Situated in Berlin’s Treptower Park, the Soviet War Memorial is a massive war memorial and military cemetery commemorating 5,000 of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin during April–May 1945.
Designed to epic proportions, the memorial was built to the design of Soviet architect Yakov Belopolsky, and opened four years after World War II on May 8, 1949.
It served as the central war memorial of East Germany.
Built on land previously occupied by a sports field, some of the building materials came from the demolished New Reich Chancellery.
Framing the main statue in the distance are a pair of stylized Soviet flags built of red granite, flanked by two statues of kneeling soldiers.
Running along both sides of the central area are 16 stone sarcophagi – one for each of the 16 Soviet Republics as existed at the time – with relief carvings of military scenes and quotations from Joseph Stalin, on one side in Russian, on the other side the same text in German.
The area is the final resting place for some 5000 soldiers of the Red Army.
The focus of the memorial is a massive 12m tall monument by Soviet sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich, showing a Soviet soldier with a sword holding a German child standing over a broken swastika.
Looking inside the base of the statue.
Looking back along the park from the main statue.
Stonework detail.
Furthest from the main sculpture is this figure representing the Motherland weeping at the loss of her sons.
Stone detail near one of the entrances to the park.
Google satellite view. Click here to virtually walk through the park (Via Google Street View).
More info: Treptower Park – Wikipedia
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