Soviet War Memorial Schönholzer Heide

About

The Soviet War Memorial in Schönholzer Heide (Sowjetisches Ehrenmal in der Schönholzer Heide) in Pankow, Berlin was erected between May 1947 and November 1949, and covers an area of 30,000 square metres (7.4 acres). The memorial contains the largest Soviet cemetery in Berlin, which is also the largest Russian cemetery in Europe outside of Russia. The monument is one of three Soviet memorials built in Berlin after the end of the war.

The other two memorials are the Tiergarten memorial, built in 1945 in the Tiergarten district of what later became West Berlin, and the Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park). Schönholzer Heide was a popular recreation area in the 19th century. During the Second World War the area was turned into a work camp.

After the war, the northwestern part of the area was used to build the third-largest Soviet war memorial in Berlin, together with the memorials in Treptower Park and Tiergarten. A group of Soviet architects consisting of K. Solovyov, M.

Belaventsev, V. Korolyov, and the sculptor Ivan Pershudchev designed the cemetery, where 13,200 of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers that had fallen during the Battle of Berlin would be buried. On a wall around the memorial are...