Soviet War Memorial (Tiergarten)
The Soviet War Memorial (Tiergarten) is one of several war memorials in Berlin, capital city of Germany, erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945.
The memorial is located in the Tiergarten, a large public park to the west of the city centre, on the north side of the east-west Strasse des 17 Juni (17 June Street).
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[edit] History
This memorial was erected in 1945, within a few months of the capture of the city. Early photographs show the memorial standing in a wilderness of ruins, the Tiergarten having been destroyed by incendiary bombs and then stripped of timber for firewood during the last months of the war. Today, it is surrounded by the extensive woodlands of the reconstituted Tiergarten. Although the memorial stood in the British sector of Berlin, its construction was supported by all the Allied powers. Throughout the Cold War, Soviet Guards were present at the memorial, sent out and changed regularly by Soviet occupying forces in the Soviet sector.
[edit] Design
The memorial, built from stonework taken from the destroyed Reich Chancellery, takes the form of a curved stoa topped by a large statue of a Soviet soldier. It is set in landscaped gardens and flanked by two Red Army ML-20 152mm gun-howitzer artillery pieces and two T-34 tanks. Behind the memorial is an outdoor museum showing photographs of the memorial's construction and giving a guide to other memorials in the Berlin area. A large Cyrillic inscription is written underneath the soldier statue, which is translated as "Eternal glory to heroes who fell in battle with the German fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Union". The Soviets built the statue with the soldier's arm in a position to symbolize the Red Army's putting down of the German National Socialist state.
The memorial was designed by architect Mikhail Gorvits with the monument of the Soviet soldier by sculptors Vladimir Tsigal and Lev Kerbel.
[edit] The memorial today
The memorial is still a site of active commemoration. On the anniversary of VE Day, (8 May), wreath-laying ceremonies are held at the memorial. It is a site of pilgrimage for war veterans from the countries of the former Soviet Union. It is also a popular tourist attraction, since it is much closer to the centre of the city than the larger Soviet war memorial at Treptower Park. The memorial is maintained by the City of Berlin.
[edit] Controversy
The memorial is built in a style similar other Soviet monuments of World War II, once found all over the former Eastern bloc. There is a sign next to the monument explaining in English, German and Russian that this is the burial site of some 2,000 fallen Soviet soldiers. However, there are several indicators that this monument was intended not so much to commemorate the dead Soviet soldiers as purely for propaganda purposes. It is located in the heart of Berlin along one of the major roads with a clear sight of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg gate, both symbols of the city. Some of the marble used to build it came from the destroyed governmental buildings nearby, and it is built on a place which Adolf Hitler meant to devote to Welthauptstadt Germania.[1] The monument was built in a great hurry and does not mention the 2000- 2500 soldiers buried in the park. Besides the main inscription, the columns state names of only some dead Heroes of the Soviet Union buried here.[1] Also the official name in German is "Ehrenmal" (honour monument) not "Denkmal" (memorial). Thus one interpretation of this could be that this monument was intended for propaganda purposes to demonstrate to everyone visiting the city the total Soviet victory over the Nazis and possibly to humiliate the indigenous population. Consequentially it has earned some not-so-flattering nicknames from the local population with references to crimes committed by Soviet occupation troops.[2][3][4]
The monument is built in the British sector of (western) Berlin, thus after the building of the Berlin wall in 1961 this monument was seen as a sign of communist provocation on West German soil, having to be protected by British soldiers against being destroyed by the West Berliners.[1] In 1970 a neo-Nazi, Ekkehard Weil, shot one of the Soviet honour guards at the monument, severely wounding the soldier.[1] In 2010, the monument was vandalized with red graffiti just before Victory in Europe Day celebrations with text "thiefs, murderers, rapists", sparking a protest from the Russian embassy in Berlin, accusing German authorities of not being able to take sufficient measures to protect the monument.[5][6]
[edit] See also
- Photographic details of the Berlin memorial in commons. wikimedia.org
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Zeit.de - Das fremde Monument
- ^ Cochrane, Allan (2006). Making up meanings in a capital city: power, memory and monuments in Berlin. European Urban and Regional Studies, 13(1), pp. 5–24.
- ^ Aviewoncities.com page
- ^ The Telegraph - Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps
- ^ Aktuell.ru - Protest gegen schaendung von Kriegsdenkmaelern in Berlin
- ^ rt.com - “Berlin authorities failed to prevent denigration of Soviet soldiers”
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 52°31′00″N 13°22′20″E / 52.5166667°N 13.37222°E
