Sowjetisches Ehrenmal (Soviet Memorial)

Sowjetisches Ehrenmal (Soviet Memorial) Review

Built immediately after World War II, this monument stands as a reminder of the Soviet victory over the shattered German army in Berlin in May 1945. The Battle of Berlin was one of the deadliest on the European front. A hulking bronze statue of a soldier stands atop a marble plinth taken from Hitler's former Reichkanzlei (headquarters). The memorial is flanked by what are said to be the first two T-34 tanks to have fought their way into the city. The Sowjetisches Ehrenmal in Treptower Park in the eastern Berlin district of Treptow might just take the hard-earned title of most impressively bombastic memorial in Berlin. The size of several city blocks, this memorial celebrates the Soviet victory with inscriptions in both Russian and German, accompanying a series of Socialist realist reliefs lining both sides of an elaborate plaza. At one end stands an enormous bronze of a Russian soldier cradling a child in one arm and wielding a sword with the other while stomping on a crumpled swastika. Well-placed text and photos educate on the history and importance of the monument in the former East, as well as explaining why it was preserved after the fall of the wall. (S-bahn Treptower Park)