Wikipedia's first sentence called it “memorial by israeli sculptor micha ullman dedicated to the remembrance of the nazi book burning that took place”. Today it says “set into the cobblestones of the plaza and contains a collection of empty subterranean bookcases”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Monument in memory of the Nazi book burnings in the Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany”. It now reads “Memorial in the centre of Berlin, Germany”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Monument in memory of the Nazi book burnings in the Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany The Empty Library (1995) by Micha Ullman The memorial, with St.1 Hedwig's Cathedral behind The Empty Library (1995), also known as Bibliothek or simply Library, is a public memorial by Israeli sculptor Micha Ullman dedicated to the remembrance of the Nazi book burnings that took place in the Bebelplatz in Berlin, Germany on May 10, 1933. The memorial is set into the cobblestones of the plaza and contains a collection of empty subterranean bookcases. It is located in the centre of Berlin next to the Unter den Linden . The memorial commemorates 10 May 1933, when students of the National Socialist Student Union and many professors of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (today Humboldt-Universität ) under the musical accompaniment of SA - and SS -Kapellen, burnt over 20,000 books from many, mainly Jewish , communist, liberal and social-critical authors, before a large audience at the university's Old Library and in the middle of the former Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Platz (1911–1947), now Bebelplatz.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1127172201.
The opening as it stood in 2020
The Empty Library (1995) by Micha Ullman The Empty Library (1995), also known as Bibliothek or simply Library, is a memorial by Israeli sculptor Micha Ullman dedicated to the remembrance of the Nazi book burning that took place in the Bebelplatz in Berlin, Germany on May 10, 1933. The memorial is set into the cobblestones of the plaza and contains a collection of empty subterranean bookcases.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 955057768.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Memorial in the centre of Berlin, Germany The Empty Library (1995) by Micha Ullman The memorial, with St. Hedwig's Cathedral behind The Empty Library (1995), also known as Bibliothek or simply Library, is a public memorial by Israeli sculptor Micha Ullman dedicated to the remembrance of the Nazi book burnings that took place in the Bebelplatz in Berlin, Germany on May 10, 1933. The memorial is set into the cobblestones of the plaza and contains a collection of empty subterranean bookcases. It is located in the centre of Berlin next to the Unter den Linden . The memorial commemorates 10 May 1933, when students of the National Socialist Student Union and many professors of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (today Humboldt-Universität ) under the musical accompaniment of SA - and SS -Kapellen, burnt over 20,000 books from many, mainly Jewish , communist, liberal and social-critical authors, before a large audience at the university's Old Library and in the middle of the former Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Platz (1911–1947), now Bebelplatz.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1261929763. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “memorial by israeli sculptor micha ullman dedicated to the remembrance of the nazi book burning that took place”. Today it says “set into the cobblestones of the plaza and contains a collection of empty subterranean bookcases”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Monument in memory of the Nazi book burnings in the Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany”. It now reads “Memorial in the centre of Berlin, Germany”. Read the current article and compare.
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2020, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
memorial by israeli sculptor micha ullman dedicated to the remembrance of the nazi book burning that took place
Now
set into the cobblestones of the plaza and contains a collection of empty subterranean bookcases
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
