Are people condemned for taking a break on a hot summer day? Am I, as I sit under the shade of a tree, observing others interacting with the site, while sitting on my own stelae, condemned for inappropriate behaviour? This memorial has sat in the heart of Berlin for over 20 years and has become as much part of the makeup of the city as the TV tower or Brandenburg Gate. Would one not expect that due to its centrality in the city and large footprint that Berliners would develop a unique relationship with the memorial that we cannot understand as outsiders? The large presence of tourists also impacts one’s experiences at this site. Do children playing within the stelae break the chain of remembrance or do they show how the world continues to spin even after such a great loss?
The rules for the site ban jumping between the stelae, but they don’t ban sitting on them, and this ban seems more for safety rather than respectability. This father, who watches as his child climbs from stelae to stelae is attentive to make sure his child is unharmed. Children run through the stelae, playing tag or other games while their parents watch on chatting or eating lunch on the outside edges of the memorial. As shocking as these actions could be to our serious academic minds, the reality is that these spaces are not solemn places of remembrance we hold them to be. They are public spaces where people are allowed to act as they wish, whether or not they know the significance of the location or not.