventable, says Insogna Medical school auction to benefit homelessness, hunger programs People with OCD can find support in group therapy Annual tour will showcase area hotel accommodations Yale affiliates to present talks off campus Event offers tips on how to have tough discussions . . 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