Photographs by Katharina Karcher

If Leonard Cohen is right, there is a crack in everything. Berlin now has a famous one. It runs through Breitscheidplatz, a square in the heart of the city. On 19 December 2016, Anis Amri drove a stolen truck into a Christmas market at this very spot, killing 11 and injuring dozens. The names of the victims are: Anna Bagratuni, Georgiy Bagratuni, Sebastian Berlin, Nada Cizmar, Fabrizia di Lorenzo, Dalia Elyakim, Christoph Herrlich, Klaus Jacob, Angelika Klösters, Dorit Krebs, and Peter Völker. The twelfth victim of the attack, lorry driver Łukasz Urban, was shot by Amri nearby. In December 2017, the names of the victims of this terror attack were engraved into the stairs leading to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at the centre of the square. Only the name of the thirteenth victim of the attack is missing: Sascha Hüsges was badly injuried while providing first aid to victims of the attack and died from his injuries in 2021. 

After being almost completely destroyed in the Second World War, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church has remained in ruins to act as a permanent reminder of the destructiveness of war and conflict. Almost all physical traces of the attack on 19 December 2016, by contrast, have disappeared. But there is an unusual memorial: a crack (filled with a golden bronze alloy). Every day, hundreds of tourists and locals walk over the memorial without noticing it. Others, especially those who have lost loved ones in the attack, come here to remember. Some of these visitors leave candles, photographs, flowers and other objects on the stairs to the church.

The memorial for the victims of the Berlin truck attack has won a prestigious German design award. The jury considered it a courageous and sensitive choice by design firm Merz Merz to avoid tall, monumental structures and to opt instead for a design that makes the wounds of the attack visible while simultaneously repairing them. Perhaps more than any other memorial for victims of terror attacks in Europe, the golden crack was designed with the intention to highlights the dynamic interplay or collective practices of remembering and forgetting.

The subtle approach taken by the designers of the monument for the victims of the Berlin truck attack contrasts sharply with the security infrastructure surrounding the annual Christmas market at the Breitscheidplatz since 2016. To access the market, visitors have to navigate through a complex arrangement of bollards and barriers, including some with a large ‘truckBlock’ logo. Founded in 2019, truckBlock is one of the hundreds of companies specialising in barriers and hostile vehicle mitigation. Once visitors reach the market, most of the barriers are hidden by Christmas teas. Now they can enjoy Glühwein, Bratwurst and Stollen at a historical location in Berlin without being forced to think about the brutal attack in 2016. Nobody seems to notice the crack, but some visitors stop when they see the photographs, candles and flowers on the steps.

Leonard Cohen is right. There is a crack in everything. That is how the light comes in. Time will tell whether that applies to golden cracks, too.