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DIGNITY - THE MONUMENT OF UNIFICATION

The project of a monument commemorating the unification of Germany on October 3, 1990'

Introduction
The fall of communism and the further course of the unification of Europe is the natural process of regaining the dignity of human beings and reclaiming the dignity of entire nations. Such the historic event of the 20th century as the unification of Germany on the 3rd October 1990, in the mind of authors of “DIGNITY” project should be reflected in a series of artistic activities concluded with the final and ready product of the creation of the “Monument of Unification”.

In its essence, the “Monument of Unification" is going to be a block 3.5 metres high, 3.5 metres wide and 7.021 metres long. This however will not be just another monument, be it beautiful or ugly, attracting or not the passers-by on the tourist attractions trail of Berlin. The idea of “ Monument of Unification” and days-long process of creation should become a symbol of dignity returned to nations, a symbol of the reclaimed dignity of partitioned Germany, a symbol of the uniting Europe. The authors of this project do not apply for grants or for sponsorship for their creative and artistic endeavours. The objective of the authors of “DIGNITY” project is the artistic manifesto. GNINNEPPAH – that is entirely stage-managed, yet spontaneous creative processes related to both the audience and creators. To put it plainly: “All of us” deserve to be treated with dignity. The copy you hold in your hands is the finished piece of art in itself. All of it has been made on hand-made paper, drawn using manual press technology along the fibres, intercuts are also made of hand-made paper using a manual press, and the texts has been letterpress printed. Each language version has been in its entirety personally manufactured by the authors and labelled with subsequent issue number. All the copies have been hand-sewn and the covers have been made of pressed cardboard. What will happen next to the "Monument of Unification”, time will show.

Dignity – a few words about the concept of the project
The fundamental principle of the Christian social doctrine is the principle of personalisation. It safeguards the realisation of the rights of a human being. It is the man – the concrete and historical man – that is the centre and the goal, to which all the matters on earth should be driven. This primacy of a person is found not only in the relation to non-human world but in relation to all the social premises for which the human being should be the principle, the subject and the goal. This special place the man owes to his innate dignity. Dignity is the external, inborn and natural trait of a man, irrespective of the social and historical context. The nation, the society and the history do not assign it to a man, but are obliged to hold it in respect and to protect it. It is vested in the same way on males and females, children, the old and the young, the able and the disabled, the rich and the poor. All people have the same nature and the same origin, they enjoy the same amount of dignity. If therefore all men are equal in dignity due to them, the basis for any theory or practice which divides men in terms of the dignity due to them is dismantled. The truth about the dignity of the man is constantly present in the social teaching of the Church and all the democratic institutions of the European Union. The Pope Leo XIII wrote about dignity and the resulting equality of men before God in his encyclical Rerum Novarum. He held the opinion that employers should respect the personal dignity in their employees, physical work must not humiliate the man but rather conversely – it should provide the man with proper sustenance. He gave Christ as the example, who, although was the Son of God, had no objections to working as a carpenter. The justification for the dignity of the man was for Leo XIII the doctrine saying that men were created at the image and likeness of God. Dignity is an inviolable and non-disposable gift of God, which no man can give up. Similarly, nobody may in impunity violate the dignity of man. The Pope Pius XI taught that work performed by the man is not an ordinary commodity and the work of a worker should be regarded as deserving to be treated with dignity. His successor – Pius XII, whose reign began in the period of the 2nd World War and during unprecedented disgrace to human dignity, developed largely the personalistic doctrine of the Church. The man was created at the image and likeness of God, redeemed by Christ and called to be the child of God. The Pius XII based his concept of human rights on the doctrine of dignity. In his dignity, the man finds and understands the rights bestowed on him. The contemporary justification of the dignity of the man finds two types of arguments in the teachings of the Church: natural and supernatural. Natural arguments refer first of all to the position of the man in the world, showing him as a person, that is a thinking and free being, in whom the voice of conscience can be heard. These features make the man in a natural way outclass the whole world of material creation. The man prevails over the world of creation with his reason. Thanks to it, the man made progress in empirical sciences, in technical skills, in liberated arts, arriving at outstanding achievements in exploring and subordinating the material world to himself. The reason enables the man to seek the truth and find it. The intellectual nature of the human being has its utmost expression in wisdom, which pulls the human mind to searching and loving things which are true and good. The man filled with wisdom reaches through the visible realm to the knowledge of things which are beyond the natural sight. The man acquiring knowledge of things in the free way, can seek the truth and turn to the good, when his freedom is guaranteed, that is acting on the inner impulse, and not on the blind inner drive or the compulsion from the outside. Such the freedom is at the same time the specific trait of the image of God in the man. The true freedom faces the actual good, recognised by righteous conscience, from which to derive the ethical substance. Whilst appreciating the importance of natural arguments, the Christianity complements them with supernatural arguments. Only in their light can the man be seen in the complete elevation to the dignity of the child of God. The specific dignity of the human being results directly from the fact that the man was created at the image and the likeness of God. He has been declared the master of all the earthly creatures by the Creator himself. Therefore, it is God who is the first cause and the source of the dignity of the man, who continually tries to near Him: “You have created us oh Lord for yourself and our hearts will not rest till we rest in You". The man realises his likeness of God through work. The reign over the Earth is fulfilled in it and through it. Through his work, the man participates in the work if his Creator, developing and complementing the God’s act of creation. The man can in some sense be called the co-worker of God. The work makes the man resemble God and is the expression of his dignity. The dignity of the man is therefore the foundation of the social teaching of the Church. It provides us with two basic criteria of moral assessment, which should be generally binding. The first one is the recognition and respect for human dignity by all societies. The point is not however in refraining from the actions which are in contrary to the requirements of the human dignity. The establishment of conditions for the proper affirmation of the human dignity is needed. Another criterion of moral assessment is contained in the fact that the man himself is unable to renounce his own nature marked with dignity, because he is not the one who established it, but the Creator himself. The obligation to act and live within the limits of ethical behaviour, delimited by dignity, rests therefore on the man only. Neither him nor the human society cannot trespass these limits. When we extrapolate these indications onto the economic plane, we can say that the human dignity calls for such the economic institutional order, whose centre is the man. In the economic activity, the dignity of the man needs to be respected and elevated, as does his calling and the good of the entire society. This is the duty of private and public institutions. These should serve the elevation of the human dignity, at the same time fighting the social captivity and safeguarding the fundamental rights of the people. The respect for the human dignity moreover calls for practising the virtue of modesty in the economic sphere, in order to restrain the attachment to the goods of this world, the virtue of justice, in order to effectively safeguard the rights of other persons and give them what they duly deserve, and the virtue of solidarity, to help them imitate Christ, who “although was rich, became poor, to enrich us with His poverty”. In the philosophical sense, the notion of dignity is subject to discussion as part of ethics. It can be primarily defined as: “a human being's assessment of own worth in social interrelations". The notion of dignity is associated with the notions of self-respect, nobility, pride and honour. According to the Aristotle from Stagira, dignity is also the virtue understood as the golden rule between the flaw of swellheadedness and servitude. According to Skinner, the originator of behaviourism, dignity is the possibility of avoiding unpleasant stimuli. In legal sense of the word, dignity is personal property protected by law. Together with good repute, it is part of the term of honour, defined in Article 23 of the Polish Civil Code. From the point of view of the Polish Penal Code, violation of a person’s dignity is punishable as defamation. The man is a person, an individual substance of the thinking nature, as claims Boethius. Because of that, he is a conscious and free subject of his deeds, responsible for himself, his neighbour and the world in which he lives. This characteristics of his being is the prerequisite of his dignity, that is his ontic and obligatory relation to God, the human society and the world in general. In interpersonal relations, dignity is the constant and irreducible value, owing to the man in a permanent, undisputable and binding way. Ontic dignity is the source, the criterion and the end for reflecting any moral value, and determines the call of the man, indicates his final destiny and is the foundation for the laws he establishes. In interpersonal relations, the man is always the subject and never the object, he is the aim and not the means. Thanks to personal dignity, the man is able to create the human community based on freedom. The characteristic feature of the man is the drive to another man. Living in community is the condition for the proper progress of the man. His grandness consists in the fact that he is able to create a commune of humans. This commune has its fullest realisation in marriage. It is principally different from the life in couples of animals or birds. The commune of men assumes absolutely selfless gift of the self for the sake of the good of the neighbour. Only the persons, who are thinking and free men choosing the fundamental values, can create the truly humane commune in the creation and salvation order. The man, thanks to his dignity bestowed on him by God, is over and above the natural world. He is the ruler and the participant in the act of creation. The world given to the man is the natural world. The world changed by the man makes the sphere of culture. The only created being in the world able to create culture is the man. He expresses his sprit in it and through it he perfects himself. Only through creating culture can the man save it and only through culture can he grow in a proper way. The creation of culture is for the man the potential of his being and at the same time his task. There is the place in this process for faith, the commune of men, the politics, the economy and all the signs of human activity.

The Pope John Paul II said: “Dignity is the external, inborn and natural trait of a man, irrespective of the social and historical context. The nation, the society and the history do not assign it to the man, but are obliged to hold it in respect and to protect it.” There are therefore no differences between men in terms of dignity. We are all born and die equal. Dignity has its fundaments in the creation of the man at the image and the likeness of God. Dignity is, in short, the specific value of the man as the person. It is the asset of any person, irrespective of his origin, material status, religion professed, and is the synonym of humanity. It is the basis for inalienable human rights, among which the most crucial are the rights: to live, to be free and secure, to protect the self, to respect the personal life and the reputation.

Human dignity is also the foundation for citizen’s, economic, political and social rights. The man who has the sense of own dignity can without despair bear difficult situations and defeats, and when in the managerial position, he is able to respect the dignity of other people - those who are inferior to him in terms of organisational hierarchy. The failure to remember it brings the danger of being indifferent to human tragedy. However, the man, through going to the evil side or committing a crime does not loose the human dignity. Therefore, international resolutions order treating the detainees or the arrested with “respect for their innate dignity.”

This principle results directly from the principle of respect for human dignity of any man. If all men enjoy the same human dignity and are equal to one another, they should be treated equally.

The European Constitution - the title DIGNITY
Article II-61 The dignity of a human person The dignity of a human person is inviolable. It needs to be respected and protected. Article II-62 The right to live 1. Each person has the right to live. 2. No one may be sentenced to death or executed. Article II-63 The right to integrity of the man 1. Each person has the right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity. 2. In the sphere of medicine and biology, the following must be in particular respected: a) the uncompelled and informed consent of the interested person, expressed in accordance with the procedures set forth in the relevant act of law, b) eugenic practices are forbidden, in particular those whose aim is selection of persons, c) using the human body or any of its parts as the source of profit is forbidden, d) the reproductive cloning of human beings is forbidden. Article II-64 Prohibition of tortures and inhumane or humiliating treatment or punishment No person may be made subject to tortures or inhumane treatment or punishment. Article II-65 Prohibition of slavery and forced labour 1. No person may be kept in captivity or servitude. 2. No person may be forced to perform compulsory or obligatory work. 3. Human trade is prohibited. That is all for the law and quotes from the ethics. But what about the reality and the mundane life? The gradual injection of small amounts of poison is more deadly than a single large dose. The same principle is very true about television. What use does anyone have of the super-primitive program called “Big Brother”? The essential component of this program is the fact that the man who participates in it willingly renounces his autonomy, the self-governance, his personal freedom, dignity and agrees to be a "laboratory rat" or a "guinea pig”. The situation which originally in the novel “1984" was supposed to rise fear at the hard to predict consequences of the totalitarian system, became the TV-sweetened fun, in order to smuggle the climate of total control of the human being in a smooth and painless way and to imprint it in our subconscious. Such the society, which does not reject with contempt and indignation this type of “entertainment” offer, is the proof of such moral deprivation that it can accept without any objection a new form of totalitarianism - as Schooyans calls - the “faceless” totalitarianism. This is the method, whose theory was developed as part of the dialectical psychological engineering or social engineering, which were studied by communist party leaders. This method can be formulated concisely and graphically. On the basis of the theories of dialectical philosophy, the man and his personality are formed by social conditions. The easiest society to rule is the one in which people forgot about the fact that they are persons. In other words, it is enough to detain a group of persons in a concentration camp, to make them behave like slaves. It is enough to subject the entire society to the control of the police, to make all of them feel criminals or at least potentially criminals. To put it more bluntly – in comparison to the “Big Brother” – it is enough to put a group of persons in a pigsty (even if fitted with a television set), to make them behave like swine, interested only in the content of the trough, that is like persons having no higher spiritual needs. Can people who find amusement in such the situation still feel indignation? Can they be sensitive to the values which are indispensable to the survival of personal dignity? Even the dignity of a Nation is the gift from Christ and is rooted in Him, because in Him there is the foundation and the final point of reference of dignity of a human being. A human person in Christ only will find his genealogy, his truth, his destiny.

The suffering of Germany – hostility towards the living substance of the nation
A nation consists of persons, who together form their existence at the level of participation in these values, which belong to the integrally understood truth about the humanity, that is translated into theological language – the Family of God’s Children. The dignity of a person is the reflection of this sacrum, which the Bible calls “the image of God.” In the same way as a person is the image of Jesus Chris (because in Him the fullness of the truth of the Image of God is revealed), the Nation draws its dignity from the fact that it is - by way of some analogy – the image of the Church, in which, through the act of salvation, a human being and the human society – find their utmost confirmation and elevation. The human collectiveness becomes a nation to the extent in which it reflects inside, in the interpersonal relations found in it, the anthropological model of the Church, whose principle was inseparably linked to the constitution of the Family. At all times, the source of dignity and the justification for it, is the transcendent relation to Christ, transferring the person and the collectiveness into the sphere of freedom coming from God, the freedom, which is the form for truth and not the power. Nations are equal in dignity; there is no “superior” or “inferior” nation, no “chosen” or “common” nation.

The nations, the same as individuals, hold the right to dignity. The individuals who lived for centuries in one territory gradually, in the course of centuries, acquire the national awareness, patriotism and become the State. In consequence, they create the monolithic organism and the community.

This community, without the participation of the German nation, was drastically interrupted in years 1946 and 1947 and in place of the monolith, two artificial structures were created – the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic. The occupation zones, following the war lost by the Third Reich during the 2nd World War, were captured by the victors.

Changes in awareness and the process of democratisation of social forms in the Federal Republic of Germany were very fast and consistent, thanks to the politics of the Chancellor Conrad Adenauer, however, the German Democratic Republic ruled by communists created a new totalitarian state. In practice, following the year 1945, the zone occupied by the Red Army, that is the German Democratic Republic, became the vassal and the satellite of the Soviet Union, as did most of the states of the so-called “Eastern Block”, created at the territories reached by the bayonets of the victorious Red Army.

The national monolith of Germans, Poles, Czechs or Hungarians was broken with brutality and with all the power of totalitarian violence of communism. This lasted for several dark decades, and was marked with blood and sacrifice of the opponents of the communist system. As late as following peaceful changes taking place in Poland in 1980 and later in 1989, the DIGNITY in the other suppressed nations was awakened.

The words of the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy that “we all are Berliners” gave back the DIGNITY to all the people from behind the “iron curtain” who only thought and dreamed about their dignity.

The President Ronald Reagan, in his speech in 1987 from the pulpit on the western part of the Brandenburg Gate, addressing his words to the leaders of the Empire of Evil, which was for the democratic world the Soviet Union and its satellites, cried: “Mr. Gorbatchov, open this Gate, tear down this wall!” This was the balm for the German soul and the entire democracy, but in the communism only a handful of people treated this call seriously. The call of the President Reagan is today the history. Today, in the United Europe – we still "all are Berliners." Free Berliners.

At the time, when part of the poverty-stricken and lost European society demands prophets and warriors, the creation of the Monument of Unification and reconciliation for Dignity seems to be, to say the least, a controversial strategy. In these days of globalisation, some interpersonal “bridges” are either burnt down or terribly intellectually boring. Therefore, we need the creative symbolic, which will clearly and simply influence the consciousness. We need a clear message. We all are Berliners. Therefore, this project needs to be completed, in Berlin and for the sake of building bridges and commemorating the demolition of barriers and bringing back the dignity to nations and to individuals. If the History were to summon the last witness of the events in Europe following the year 1989, this person would beyond doubt be John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It was him who stood at the free side of the Berlin wall and confessed that at the moment like this “we all are Berliners.”

For almost thirty years, the communication between the two parts of the ancient and historical capital of Germany took place through several heavily protected checkpoints (the most famous of them being "Checkpoint Charlie", near Friedrichstraße, connecting the East Berlin with the former American sector of West Berlin, where in October 1961 there was the confrontation of Soviet tanks with American tanks). Only two West Berlin underground lines, C and D and one S-Bahn line ran exterritorialy without stops under the centre of Berlin. The right to cross the border with West Berlin had only those of the citizens of the German Democratic Republic who had the permanent residence permit. Such the right was given only to a handful of Germans from the German Democratic Republic, in practice only pensioners as part of "reunion of families." In numerous attempts at crossing the wall without the proper permit from the authorities of GDR, 239 people were killed or died. The first of them - Rudolf Urban – died as a result of fall from the window at Bernauer Straße as early as on 19th August 1961. The first time the fire was opened at the refugees on 24th August 1961, and on 4th October, as a result of gunfire at this same street, Bernd Bernauer Lünser was killed. The first person killed following the erection of the wall was Peter Fechter, who died on 17th August 1962 after many tears of suffering as a result of heavy gun-shot injuries at the feet of the wall. The last person killed was Chris Gueffroy, who died on 6th February 1989, two weeks before waiving the order to open fire at the refugees. The last victim of the wall, Winfried Freudenberg, died three days later, as a result of the catastrophe of the own-made balloon, on which he tried to fly over the wall. His balloon fell in the district of Zehlendorf, already at the western part of the wall. On the side of German Democratic Republic, the access was impossible, the additional fence of the border strip stood from 30 to even 100 metres from the wall. On the West Berlin side, the wall became the forty-kilometre long field for exercising the skills of graffiti painters, at some points watchtowers were erected for tourists. The spontaneous anticommunist stirring at the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century of the nations of the so-called "Eastern Block" is today referred to as “The Autumn of the Nations” by the historians. This is because in autumn, on 9th November 1989, Germans spontaneously and on their own began to demolish the wall which divided their Capital into two so far hostile parts. The inhumane communist system was abolished by common people, who felt dignity anew and again began to feel dignity as the monolith of one nation. The German Nation. As a result of uniting Germany, a homogenous organism of a democratic state was born. The disproportions between the Eastern and Western States were huge, both in economic sense and in the consciousness of the citizens. That was because the communist regime performed wasteful economy on the living organism of the society, despite all the economic and moral rules and principles. The burden of balancing the economic and mental disproportions, as well as the cost of the transformation resulting from the unification of Germany took the Western States. However, the individuals and the entire society regained dignity. The unnaturally torn out and divided German nation again became a single organism and the social monolith. The unification of German became the fact on 3rd October 1990 pursuant to the arrangement concluded on the 12th January during the conference “two plus four” in Moscow. This treaty was signed, besides German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany, by four former occupant powers: the United States of America, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The united Germany acceded the European Community (now European Union) and NATO. In the mid 1980’s, the unification of the two German countries seemed an unreal dream of many Germans. On the way to the completion of this dream stood cold war, dividing Europe into two hostile camps. The end of the era of confrontation would be impossible without political changes in the USSR and without the fall of the communism imposed on the Central-Eastern Europe. The increased economic and political incapacity of the Soviet empire in the second half of the 1980’s forced the leaders of the CPSU to introduce certain reforms. The leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbatchov, declared start of the period of the so-called “reconstruction” (in Russian perestroika). The political changes in USSR had quick impact on the events in the subordinated European countries. In Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and in the German Democratic Republic, the brutally suppressed for a long time democratic and independence movements were revitalised. In August 1989, the government of Hungary waived the restrictions concerning the border traffic with Austria. This opened to Germans the way from GDR, though Hungary and Austria to the Federal Republic of Germany. In September, more than 13 thousand Germans took this opportunity, fleeing this way to West Germany. The mass demonstrations in German Democratic Republic against the government of Erich Honecker, referred to as Monday protests against the events in Europe and in USSR (The Autumn of Nations), led to his resignation in October 1989. The new government, on 9th November 1989 abolished the limitations in travelling to FRG. At the news about the new regulations, the citizens of German Democratic Republic in crowds went to the border. The border troops, unable to control the situation, decided to give up. The borders were open and Germans from both the countries spontaneously began even the same night to demolish the hated Berlin Wall. The unification process began. In November 1989, the Great Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut Kohl declared the 10-point plan of unification. In February 1990, took place the common plenum of the governments of the two German countries. In May the same year, the currency union took place, and in November at the conference 2 plus 4, the foreign issues were regulated, as well as the shape of borders of the new state.

The economic price of the unification was EUR 1.5 trillion, which German western lands gave till 2004 to the eastern lands, in order to adapt the eastern Germany economy and infrastructure to the level of western lands. However, can the price of regaining the right to dignity, even for one seemingly insignificant human being, be determined?

Granite – the symbol of the monolith of the state organism
There is no more magnificent material symbolising the monolithic organism of the German State than granite. The northern part of Saxony – Anhalt is composed of the plain Altmark, where there lie old Hanseatic towns like Salzwedel, Stendal and Tangermünde. In the north west, there is the land covered with meadows, called Colbitz-Letzlinger Heide. South to this land, there is a fertile plain with towns: Burg, Schönebeck, Oschersleben, Wanzleben, Aschersleben. To the south east direction from this land, there are the Harz Mountains. The most beautiful granite has been for ages mined in quarries in the Harz Mountains. Granite is a commonly found, solid, acid magmatic rock - intrusive, with medium-size or coarse grains. Its structure is open crystalic, which is the result of its creation. Granite consists of: orthoclase, black mica, less often muscovite and amphibolite and in small amounts also apatite, zirconium, tourmaline, titanite, magnetite, garnet and other. Granite is characterised by well-visible jointing, usually in two perpendicular directions, which facilitates its weathering and exploitation. Granite is found in various colours, such as grey, white-pink, green, red and other colours. Due to the ease of obtaining large blocks, cutting and polishing and the rich and beautiful pattern of colours, it is used in building industry as the structural and decorative stone. In Poland, granites are found on the surface in Lower Silesia and in Tatra Mountains, whilst deep in the ground they are found in the land strip from Zawiercie to Kraków and in the north eastern Poland. These days, granite is mined in the following massifs: Karkonosze, Strzelin, Żułów and Strzegom-Sobótka. According to the definition proposed by the subcommittee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), granite is the rock which contains 80-100% by volume of quartz, alkaline feldspar and plagioclase in the proportions presented in the classification diagram, as well as 0-20% by volume of accessory minerals. Among the main minerals, the content of quartz should be 20-60% by volume of rock and the proportion of alkaline feldspar should be 65-90% by volume of the total content of feldspar in the rock.

Project – artistic activity – the mystery of creation
•	The granite block cut in the quarry is brought to the place in Berlin on 23rd August.

•	On 23rd August, in the previously selected plot, the block is positioned vertically.

•	Then, for the whole day on 23rd August, in previously drilled holes and the wall cut at approximately one third of the entire size of the block, wedges are sunk and with the power of human muscles and hammers, the granite block is split into two pieces.

•	It is left in such the state for 41 days as the symbol of the split substance of the German nation lasting for 41 years of separate existence.

•	On the 3rd October at dusk, the two parts of the split granite block are pulled to one another as much as possible and they are started to be tightened with a steel clamp and fixed with rivets at two connection points. A huge steel rivet is again using the power of human muscles and hammers fixed and hammered down at the connection point of each transversal wall of the granite block.

•	On 3rd October in the evening, the steel clamp connecting the granite monolith symbolises anew the idea of unification of the German nation. The idea of regaining the dignity of the national substance and the dignity of individual citizens.

The symbolic of stages – empiric nature of the phenomenon of coherence of artistic actions
•	Granite symbolises the hardness of monolithic solids and is best for graphically portraying the creative allegory of a monolithic cube of the German nation and society, in which the individual Lands shine with particular crystals of quartz.

•	Steel symbolises the industrial power of Germany. It symbolises the spirit of industrial revolution, capitalism, progress. The spirit which, despite the horror and trauma of two world wars, revived the dignity of an individual person. The spirit which in the course of several generations led to developing democratic forms of coexistence of men within the limits of the "civilised world".

Steel – the symbol of progress and advancement of the power of civilisation, the bond of democracy
Steel – the alloy of iron and carbon, plastically machined and plastically workable. Steel contains other components besides iron and carbon: The desirable – alloy components – include mainly metals (chrome, nickel, manganese, wolfram, copper, molybdenum, titanium). Such chemical elements as oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and non-metallic inclusions, mainly sulphur oxides, phosphorus oxides, are impurities. Steel is produced from pig iron in the process of reconditioning – an old process, in new modern steelworks there are converter and arc furnaces, vacuum furnaces, making possible the production of the highest quality steel. Applications for steel have been found in various branches of industry: In building industry it is one of the few most fundamental structural materials. Tensile strength is the measure of stress exerted on the sample in cross-section by the strength trying to pull the material apart. Moreover, the parameters determining stress patterns in the steel sample are tested, such as resistance to compressive forces, bending, shear and torsion (twisting). Elasticity meant as the ability of the material to return to its original form after the force causing the strain is no longer applied. In the scope of elastic stress, Hooke's law applies. Plasticity, the propensity of a material to preserve its deformed form in result of stresses under loads after stopping the action. This is permanent deformation which occurs after exceeding some threshold (the so called yield strength, after exceeding of which the extension of the tensed sample increases rapidly even when the load is not increased, and often when the amount of the extension decreases. Malleability - the capability of the material to preserve its properties after stamping, bending or flattening etc. Weldability is the property of steel which allows to make permanent joints by welding. Resistance to impact of the environment: •	resistance to the increased and low temperatures, •	resistance to chemical and atmospheric corrosion factors. In the history of the world production of raw steel, Germany has always been one of the leaders. However, nowadays China (152 million tons), Japan (100 million tons), the USA (90 million tons), Russia (60 million tons) are leading but also Germany is at the forefront of the world producers (45 million tons). Then, one could also mention such countries as South Korea (43 million tons), Ukraine (32 million tons), Brazil (27 million tons), Italy (27 million tons) and India (27 million tons). Poland classified at the 19th place produces only 9 million tons of steel. However, already in the 19th century, the German states with steel production were the world leaders in industrial transformations. It was liberating the peasants from servitude in Prussia in the year 1807 and regulatory reforms in the years 1808-1811 and establishing the German Customs Union (Deutscher Zollverein) in 1834, waive of customs barriers and establishing a uniform domestic market that caused changes in economic mentality in German states and the whole Europe. It should be emphasized that the emerging capitalist relations (fall of guilds, development of investor production and manufactures, personal liberty of the peasant) enabled an industrial change called the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Therefore, a logic reversal of these two issues is a misconception. The Industrial Revolution merely played a role of a catalyst of already occurring development of capitalist economy. Rapidly growing accumulation of capital in the hands of private persons made new investments possible. They resulted in self-sustained economic growth and advance of civilization. It was in Germany that in the years 1835-1855, 390 kilometres of railway was built on average per year. Craft and manufactures – the symbols of feudalism at this volume of demand were defeated. But for the cruelty of the world wars, the unification of the European countries could have happened years earlier. This was not a coincidence that the European Coal and Steel Community became a progenitor of today's United Europe – the European Union. After the end of World War II, integration processes intensified. In September 1946, in Zurich, Winston Churchill suggested the establishment of "the United States of Europe". Almost at the same time, politicians in France, Germany and Italy took actions in the sphere of integration. Robert Schumann, Conrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi. The first effect of their efforts was the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. On the 18 April 1951, the leaders of Belgium, France, Holland, Luxemburg, France and Italy signed a treaty submitting coal and steel sectors ("military sectors") under the international control of High Authority. Jean Monnet was appointed the first president of the High Authority. The Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community became the foundation of the future integration of other European countries.

Metaphysics of numbers – numerology, i.e. dimensions of the monument
357 021 km² = the territory of Germany

Unfortunately, the authors of the project have to disappoint the audience at this point. There is no hidden thought in the dimensions of this block. There is only free interpretation of the dimensions of the granite monument, simply "to fit well" the architectural composition of Berlin. And certainly due to its hugeness, it "impressed" the viewers. Also such dimensions impact the costs of the whole investment. It is not metaphysics or pseudo philosophical jabber that counts but the idea of the project.

3.5 m = height

3.5 m = width

7.021 m = length

Summary of Project's idea
In the mind of authors of “DIGNITY” project the idea should be reflected in a series of artistic activities concluded with the final and ready product of the creation of the “Monument of Unification”. "The Monument of Unification" will be a block of granite. This however will not be just another monument, be it beautiful or ugly, attracting or not the passers-by on the tourist attractions trail of Berlin. The idea of “Monument of Unification” and days-long process of creation should become a symbol of dignity returned to nations, a symbol of the reclaimed dignity of partitioned Germany, a symbol of the uniting Europe. The authors of this project do not apply for grants or sponsorship for their creative and artistic endeavours. The objective of the authors of “DIGNITY” project is the artistic manifesto. GNINNEPPAH, – that is entirely stage-managed, yet spontaneous creative processes related to both the audience and creators. To put it plainly: “All of us” deserve to be treated with dignity. The copy you hold in your hands is the finished piece of art in itself. What will happen next to the "Monument of Unification”, time will show.