Berlin's Hated WW2 Memorial

The Soviet War Memorial stands in Berlin's Tiergarten, commemorating 5000 soldiers from the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Byelorussian Fronts killed capturing central Berlin, part of the wider 80,000 soldiers who died in the Berlin battle. Discover why it was built, what it represents, and why Berliners have had a difficult relationship with it since 1945.

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Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.

Credits: US National Archives; Library of Congress; astveten

[FireMedicJason]

I’ve spent the last 47 years studying WW2 and I can confidently say I still don’t know half as much as Dr. Felton, a true scholar.

[ricahrdb]

The 1990 treaty apparently also includes a provision that arranges for the protection of German war graves in Russia. This may explain the German governments reluctance to change anything about this memorial or any other former Soviet Union memorial.

edit: changed "Russian memorial" to "Soviet Union memorial". Thanks Marat.

[predragmanov]

Ukrainian, Belorussian etc. Fronts are just names. They consisted of people ethnicities and nationalities from all over USSR. It didnt mean that the soldiers from the Ukrainian front were only Ukrainian. Just in case if some people didn't know that, , which I highly doubt.

[jasonkinzie]

When I was in Berlin in 2011 I got lost and happened upon this memorial. It was surreal!

[nikolaysokolnikov]

I don't think saying that the Ukranian Front consisted of ukranians is exactly accurate. Soviet fronts were mainly named after the locations where they were originally formed, not the ethnicity of its soldiers. So it was formed not only from the conscripts of Ukraine (which was only like a half ethnically ukranian at the time) but also from old allready formed and reformed divisions that happend to be there at the time.

[darkguard]

I think the T34/76 are veterans of the Battle of Berlin. One of the two tanks received two armor-piercing hits next to the bow machine gun and a presumed one hit by a Panzerfaust on the turret.

[strateg]

The site for this memorial was not chosen randomly, as it was meant to be the main reference point from where all roads would start their path across the Third Reich, similar to the Column in Rome in the Forum, which designated the end/starting point of all roads in the Roman Empire. It's been a while since I read the memoirs of Albert Speer " Inside the Third Reich", where he describes in detail. I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in this topic.

Overall, there are 3 Soviet Memorials with soldier burials in Berlin. This one in Tiergarten, another one in Treptower Park (The largest one), and in Pankow.

[memesouls]

I love how since the very beginning when this channel was up and coming this man has not changed his format. I like it when YouTubers stick to what made them popular instead of trying to conform to trends and what not.

[johngdoty]

I was in Berlin right after the wall went down. Streets were being renamed and the telephone exchanges between East and West Berlin were still being connected.
The main thing I noticed about the memorial was that it was just about the only thing that had not been spray painted with graffiti. There was so much graffiti, it looked as though some paint company had handed out thousands of cans of spray paint to everybody and told them to spray the city. The memorial was graffiti free.

[NOLAgenX]

I spent my teenage years in then West Berlin in the first half of the 80’s, as my father was in the USAF. It was possible to visit East Berlin as part of controlled groups, and one of the places was the large Soviet War Memorial that lies in the eastern part of current Berlin (am Treptower IIRC). So there are two Soviet War memorials that existed in Berlin in whole.

There were also Soviet armed troops at Spandau Prison 3 months a year in West Berlin, since the 4 Allied powers rotated who guarded it. Additionally unarmed Soviets were occasionally seen in West Berlin as well. Legal spying. It applied to us also. It was called the Military Liaison Mission (MLM) and one of the members, Major Arthur Nicholson was shot and killed in East Germany. He lived just around the corner from me.

[kovesp]

It should be mentioned that pre-unification there was nothing extraordinary in having Soviet soldiers in the British sector. The four power agreement stipulated that all had the right to this as well as running patrols through the other sectors. Around 1986 I saw American patrols driving through East Berlin as well as Soviet patrols in West. They all insisted on exercising this right upto the end of the occupation in the early 1990-s.

[kentrosaurusboi]

Fun (or really not so fun) Fact: The location of the memorial is deliberate, it was built on the route of the former Siegesallee where the statues of German medieval and (modern) kings, rulers, and the like were built, going from the Tiergarten to the Konigsplatz in front of the Reichstag. With the monument in place, it was then impossible to rebuild the pathway.

[attilavidacs]

Gallipoli in Turkey also has an Australian war memorial for when the Aussies landed in Gallipoli during WW1. There is a memorial service on ANAZAC day every year in Turkey that has now been going for over 100 years. The Turkish president Erdogan hates it and outright denounced it on camera.

[TheLoxxxton]

I'm always amazed at how alliances change depending on the circumstances

[studiojakubka]

Ukrainien front was not composed by Ukrainians. It was called that for geographical reason but Mark knows it very well.

[d.d.]

I can’t thank you enough for not cropping the vintage video that you use in your content. I hate it when people do that.

[DArchery]

Visited this while in the US Army in 1983 with the 509th Airborne. The Russians refused to change guards while we were there. Our guide had the buses leave and hide around the corner and once they started the changing, we rushed back and got to see it.

[colonial]

When I was the management officer at the US Embassy Office in Berlin during the early 1990s, I had a chance to climb into a manhole in the Tiergarten and descend into both the autobahn and railway tunnels that are located under this monument. The Berlin city engineers were engaged on a program to rediscover the "lost" tunnels and bunkers under the city. It was an amazing experience.

[ssnydess]

I flew Air Force cadets into Tegal (French airport) in Berlin in the mid eighties while the wall was still up and visited this memorial as well as the massive grave for the 5000 soviet casualties and the tomb of the unknown patriot. You should show these as well for historical perspective. Even in the eighties, the comparison between East and Western Berlin was stark with battle damage still prominent in the Soviet sector.

[Dr.Fiendish]

Just imagine how beautiful Berlin would be today if it were not for the war.