The Soviet War Memorial Tiergarten

Now that the trees have green leaves again, the numerous visitors that stand on the large open area in front of the Reichstag building do not notice the 6-meter-high statue of the Red Army Soldier watching over the graves of more than 2,000 fallen Soviet Soldiers south of the Scheidemannstraße. Even from the dome of the Reichstag building, the statue is hardly to see between the trees in spring and summer.

The best view on the Soviet War Memorial is of course from the main entry at Straße des 17. Juni. Observant visitors wonder why a Soviet monument was built in one of the former western sectors of Berlin (the British sector). The Berlin Wall was only 500 meters to the east at the Brandenburg Gate. The memorial was built immediately after the end of World War II in a symbolic place: on the middle of the north-south axis planned by Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer. From the train station Südkreuz along the former Airport Tempelhof a broad bouldevard – the north-south-axis – was planned, flanked by giantic buildings directly leading to the Great Hall of the People. At the Straße des 17. Juni the north-south and the east-west axis should meet. Right there, the Soviets began to build their memorial after the fall of Berlin, with the consent of the other Allies. The Red Army reached Berlin in 1945 and was the first to conquer the city in a house-to-house fighting with an enormous high death toll.


The memorial consists of granite blocks, limestone slabs, marble and bronze. There are rumors, that the marble came from the former Reich Chancellery. This has never been proven and is not even likely, as the remains of the Reichs Chancellery were demolished after the memorial in the Tiergarten was already finished.


Standing in front of the memorial, there is a colonnade and in the middle the already mentioned statue of the Red Army soldier. He says goodbye to his fallen comrades. The war is over, he shouldered his rifle, he can return back home. Right and left of the colonnade, two historic tank T-34 are positioned. The graves of the fallen soldiers are among the lawns between the tanks and the outer fence and in the rear of the monument.


The memorial was inaugurated in November 1945. There is a small exhibition with pictures from that time. They show an odd situation: a shiny new monument is rising behind a devastated Tiergarten with broken and burned trees.


If you want to know more about the Soviet War Memorials in Berlin, go on a tour with Cliewe Juritza.


*The header picture shows the impressive Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park.