Reinterpreting the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin’s Treptower Park after 1990

Abstract

In the months following 9 November 1989, images of the symbolic and physical end of the GDR and its capital became norm: the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the storming of the Stasi Headquarters and the closure of the Palace of the Republic serve as lasting markers leading to the East German government’s terminus. Yet, other potentially contentious landmarks in Berlin remained untouched. The Soviet War Memorial in eastern Berlin’s Treptower Park, for instance, was in fact placed under protection and years later renovated. This seemingly counter-intuitive development brings to the foreground particular aspects of negotiating the GDR past in post-1990 Germany. In this case, it is not only the German–Russian relationship under consideration, but also that of the legacy of German antifascism. This chapter addresses the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park as an example of the process of incorporating a specific East German experience within a longer united German historical narrative.