Kindness, not punishment

18 of July '23

Zvi Hecker

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Article fromA&B issue05|2023

I met with Zvi Hecker in late January at his Berlin apartment. We touched on many topics at the time, talking both about his life and work in Berlin - including completed and unrealized projects - and his views on architecture, its social function and when it becomes art. Zvi Hecker also told me where he gets his inspiration from and what role drawing plays in his work. The reason for our meeting was two Berlin exhibitions - the first, titled "Pages of an Open Book," presented the architect's sketchbooks from nearly forty years of his creative work and could be seen until the end of last year at the gallery "Die Möglichkeit einer Insel," run by artist and curator Stephanie Kloss. The second exhibition runs until June 4 this year and can be seen at the Mitte Museum. It is devoted to Hecker's four unrealized Berlin projects. Its curators are Stephanie Kloss and Heimo Lattner.

Zvi Hecker - Born in May 1931 in Krakow, Tadeusz Heker (Zvi Hecker) emigrated to Israel in the 1950s, where he continued the architectural education he began at the Krakow University of Technology. Among his projects in Israel was the Spiral House in Ramat Gan. In the 1990s, he moved to the German capital, where he established his own office and began working on projects such as the Jewish School building in Berlin (Heinz-Galinski-Schule). He has participated in numerous architectural competitions, including the design of Republic Square, the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Monument to Freedom and Unity in front of the Humboldt Forum in Belin. He is also present on the Polish architectural scene - he has presented his proposals in competitions for, among others, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw, the Centre for Dialogue Breakthroughs in Szczecin or (in cooperation with Atelier Loegler Architekci) for the design of the complex of buildings of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow, in which the team received an honorable mention.

Marcin Szczodry:Your adventure with Berlin began in 1991 with winning a competition to design the first Jewish school after the Holocaust. Did you assume then that you would move here permanently?

Zvi Hecker: I had been to Berlin before, but I had no intention of moving. Everything happened by accident. I usually lose the competition - this is the norm. However, from time to time it happens that I win. The actual reason I moved to this city was over the objection of an engineer who was responsible for construction in the Berlin Senate. He was a friend of the president of the Jewish community in Berlin, Heinz Galinski, and whispered to him that my plan could not be implemented at all. Well, so Galinski brought me in and also tried to convince me, saying that he had been informed that my plan was not feasible.

The new plaza for the Brandenburg Gate (eastern view), Berlin, proj.: Zvi Hecker, 2009-2010 - pencil, black marker and Tippex on paper, 21×29.7 cm, 2010 photo:

Marcin: Looking at the structure, you have to admit that it was indeed quite a challenge. But in the end the school was built according to your plan.

Zvi Hecker:Yes, not without difficulties, of course, but also thanks to the support of younger architects.

Marcin: Do you like Berlin?

Zvi Hecker: Berlin is a special place because it doesn't demand too much from us. It gives good transportation, good air, green parks - a luxury you can't normally pay for. I often ask students who come to my studio how they see the city, how they like it. They all say in unison: Berlin is amazing. I conclude that it must be about something that can't be precisely defined. They're actually the "underdog," they're young, they have no money and no profession - basically, they shouldn't be happy. But the point is that they feel equal here. There are no clear divisions into neighborhoods where only the rich live. That seems to be the point, that Berlin is somehow socially balanced.

Heinz Galinski School, Berlin, designed by Zvi Hecker, 1991-1995 - pencil and pencil crayons on tracing paper, 70×50 cm, 1991

Marcin: Speaking of building a school, you mentioned problems with bureaucracy. Previously, you built in Israel for many years. What is the difference between the work of an architect there and here? Weren't you dismayed by the excessive regulations in Germany?

Zvi Hecker:Perhaps it worked to my advantage that I was unaware of these restrictions. I didn't know about them! I drew and designed as if anything was possible. I worked together with Inken Baller. Inken knew exactly what the limitations were, but she also had a good sense of what could and should be reckoned with, so she was a great partner for implementation.

Pages of the Book - Holocaust memorial, Berlin, designed by Zvi Hecker, 1997

Marcin: The exhibition at the Mitte Museum presents your four unrealized projects for downtown Berlin. Heimo Lattner, the curator of this exhibition, noted that this juxtaposition is a good reality check of what has been built in these places over the past thirty years. How do you assess the architectural transformation of Berlin after reunification?

Zvi Hecker:Back in the days of partition, West Berlin was very keen to prove that it was an important place and had something to say. It wanted to show that it was not just some island in communism. This was reflected in orders and competitions. When it became the capital of all of Germany again, it stopped being preoccupied with itself. Since then it has been important because it is the capital of a superpower and doesn't have to prove anything more. Since it is no longer a small island, something completely banal can be done here and no one will accuse anyone of that.

House of Freedom and Unification, Berlin, designed by Zvi Hecker, 2010

mockup © Zvi Hecker

Marcin: Which of the unrealized projects shown in the exhibition do you feel most sorry for?

Zvi Hecker: It seems to me that the project for a new square on the other side of the Brandenburg Gate is the most important among them, and I hope that it will be realized someday, in one form or another. After all, the Brandenburg Gate is essentially a doorway, so it should be a doorway between two room-squares. This idea seems to me a perfectly normal project that should be realized. Anyway, a symposium on the subject is to be held soon. It is possible that it will give a new impetus to this concept. My favorite example is the Spanish Steps in Rome. It was the gift of a French diplomat. To this day, it is still one of the most beautiful places in the city, where people like to meet. Young people in particular feel comfortable there.

Marcin: So the idea of a square in front of the Brandenburg Gate is your personal gift to Berlin?

Zvi Hecker:Yes, something like that [laughs]. It's just a shame that we depend on petty bureaucracy.

Marcin: I, on the other hand, find it most regrettable that you didn't realize the project of the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. We meet on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On one of the sketches presented at the exhibition I saw the slogan "Generosity not punishment." Could you elaborate on the idea behind this memorial?

Zvi Hecker: In my opinion, it makes no sense to punish the innocent for the crimes of the Holocaust. The monument that was built makes absolutely no sense - it takes away the best place in Berlin and forces policemen to guard it all the time. And you could create a place where young people would feel comfortable - meet, play guitars, sing - and call it just one word: "Judenplatz" [Jewish Square]. That would be enough. One could say that in this way "generosity would be a punishment". I believe that you can't indefinitely punish people who are not guilty of it.

Jewish Cultural Center in Duisburg, Germany, designed by Zvi Hecker, 1996-2000; acrylic on canvas and pencil and pen on paper (42×29.7 cm), 1996

Marcin: Your project also assumed that the monument would be built by ordinary people.

Zvi Hecker: What I meant was that each of us could come up and contribute a brick to the construction of the monument and have a part in it. That seems smarter to me than commissioning some company to build a Holocaust monument, because who knows what they were building during the Holocaust.

Marcin: You often describe architecture as a meeting place. I would like to ask about the social aspect of your work. What place does man occupy in it?

Zvi Hecker:This is an important question for me. I actually only put up walls - walls around people. In my projects, you can't actually walk around buildings. For example, walking around a school, you won't see much. You have to go in. Even if you don't enter the building, you still enter the space that the walls create. In the early 20th century, it was thought that glass houses could protect us sufficiently. I don't know to what extent, but in my opinion protection is necessary. There is something medieval about it.

Marcin: You say of yourself that you are an artist whose medium is architecture. Do you think, then, that architecture is primarily an art form?

Zvi Hecker: Whether our trowel is art only becomes apparent after it is completed. Before that, it is not known whether it will be art. Likewise with an artist. You don't know if a person is one until he proves it. This also applies to architecture - it is art only if we can prove that it is.

Marcin: I'm also asking this in the context of the second exhibition, where your sketchbooks were shown. Presented in the gallery, they somehow changed their status - from the way an architect works, they became separate works of art. You once said, "I draw because I have to think." What do you think is the importance of hand-drawing in the work of an architect of the digital age? Can it still be a working tool?

Zvi Hecker: The meaning of a sketch in architecture is that it is a communication only with its creator. A sketch can suggest certain forms that I wouldn't normally know about. The hand is independent and disobedient to what the brain dictates to it. That's why the sketch is valid in my opinion, but not as a kind of discussion with others, but as a reflection of my own thought. The sketch only talks to me. The computer talks to everyone.

Marcin: How do you arrive at certain architectural solutions?

Zvi Hecker:This is a frequently asked question. I believe that you arrive at a solution because you look for it. An artist always does what he doesn't know. He is not born free, on the contrary, he is born in prison, locked up with his knowledge of everything, which does not allow him to do something new. The artist, like Houdini, who was locked in a cage in the water, must first free himself from what restrains him, locks him up.

We look for a solution without knowing where it is. It is not on any map and there is no vehicle that will take us to this unknown place. To get there, we have to construct some kind of carriage ourselves. Such a carriage, which allows me to reach my destination, is just a sketch. This is a long process. Later, once the solution is well known to me, I can absorb additional elements. For example, in Duisburg, in the design of the Jewish community headquarters, the base of the columns that go outside the building are Hebrew letters. Once, while drawing, I noticed that their bevels have something similar to the characters of the Hebrew alphabet. I thought: "If I add a line here, it's alef, if I subtract one there, it's bet, and if I twist this one, it's gimel." In this way, all five columns have a base of Hebrew letters.

Jewish Cultural Center in Duisburg, Germany, designed by Zvi Hecker, 1996-2000; acrylic on canvas and pencil and pen on paper (42×29.7 cm), 1996

Marcin: And could you tell us what you are currently working on?

Zvi Hecker: Yes, I have been designing a family home in Abruzzo, Italy for some time. I even had an exhibition in Pescara recently, the theme of which was this project.

Marcin: You have been professionally active for more than sixty years - that's really impressive! Where do you draw your strength from?

Zvi Hecker:So far, I don't feel much difference between working at this age and the age at which one normally works. I have often heard the question, where are my roots actually? In Samarkand, in Krakow, in Tel Aviv or in Berlin?

My roots are here and there, but in fact I always carry them with me. So I can say that I draw from my roots all the time, just in a different place, but on the same planet.

Marcin: Thank you for the conversation.