IFA International Day 5 - 2018 Edition

© Thomas Keller
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Soviet memories in Treptower Park
Peaceful, poignant, impressive, the memorial
dedicated to Soviet soldiers in Treptower Park in
Berlin reminds visitors about the inferno of the Battle
of Berlin and the 80,000 dead on Russian side.
The Memorial cannot fail to impress while its layout
will remind of the emerging Cold War of Post-war
Berlin.
2019 will see the 30 th anniversary of the
disappearance of the Berlin Wall. While memories
of Berlin division are fading step by step each
passing year, they are still areas in Berlin bearing
memories of this dark time in the city’s history.
One of the most striking structures is the Soviet
Memorial in Treptower Park. Ride up to Schlesiches
Tor Underground Station (U-Bahn) and walk along
Schlesische Strasse. You pass a 10 metre high
watchtower, which actually used to be the command
post for 18 watchtowers along the Berlin Wall. You
then officially enter former East Berlin, with Puschkin
Allee taking you to the Park.
Back to 1946, the Council of the Soviet Military
Administration of Germany organised a competition
to build a grand memorial to the Soviet liberation of
Germany from National Socialism. Work started in
1947 for an official opening on May 8, 1949, on
time for the fourth anniversary of the end of WWII.
The layout is majestic. The entrances to the memorial
are defined by massive arches. Wide paths with
weeping birch trees take visitors into a three-meter
granite statue of "Mother Homeland”, followed by
two huge stylized Soviet flags sculpted of red granite.
Two kneeling soldiers at the bottom of the flags are
mourning the 80,000 dead. Limestone sarcophagi
stand on each side of the central area and symbolize
the then 16 Soviet Republics. Their reliefs in typical
style of Socialist realism illustrate scenes from the
"Great Patriotic War" waged from 1941 to 1945.
The heart of the memorial is however a conical hill
bearing a crypt that also serves as the pedestal for
the memorial’s central figure, a Red Army soldier
holding in his arm a rescued child. The statue is 30
meter high while inside the crypt, a mosaic shows
the 16 Soviet Republics. At the feet of the soldier, a
lowered sword covers a destroyed swastika, symbol
of National Socialism defeat…
www.ifa-international.org
IFA International • Tuesday 4 th September 2018
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