Memorial to Homosexual Victims of Nazi Regime to Be Unveiled in Berlin

BERLIN—A memorial to the homosexual victims of the Nazis created by Scandinavian artists Elmgreen & Dragset is to be unveiled on May 27 in Berlin, where the duo are now based. The memorial was approved by the German Reichstag in 2003; Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset were selected to design it in an international competition in 2006.

The work is to be placed in the Tiergarten, opposite Peter Eisenmann’s holocaust memorial, and contains a single concrete slab that is the same material, color, and proportion as the 2,711 slabs in the Eisenmann design. In addition, the new memorial features a looped video clip, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, of two men kissing. Because this video caused some controversy over its perceived lack of representation of the lesbian community, the artists decided that every other year the Vinterberg film will alternate with other filmic depictions of intimate homosexual encounters.