Soviet War Memorial (Schönholzer Heide)

The Soviet War Memorial in Schönholzer Heide (Sowjetisches Ehrenmal in der Schönholzer Heide) in Pankow, Berlin was erected in the period between May 1947 and November 1949 and covers an area of 30 000 m². The memorial contains the largest Soviet cemetery in Berlin, which is also the largest Russian cemetery in Europe outside of Russia.

The Soviet Cemetery Pankow is situated in the Schönholzer Heide (Winter 2010)
Main portal 2009
Detail from the left side of the portal of Schönholzer Heide
Detail from the right side of the portal of Schöholzer Heide

The monument is one of three Soviet memorials built in Berlin after the end of the war. The other two memorials are the Tiergarten memorial, built in 1945 in the Tiergarten district of what later became West Berlin, and the Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park).

Schönholzer Heide was a popular recreation area in the 19th century. During the Second World War the area was turned into a work camp. After the war, the north-western part of the area was used to build the third largest Soviet war memorial in Berlin, together with the memorials in Treptower Park and Tiergarten.

A group of Soviet architects consisting of K. Solovyov, M. Belaventsev, V. Korolyov and the sculptor Ivan Pershudchev made the plan for the cemetery, where 13,200 of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers that had fallen during the Battle of Berlin, would be buried. On a wall around the memorial there are 100 bronze tablets where the names, ranks and birth dates of the soldiers it was possible to identify are written. This group constitutes about one-fifth of the fallen soldiers.

On both sides of the main axis, which at its one end sits a 33.5 meter tall obelisk made of syenite, there are placed 8 burial chambers where 1182 soldiers are buried. Under the Honor Hall inside the obelisk there are buried two Soviet colonels.

A statue of the personification of Mother Russia is situated in front of the obelisk and constitutes the main focal point of the memorial. On the statue's base, which is made out of black porphyry, sit 42 bronze tablets on which the names of fallen officers are inscribed.

  • The main entrance.
  • Detail from the main entrance to the monument. The text reads: "To eternal memory of the heroes.
  • The obelisk seen through the main portal
  • Left side of the opening into the cemetery. The text reads: "Uncover your head! Here are Soviet soldiers, heroes from the great war 1941-1945, laid to eternal rest."
  • Right side of the portal. The text reads: "A grateful humanity never forgets their brave deeds."
  • Stalin quote inside the portal. The text reads: "The strength of the Red Army was that it had none, and could not have any, racial hatred neither towards other peoples nor the German people and that they were raised in the belief of equality of all peoples and races, and in the spirit of respect towards other's rights."
  • One of the 100 bronze tablets. The text reads: "They were never subjugated by fascism. The love towards their motherland and the people was stronger than death."
  • The Mother Statue
  • The Mother Statue seen from behind
  • The obelisk
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See also

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