The City Council of Munich resolved in 2011 to build a monument to the gays and lesbians persecuted under the Nazi regime. The artist Ulla von Brandenburg won the competition tendered by the Department of Arts and Culture.
The historic location of the monument refers to the former gay bar “Schwarzfischer” in the building on Dultstrasse/corner of Oberanger. The first large-scale raid carried out by the Nazis took place in Bavaria and also in the “Schwarzfischer” on October 20, 1934. This razzia marked the start of the systematic persecution of homosexuals by the police, the Gestapo and the judiciary.
Ulla von Brandenburg’s monument is a mosaic floor made of coloured slabs in the form of an angle. A pink angle, which gays were forced to wear in concentration camps, is embedded in one of the floor slabs. A black angle is symbolic of the oppression of lesbians.
The work of art in the ground creates a monument for Munich that is intuitively accessible. It is intended as a place to remember the persecution and murder of gays and lesbians under the Nazi regime. The monument takes a stand against intolerance and marginalisation and represents an open-minded, civic society.
Ulla von Brandenburg, born in 1974 in Karlsruhe, lives and works in Paris.
