Footsteps of WWII · Berlin & eastern Germany
Soviet War Memorial, Tiergarten
Memorial · Apr–May 1945 (unveiled 11 Nov 1945)
The story
Built within months of the fighting and unveiled on 11 November 1945, this was the first Soviet memorial in Berlin. Architect Mikhail Gorvits designed the curved colonnade, and Lev Kerbel and Vladimir Tsigal sculpted the bronze soldier on top. More than 2,000 of the Red Army soldiers killed in the Battle of Berlin are buried behind it. Two T-34 tanks and two ML-20 152mm guns, said to be among the first to enter the city, flank the approach. The memorial stood in the British sector, so throughout the Cold War Soviet guards marched into West Berlin to mount guard here under British protection.
What to look for
A curved colonnade of reddish stone topped by a soldier with a rifle slung, on Straße des 17. Juni a few hundred metres west of the Brandenburg Gate. Look for the tanks and guns on their plinths and the inscriptions in Russian.
Plan your visit
Open-air and free; accessible at any time, with no booking needed. Easily combined on foot with the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate, a few minutes away.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Reichstag, Berlin · under 1 km
- Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe · under 1 km
- Site of the Führerbunker · under 1 km
- German Resistance Memorial (Bendlerblock) · 1 km
- Topography of Terror, Berlin · 1 km
- Soviet War Memorial, Treptower Park · 7 km
All 160 sites in Footsteps of WWII →
Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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