Fitting of Steel Bands on the Holocaust Memorial

The process of fitting steel bands to reinforce the stelae (concrete slabs) of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe will begin on 9 July 2012. A total of 24 of the stelae will be reinforced until further notice. 23 of the stelae will be fitted with two steel bands each. One stele will be used to test textile reinforced concrete. In fitting the steel collars, the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is honouring its duty to maintain the safety of the memorial. The application of textile reinforced concrete will serve to trial an additional means of reinforcing and/or renovating the stelae.

Background
Over the past few years, cracks of different lengths and breadths have been appearing on some of the concrete stelae (slabs) of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Upon the request of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, represented by the Berlin Senate’s Department for Urban Planning, on 18 February 2010 the Berlin court launched independent evidentiary proceedings. The court appointed Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Brameshuber, Chair of Construction Materials Research at the Institute of Building Materials Research at Aachen University, as an expert in the case and commissioned him with producing a report. This provisional report was published on 30 January 2012. All those involved in the case currently have the opportunity to respond to the statements made by the expert and to request further information from him. One of the findings of the expert report is that it is necessary to reinforce some of the stelae of between one and two metres high in order to prevent parts of the concrete from breaking off. Technical checks will continue in addition to the reinforcement of the 24 stelae.