Criticism of jury's decision on German reunification monument

The competition for the design of a national monument to German reunification 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall has failed: None of the 563 designs that were submitted was considered to be good enough. Several artists and architects who competed, as well as their respective professional associations, criticise the jury's decision. The liberal daily Der Tagesspiegel writes: "It's hard to understand why a reunification monument should have to reflect a cross-section of the last 150 years of German history, from the freedom movements of the 19th century to the crucial phases of the collapse of the GDR. After all, this is supposed to be an artistic representation rather than a realistic representation. And the site itself, the pedestal of the Emperor Wilhelm monument, is highly problematic - or is the message supposed to be that German democracy was built on the foundations of the fallen monarchy? The members of the jury knew all this before they got to work on their decision."

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