Berlin, Moabit prison park on site of the former Zellengefängnis (Cell Prison)Wall with line from sonnet,In Fesseln,In Fetters
Berlin, Moabit prison park on site of the former Zellengefängnis (Cell Prison)Wall with line from sonnet, ‘In Fesseln’ (In Fetters) by Albrecht Haushofer, a former inmate. The prison was built between 1842 and 1849 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia and the design was based on the separate cell system of Pentonville Prison. The design kept prisoners in isolation to prevent them influencing each other but many went mad and one of the buildings was converted into a mental ward. The Gestapo used the prison after the Nazis came into power in 1933 and after the war the allies used it as a detention centre. It was demolished in the 1950s but the walls remain and a remembrance park was laid out in 2006. The original design of the building is represented by sloping lawns with concrete frames and stones representing prison wings. A central 'panopticum' sculpture represents the former observation tower and there is a concrete replica of a single cell with a sound installation using the words from a sonnet, ‘In Fesseln’ (In Fetters) by Albrecht Haushofer, a former inmate. A line from this poem is also inscribed in large letters on the inside of the perimeter wall, ‘Von allem Leid, das diesen Bau erfüllt, ist unter Mauerwerk und Eisengittern ein Hauch lebendig, ein geheimes Zittern’ (Of all the suffering that fills this building, a secret shudder is still alive inside the walls and the iron gates). The park also has an area with picnic tables and a children’s climbing wall and sandpit The project won the Deutsche Landschaftsarchitektur-Preis 2007
Size: 4701px × 3134px
Location: Geschichtspark Moabit,Berlin,Germany,Europe
Photo credit: © Eden Breitz / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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