Sowjetisches Ehrenmal

The Soviet Memorial in Berlin's Treptow Park was designed by the sculptor Evgeny V. Vuchetich and the architect Yakov B. Bepolsky and erected in 1947-49. This is the central memorial to the Soviet soldiers who fell in the battle for Berlin in 1945. Most of the material used in its construction is Swedish granite with which the Nazis had intended to build a triumphal arch as a sign of victory. On the stone gateways at the entrances to the Memorial (in the road skirting Treptow Park and in Puschkinallee) are the words, in Russian and German: "Eternal glory to the heroes who fell for the freedom and independence of the socialist homeland." In the avenue leading to the entrance is a female figure, "Mutter Heimat" ("Mother Homeland"), carved from a 50-ton block of granite. A broad path lined by silver birches leads to the Ehrenhain (Grove of Honor), with two walls of red granite symbolizing flags lowered in mourning, on the ends of which are bronze figures of kneeling Red Army men. In the center of the Grove of Honor, the burial place of 5,000 Soviet soldiers, are five stretches of lawn, with five stone bases bearing bronze wreaths. On each side of the grove are eight stone sarcophagi. The central feature of the memorial is the Ehrenhügel (Hill of Honor), on which stands a cylindrical mausoleum bearing a huge figure of a Soviet soldier, 11.6 m/38ft high. In his left arm he holds a child, in his right hand the sword with which he has shattered the Nazi swastika. A flight of steps leads up to a domed chamber under the statue, which weighs 70 tons. The interior of the mausoleum is decorated with mosaics (by the Soviet painter Gorpenko) depicting representatives of the various Soviet Republics mourning their dead. On the ceiling is the Order of Victory of the Soviet Union. The total length of the memorial site is 500 m/550yd. There is a further Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten.