Today’s Berliner Morgenpost included yet another story about a newly discovered Blindgänger, an unexploded bomb from WWII. When a 250 kilogram bomb is found, the surrounding area must be evacuated until the authorities can safely remove the bomb. This is the fifth Bindgänger found in Berlin since our arrival at the end of March: 6 April in Spandau; 5 June in Berlin-Buckow; 30 June in Berlin Zehlendorf; 5 July in Potsdam; and 6 July in Köpenick.
Blindgänger are verrry dangerous.
World War II continues to be very much alive for Berliners, as they read about or experience themselves the evacuation (sometimes as many as 7,000 citizens), as well as public transit and traffic disruptions when roads and tracks are closed due to a newly uncovered Blindgänger.
Today we set off on our bikes for a 20 km round trip to Treptower Park to revisit another reminder of World War II. This colossal monument to the Red Army was built from 1946 to 1949 in Treptower Park, a park formerly famous for the 1919 uprising where Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemberg assembled 150,000 striking workers.
Entry Arch to Soviet Memorial
The Motherland
Today the monument to fallen Soviet soldiers is what the park is best known for and is where 5,000 of the 80,000 Red Army soldiers who died in the Battle for Berlin are buried. The Battle of Berlin was fought from April 16 to May 2, 1945. As the German Army was nearing defeat, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin. An estimated 100,000 German soldiers and 22,000 Berlin civilians also lost their lives during this battle.
The Red Army is victorious
The kneeling soldier honors his fallen comrades
On May 8th the formal German Instrument of Surrender was signed, stating that the Germans surrender to both the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army. The signing took place late in the evening May 8th, after midnight in the Soviet Union. Thus, the Soviet Union, and now Russia, celebrates Victory Day on May 9th. East Germany celebrated Victory Day until 1990.
The large scale of the memorial is hard to capture.
Colossal (see the tiny people?)
Those tiny people were Russian tourists.
Friezes along the pathway depict the horror of war and the valiant bravery of the Soviet soldiers.
The Horror of War
Brave Soldiers
The Mausoleum
Up the steps to the mausoleum, there is a room covered in mosaic depicting people grieving their losses. Today someone had lain fresh flowers as a tribute.
Fresh flowers for the fallen
In 2000, Vladimir Putin visited the monument and laid a wreath in honor of the fallen.
Putin visits the memorial in 2000
Pondering the fact that, during World War II, the Soviet Union experienced between 8.8 and 10.7 million military war deaths and about 13 million civilian deaths, the grand scale of the memorial is understandable.
On our way home we passed by a reminder of life after World War II—one of the last remaining watch towers in the border control system between East and West Berlin.
Watch Tower from the Divided City
Riding along the Spree, we had a good view of Molecule Men, the 30 meter high aluminum sculpture erected in 1999.
Molecule Men
According to American artist Jonathan Borofsky, the huge yet light and airy sculpture reminds us “that both people and molecules exist in a world of probability and that the aim of all creative and intellectual traditions is to find wholeness and unity in the world.”
Let us all be reminded not to kill each other.
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