Never forget your history or you are doomed to repeat it. This large plaque in the Römerberg…read moresquare remembers the great book burning of May 10, 1933 when the Nazis, joined by thousands of student supporters, destroyed many books here because they had ideas and concepts that the Nazis didn't like.
The memorial shows the flames and the books in them, listing many of the authors that published thoughts and opinions contrary to Nazi teachings. Sigmund Freud, Jack London, Karl Marx, Emil Ludwig and many others. Authors that were Jewish or "un-patriotic" or "un-German" to the Nazi idea.s
Around the outside of the circular plaque it quotes Heinrich Heine from 1821, "Das war ein Vorspiel nur. Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen." which translates to "where books are burned, people aren't far behind".