Denkzeichen Georg Elser, Monument and steel sculpture in Berlin-Mitte, Germany.
The Denkzeichen Georg Elser is a 17-meter steel structure in Berlin-Mitte that is illuminated from both sides at night and displays a face silhouette. The structure combines the art form with information embedded directly in the pavement.
Georg Elser was a German craftsman who planned an attack on Hitler in 1939 by placing explosives in a beer hall in Munich. The action failed, but his courage made him a symbol of resistance against dictatorship.
Two quotes by Elser are set as illuminated strips into the pavement: from his 1939 Gestapo interrogation, that conditions in Germany could only change by removing the leadership, and the sentence "I wanted to prevent the war", already used on a 2003 German stamp for his 100th birthday. An information panel completes the installation.
The steel mast rises at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and An der Kolonnade, a few hundred metres from the filled-in remains of the Führerbunker. Two of Elser's quotations are set as illuminated strips into the pavement, so look down as well as up. The face silhouette is lit on both sides after dark.
The steel silhouette stands at a location once dominated by Nazi power and transforms this space into a sign of personal resistance. Visitors find there words from Elser himself that speak to his faith in conscience.
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