Gemma, Justin, & Bijou

Bebelplatz is best known as the site of the book burning ceremony held on May 10, 1933, by members of the S.A. (“brown shirts”) and Nazi youth groups, on the instigation of the Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels. The Nazis burned around 20,000 books, including works by Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and many other authors. Today a glass plate set into the ground gives a view of empty bookcases, commemorating this event. Furthermore, a line of Heine is engraved, stating “Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen” (in English: “Where they burn books, they will also burn humans in the end”). Students at Humboldt University hold a book sale in the square every year to mark the anniversary.