#Monument
Soviet Memorial Tiergarten
The Soviet Memorial Tiergarten in the centre of Berlin commemorates the more than 80.000 Soviet soldiers who fell during the Battle of Berlin in the last weeks of the Second World War in Germany. Even though the Tiergarten memorial is located in the former British sector of Berlin, Soviet honor guards were sent every day to perform honorary guard duty. This tradition was maintained even during the harshest Cold War periods.
The war memorial at Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate is one of several memorials erected in Berlin by the Soviet Union after the war. It especially commemorates the more than 80 000 Soviet soldiers killed during the battle of Berlin. The Soviet military administration chose the north side of the former Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni), as the site for the memorial. It was part of the east-west axis that the Nazis had expanded into a triumphal avenue in the 1930’s.
Built in 1945 as a semicircular stoa (covered walkway), it resembles other Soviet Second World War monuments found all over the former Eastern bloc. On top of the stoa stands a large bronze statue of a Soviet soldier carrying his rifle over his shoulder, commemorating the Soviet soldiers killed in the war. Two ‘T 34’ tanks and two howitzers used in the Battle of Berlin flank the soldier. The columns behind the soldier bear texts and the names of some of the fallen Soviet soldiers, while the graves of about 2 500 soldiers are in the rear of the memorial. Even though the Tiergarten memorial is located in the former British sector of Berlin, Soviet honour guards were sent every day to perform honourary guard duty. This tradition was maintained during the harshest Cold War periods.