From April 1940, the headquarters of the operation that initiated, coordinated and carried out the mass murder of patients from clinics and care homes in the Third Reich were located in Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin. The operation was codenamed »T 4« or simply »Aktion« (»Operation«). Over 70,000 people died as a result of this operation before it was halted on 24 August 1941 following public protests. The murders began with the outbreak of war in September 1939 and continued throughout the German Reich and in many occupied territories, especially in Eastern Europe, both after the »euthanasia stop« in August 1941 and after the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The classification, »selection« and murder of these patients made this the first centrally organised and systematic process of mass murder carried out by the Nazis. »T 4« was however only one aspect of the violent crimes carried out against patients from clinics and care homes. Researchers estimate that a total of 300,000 people died as a result of the so-called euthanasia programme in Europe. However, there are still no reliable figures, especially for Eastern Europe. 

On 10 November 2011, the German parliament voted to establish a »Memorial Site to the Victims of the National Socialist ›Euthanasia‹ Murders«. The planned location is at the historic address »Tiergartenstraße 4«.

The Land Berlin, in conjunction with the expert commission »Art in an Urban Setting« at the Berlin Senate’s Department for Urban Development and the Environment and the Federal Cultural Minister, subsequently announced a competition to design a »Memorial Site and Information Centre for the Victims of the National Socialist ›Euthanasia‹ Murders at the Former Administrative Headquarters in Tiergartenstraße 4, Berlin«.

The remit of the competition is to design a memorial site providing information on the National Socialist murder of the sick, forced sterilisations and other associated crimes at the historic location of the administrative headquarters. The memorial site should be designed in a contemporary artistic style.

28 Groups comprising professional designers, artists and landscape architects with experience in planning and implementing comparable projects in the field of contemporary commemoration participated in the competition.

On 23 November 2012, the jury, chaired by Prof. Donata Valentien, recommended the design of the architects and landscape designer Ursula Wilms, Nikolaus Koliusis and Heinz W. Hallmann for the realization. The winning design consists of a transparent light blue 30-meter glass wall.

The undeveloped land at »Tiergartenstraße 4«, to the north of the Berlin Philharmonie concert hall, has been earmarked for the memorial site and the Federal Culture Minister has allocated a budget of 500,000 euros. The Topography of Terror Foundation, the working group »›T4‹ Round Table« and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe are involved in planning the memorial site.  


_________

* For almost three years, the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe has also been campaigning for a plaque and information board to be erected in the grounds of the clinic in the Buch district of Berlin. This served as the central transit point for victims of the National Socialist euthanasia programme in the German capital.