The artist Gunter Demnig begins the embossing of every brass plate for a Stumbling Stone with the words “Here lived ... ” followed by the name of the person, who once lived there, the year he or she was born, the year of the person’s deportation or arrest, and the date of the person’s murder.  When another Stumbling Stone is laid in a sidewalk the name of a former citizen becomes visible in front of the place where he or she last lived of his or her own free will.  As a result the individual moves back to the city and the neighbourhood from which he or she was torn and is memorialized.

The Stumbling Stones project was started in 1993.  It keeps alive the memory of the victims of the tyranny of the National Socialist regime, namely the memory of the Jews, who were expelled and murdered, the Roma and Sinti, the victims of political persecution, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, as well as the victims of the regime’s so called “euthanasia” program.  In towns and cities in Germany as well as other European countries Gunter Demnig’s work is supported by initiatives like the one here in Lübeck.

“In order to read the names of the victims we have to bow down before them.”

Gunter Demnig

As the pages of this site are partly only in German, speakers of English are invited to contact us for help.

*Translator’s Note:  Stumbling Stones is a literal translation of the German word  Stolpersteine.  Stolpersteine are paving or cobblestones that cause a person to trip or stumble because they are higher than all the other cobblestones in a street.  In turn they set off a person’s natural reaction to look down to discover what caused one to stumble in the first place.   In this case Gunter Demnig’s Stumbling Stones are not higher than the other sidewalk paving stones for that would be dangerous but it is hoped that the brass plaque causes one metaphorically to stumble by stopping in order to read the plaque.

Translation: Martin Harnisch and Glenn Sellick, 2009