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Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)

After the Second World War three official Russian war memorials were established in Berlin. These were the Russian War Memorial (Treptower Park), the Russian War Memorial (Schönholzer Heide) and the Russian War Memorial (Tiergarten). The Russian War Memorial (Treptower Park) is the most important of these three.

The Russian war memorials are not only monuments but also war cemeteries. Around the Russian War Memorial (Treptower Park) rest an estimated 5,000 to more than 7,000 Soviet soldiers. Thus the Russian War Memorial (Treptower Park) not only commemorates victory but especially the approximately 80,000 Soviet soldiers that did not survive the Battle for Berlin.

The war memorial was inaugurated on May 8, 1949. There are several statues situated at the site of the war memorial. The largest, made of bronze and with a height of 13 meters, shows a soldier with a child in his arm holding a sword on a swastika. According to unconfirmed sources a lot of building materials for the war memorial would have been put out of the remnants of the Old Reich Chancellery and the New Reich Chancellery.

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Source

  • Text: Fedor de Vries
  • Photos: Jan de Jager (1, 3, 4, 5), Fedor de Vries (2)

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