It lasted from mid-April 1945 until 2^nd May 1945, when Berlin, exhausted by losses and reduced to a carpet of rubble, fell to the Soviets.

However, Germany would only capitulate between 8^th – 9^th May 1945, with its unconditional surrender and the end of World War II in Europe.

In just under three weeks, over 78,000 Soviet soldiers fell.

To ensure that the memory of the war would not be forgotten, the Soviet Union ordered, as early as 1945, the construction of three memorial cemeteries for fallen Soviet soldiers.

A few steps from the Brandenburg Gate, in the heart of the Tiergarten, stands the first Soviet memorial erected in the city after the end of World War II.

This memorial was also built with some of the marble and stone from the demolition of the Führer’s Chancellery, the headquarters of the Third Reich. The memorial was inaugurated on 11^th November 1945, the anniversary of the October Revolution.

The memorial is accessed via a wide flight of steps containing some of the original weapons used by the Soviets to conquer the city, including the two Soviet T-34 tanks.

Colonnade symbolizes the various branches of the Red Army, and the large bronze statue rising above it depicts a Soviet soldier bidding farewell to his fallen comrades on the battlefield, with his left hand outstretched.

From its inauguration until the memorial’s transfer to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, Soviet soldiers maintained an honor guard here.

The Tiergarten Memorial was also a protagonist of the Cold War because it was the only Soviet memorial located on West Berlin territory, and more precisely in the British sector.

L'articolo Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten – Berlin proviene da ViaggidiMatt.

The original project called for the construction of a national stadium. In just 200 days, this impressive project for its time was completed and inaugurated on 8^thJune 1913.

With the outbreak of World War I, the 1916 Olympic Games in Berlin were canceled, and the stadium was converted into a military hospital.

In 1920, the facility returned to its original sporting function, hosting football matches and athletics competitions.

With the awarding of the 1936 Olympic Games to Berlin, the Nazi regime saw this as an opportunity to create a monument to its greatness.

Unlike many Olympic stadiums, the stands did not form a closed ring, but opened up at the Marathon Gate, where the Olympic pyre and the 77-meter-high Campanile were located.

During World War II, the Olympiastadion was transformed into an air raid shelter and a secret weapons factory. The stadium escaped the bombings almost unscathed, losing only the bell tower.

After the war, the stadium came under the control of British forces. After extensive renovations, the facility gradually returned to its original sporting function. The name “Reichssportfeld” was changed to “Olympiastadion,” an attempt to erase the facility’s Nazi past.

Following the awarding of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the stadium was completely renovated with the addition of a modern roof.

Today, it is the home of the Hertha Berlin football club and regularly hosts major international events, concerts, and the German Cup final (DFB-Pokal).

L'articolo Olympiastadion – Berlin proviene da ViaggidiMatt.

Built between 1891 and 1895 in Romanesque Revival style in memory of Kaiser Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

The church was severely damaged by bombing on 23th December 1943, and then almost entirely destroyed during air raids in 1945.

The Gedächtniskirche complex consists of the ruins of the church destroyed during the war and contemporary works.

At the end of World War II, it was difficult for Allied architects to rebuild it, as the church symbolized great national pride and its ruins were a daily reminder of the horrors of war.

When the church was to be completely demolished in 1956 for the construction of a new building, the population protested vigorously. As a compromise, architect Egon Eiermann integrated the ruins into the new church building.

The modern building was constructed between 1959 and 1961 and consisted of honeycomb-shaped concrete elements embedded with glass blocks.

Inside the modern church is a sketch of the Madonna of Stalingrad.

It was designed by Wehrmacht physician Kurt Reuber during Christmas 1942, when the German General’s Sixth Army was already surrounded by the Soviet Red Army inside Stalingrad.

It was in this city that, between November 1942 and February 1943, the fate of the German forces that had invaded Soviet territory with Operation Barbarossa on 22th June 1941, was decided.

L'articolo Gedächtniskirche – Berlin proviene da ViaggidiMatt.

It starts from the reconstruction of a typical East Berlin apartment, furnished with lamps, furniture and various objects of everyday life while a television broadcasts typical programs of the Soviet era. Remaining in the domestic sphere there is also a typical kitchen with its appliances.

There are also typewriters, radios, books and readings of the time and food consumer products: from Mocca-Fix coffee, Roter Oktober beer to the well-known gherkins of the Spreewald. 

In a separate room there is the legendary small car with a two-stroke engine, the Trabant or Trabi, cross and delight of the citizens of the GDR that once ordered had to wait for about ten years.

L'articolo DDR Museum – Berlin proviene da ViaggidiMatt.

The Brandenburger Tor stands on what used to be the border of the Prussian capital, beyond which were the forests of Brandenburg and the hunting reserve of Berlin: today’s Tiergarten Park.

Frederick William hoped for an alliance between Prussia, the Netherlands and Great Britain in the style of the Attica League of Athens. For this reason, the motifs and style of the door are those of classical mythology, with strong references to the acropolis of Athens. The very name of the Gate at the time of construction testifies to the intentions of the king: in 1791 it was inaugurated as the “Gate of Peace”.

From its construction until 1918, the year of the fall of the German monarchy, only the royal family and their guests could cross the central arch of the Gate. The rest of the travelers used the side “wings”, where the customs offices were also located.

The Bundestag is, especially thanks to its dome, one of the symbols not only of the city of Berlin but of the whole of Germany.

Its construction lasted from 9th July 1884 until 1894 and was used as the seat of the Parliament of the German Reich.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification and the transfer of the capital of the Federal Republic from Bonn to Berlin, the Bundestag (i.e. the Parliament of the current German state) decided to re-elect the Reichstag Palace as its seat.

L'articolo Brandenburg Gate and the Bundestag – Berlin proviene da ViaggidiMatt.

At the center of this complex is the “Haus 1”, the building in which the head of the ministry Erich Mielke had his offices. The spaces from which Mielke directed the enormous apparatus of espionage and repression are perfectly preserved in their original state. On the two floors of the building, the exhibition illustrates the methods adopted by the secret police and the effects they produced on their victims.

Microphones and cameras hidden inside everyday objects show how the spying of the civilian population by the employees of the ministry took place. 

On 15th January 1990, thousands of people entered the Stasi headquarters, thus dissolving the secret agency.

L'articolo Stasi Museum – Berlin proviene da ViaggidiMatt.