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Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)

 
Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)

 
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Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)
 
 
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The Soviet War Memorial (sometimes translated as the Soviet Cenotaph), is a vast war memorial
War memorial

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war....
 and military cemetery
Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which death body and cremation are burial. The term cemetery implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground....
 in Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
's Treptower Park
Treptower Park

Treptower Park is a park along the river Spree in Treptow, in the district of Treptow-K?penick, south of central Berlin. The park is a popular place for recreation of Berliners and a tourist attraction....
.






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Soviet War Memorial
Urss 1 Rublo Ventennale Vittoria Ww2
Berlinsovietmemfield
The Soviet War Memorial (sometimes translated as the Soviet Cenotaph), is a vast war memorial
War memorial

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war....
 and military cemetery
Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which death body and cremation are burial. The term cemetery implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground....
 in Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
's Treptower Park
Treptower Park

Treptower Park is a park along the river Spree in Treptow, in the district of Treptow-K?penick, south of central Berlin. The park is a popular place for recreation of Berliners and a tourist attraction....
. It was built to the design of the Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 architect Yakov Belopolsky to commemorate 5,000 of the 80,000 Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin
Battle of Berlin

The Battle of Berlin was the final Strategic offensive of the European Theatre of World War II of World War II and was designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union.The last offensive of the European war was the Prague Offensive on 6?11 May 1945, when the Red Army, with the help of Poland, Romanian, and...
 in April-May 1945. It opened four years after the war ended on May 8, 1949, and served as the central war memorial of East Germany.

The monument should not be confused with the Soviet War Memorial (Tiergarten)
Soviet War Memorial (Tiergarten)

The Soviet War Memorial 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 Red Army who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945....
, built in 1945 in the Tiergarten
Tiergarten

Tiergarten is the name of both a large park in the centre of Berlin and a locality within the Boroughs of Berlin of Mitte. Before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin....
 district of what would later become West Berlin
West Berlin

West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945....
, or the Soviet War Memorial (Schönholzer Heide)
Soviet War Memorial (Schönholzer Heide)

Soviet War Memorial in Sch?nholzer Heide in Pankow, Berlin was erected in the period between May 1947 and November 1949 and covers an area of 30 000 m?....
, in Berlin's Pankow
Pankow

Pankow [] is the third Boroughs of Berlin of Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wei?ensee; the resulting borough retained the name Pankow....
 district.

Layout


The focus of the ensemble is a monument by Soviet sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich
Yevgeny Vuchetich

Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich was a prominent sculpture and artist of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor , People's Artist of the USSR , known for his heroic monuments, often of allegoric style....
: a 12-m tall monument of a Soviet soldier with a sword holding a child, standing over a broken swastika
Swastika

The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at Angle#Types of angles, in either right-facing form or its mirrored left-facing form....
. Vuchetich's inspiration for the monument was Soviet soldier Nikolai Masalov (1922-2004), who on April 30, 1945 found a German girl wandering near Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz

is an important public square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about one kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag , and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park....
 during the Battle of Berlin
Battle of Berlin

The Battle of Berlin was the final Strategic offensive of the European Theatre of World War II of World War II and was designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union.The last offensive of the European war was the Prague Offensive on 6?11 May 1945, when the Red Army, with the help of Poland, Romanian, and...
 and brought her to safety. Despite rumors that this episode was Soviet propaganda, owing to a journalist use of a different name for the girl's rescuer, officially confirmed documents exist that substantiate at least five cases of Russian soldiers delivering small German children to orphanage
Orphanage

An orphanage is an institution devoted to the Childcare whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable to care for them. Parents, and sometimes grandparents, are legally responsible for supporting children, but in the absence of these or other relatives willing to care for the children, they become a ward of the state, and orphanages are a w...
s during the Battle of Berlin
Battle of Berlin

The Battle of Berlin was the final Strategic offensive of the European Theatre of World War II of World War II and was designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union.The last offensive of the European war was the Prague Offensive on 6?11 May 1945, when the Red Army, with the help of Poland, Romanian, and...
. The base of the statue contains a small room lined in mosaic
Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other material. It may be a technique of Decorative arts, an aspect of interior decoration or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral....
s, in which wreaths are usually laid.

Before the monument is a central area lined on both sides by 16 stone sarcophagi, one for each of the 16 Soviet Republics with relief carvings of military scenes and quotations from Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
, on one side in Russian
Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
, on the other side the same text in German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
. The area is the final resting place for some 5000 soldiers of the Red Army
Red Army

The Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
.

At the opposite end of the central area from the statue is a portal consisting of a pair of stylized Soviet flags clad in marble
Marble

Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
 recovered from Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born Germany politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party....
's demolished Reich Chancellery
Reich Chancellery

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2005-1017-526, Berlin, Reichskanzlei.jpgThe Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Germany Chancellor of Germany ....
. (Leftover marble was allegely used to line Mohrenstraße
Mohrenstraße (Berlin U-Bahn)

Mohrenstrasse is an List of Berlin U-Bahn stations in the German capital city of Berlin. It is part of the Berlin U-Bahn and is located on the line in the district of Mitte....
 station on the Berlin U-Bahn
Berlin U-Bahn

The Berlin is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, Germany, and is a major part of the public transport system of the capital. Opened in 1902, the serves List of Berlin U-Bahn stations spread across nine lines, with a total track length of , about 80% of which is underground....
, adjacent to the former chancellery.) These are flanked by two statues of kneeling soldiers.

Beyond the flag monuments is a further sculpture, along the axis formed by the soldier monument, the main area, and the flags, is another figure, of the Motherland weeping at the loss of her sons.

Women of the (East) German wartime generation still refer to it as the "tomb of the unknown rapist" due to the mass rapes by Red Army soldiers in the years following 1945. ”

In recent years, the ensemble has undergone a thorough renovation. In 2003 the main statue was removed and sent to a workshop on the island of Rügen
Rügen

R?gen or Rugia is Germany's largest island. It is located in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. R?gen makes up the vast part of the R?gen , which also includes the neighboring islands Hiddensee and Ummanz, as well as several small islands....
 for refurbishment. It was replaced on May 4, 2004.

Gallery


See also

  • Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists
    Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists

    The Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists is a war memorial in Berlin, dedicated in 1972. Built by the East Germany during the Berlin Wall, it is today the principal Germany monument to the Poland soldiers who died in World War II, as well as an important monument to the Widerstand....
  • Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
    Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

    The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe , also known as the Holocaust Memorial , is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold....


External links

  • - centered on the statue of a Soviet soldier holding a German girl