Yesterday, I paid a visit to the Denkmal für die im Nationalsozialismus verfolgten Homosexuellen (Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism) which which sits across the street from the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas. Both have some privacy from the other, produced by a stand of scrubby trees. The memorial is a singular stele of similar proportion to the stones across the way, but is of much larger size and canted more dramatically than those that make up the vast array of rectangular stele in the adjacent site. (The designers are different, however.) While the stele for the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas look as if they have been excavated archaeologically, dug and uncovered from the earth, this memorial appears as if it has fallen out of the sky, appearing suddenly, without warning. Apparently absent of any signage or documentation, there is an almost happenstance quality to this mausoleum like object: if one wasn’t looking for it, it would be surprising to come across. (Later, upon looking at the memorial’s wikipedia page, there is a low, ground level sign, but, I did not see this during my visit.)
Standing about 3.5 meters tall and 2 meters wide, the concrete block could be described as a peep show viewed through a windowed trapezoidal cut formed into one face the block, a cut who’s shape is reminiscent of neo-brutalism. Upon looking in, a viewer is confronted with a short black & white video loop of two young men, looking in their early 20’s, standing in a park and sharing a moment of intimacy: a kiss, a caress and a whisper. After the whisper, the whispered-to offers a facial expression of joy and mystery; a sly, knowing, excited smile passes over his face. Edited to present itself as seamless, the video loop was shot at the exact cite of viewing. The trees that one sees in the video are the same ones sit behind the block, putting the video it what seems like a contemporary space. Yet, due to the black & white capture, the 1.375:1 “Academy Format” aspect ratio (one that was the standard format in the 1930s), the seeming timelessness of both the haircuts and dress of the two young men; the work speaks to the presence of lost possibility, of robbed chances, of experiences never had. In further, because the law prohibiting homosexual acts by men, §175, was only truly enforceable by members of the public informing on their fellow citizens, a visitor is placed in the position to make the choice to allow these two people to be undisturbed as they share their private moment, engaging in what was then an activity punishable by imprisonment, even if this position is an imagined one.