Berlin's battle scars linger 75 years after Nazi defeat

By Madeline Chambers

 

Bullet holes and traces caused by shrapnel from the Battle of Berlin in World War Two are seen on the facade of Martin-Gropius Bau exhibition hall, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2020. Picture taken April 23, 2020. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has been forced to cancel public events to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe but Berliners need no ceremonies to remember their downfall - the scars of war are all around them.

 

Facades in the centre are disfigured by bullet holes and shell damage, a reminder that Hitler's Third Reich ended in devastating defeat, not the liberation it is hailed as today.

 

Thanks to the coronavirus, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will mark the May 8 "Day of Liberation" by laying wreaths at the Memorial to the Victims of War and Dictatorship, home to the tomb of the unknown soldier.

 

This replaces a previously planned larger ceremony including foreign diplomats and young people plus a range of events including an art installation documenting the last days of the war and tracing the path to democracy, which will now go online.

 

Nazism, the Holocaust and the devastation of war still shape German identity and politics.

 

"Today you can say we were freed from the Nazi dictatorship but most Germans were defeated. They were perpetrators, not victims of Nazism," said Bjoern Weigel, curator of the "75th Anniversary of the End of the War" art project.

 

"You have to look at this differentiation to avoid a myth (of victimhood) taking hold," he said.

 

The Battle of Berlin, in which Red Army tanks, artillery and infantry fought their way forward street by street in April and May 1945, reduced the Nazi capital to rubble.

 

It was one of the war's bloodiest battles. Including assaults to encircle Berlin from Seelow and Halbe, more than a quarter of a million people died, say historians, although estimates vary and bodies are found every year.

 

SURRENDER

 

Germans fought on even after Hitler committed suicide on April 30 and the Berlin garrison surrendered on May 2. It took until May 8 for German generals to capitulate.

 

"In 1945, not all Germans felt happy. For many it was a catastrophe," said Joerg Morré, director of the German-Russian museum at Karlshorst where the unconditional surrender was signed.

 

Vivid reminders of the battle still disfigure Berlin buildings, offering evidence of fierce fighting.

 

Traces of the battle range from obscene graffiti scrawled on walls inside the Reichstag by victorious Red Army soldiers to damaged facades of city museums, bunkers and bridges.

 

"People living here are aware of this but they don't see it as being particularly relevant," said tour guide Nick Jackson.

 

Locals should be allowed to reinvent their city, he said.

 

"Rebuilding and moving forward is a natural process that I don't think is malicious," he said, adding younger Germans like to see May 8 as a celebration of liberation and democracy.

 

In the last decade or so, some Germans have focused more on their own suffering during the war and prominent members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Germany's third biggest parliamentary party, want to rewrite the history books.

 

As the rise of the right raises questions about Germans' view of the past, it is even more important to stress the responsibilities linked to democracy on May 8, said Weigel.

 

"You can see the link between the Nazi era and now. What these people wanted when they voted Hitler in was not what they got," he said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-30

 

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6 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

It was one of the war's bloodiest battles. Including assaults to encircle Berlin from Seelow and Halbe, more than a quarter of a million people died, say historians, although estimates vary and bodies are found every year.

Gotthard Heinrici was the German General tasked with the unenviable job of defending Seelow from an estimated 1.5 million Russians with the terrain of the heights his only advantage .. considered one of the best defensive strategists of WW2 he had little time for Hitler and had been removed by him previously for disobeying an order not to retreat during the Russian campaign .. 

Anticipating the opening Soviet bombardment he withdrew all forces from the first defensive line just before the Soviets opened fire obliterating the line .. believing the defences smashed the Russians start fording the river to the marsh ground below the heights at which point Heinrici ordered the German counter barrage on to that area .. 

He repeated the tactic for the 2nd defensive line before trying to hold the 3rd and final line long enough for his remaining troops to pull back to head West for Berlin .. This defence cost the Russians an estimated 250,000 men and delayed the march on Berlin for 3 days much to Stalin's frustration who goaded Zhukov the Russian commander to get on with it or Stalin would direct another Russian Army to storm Berlin something Zhukov thought he should be in command of .. 

Heinrici was sacked by Wilhelm Keitel , Wermacht Commander in Chief in a very public blazing row 29th April after Keitel was informed Heinrici's army were moving away from instead of to Berlins defence because like many other Wermacht General's Heinrici knew that resistance was futile and would only prolong the killing .. 

He was summoned to the Berlin bunker almost certainly to be murdered or expected to commit suicide but was informed of his likely fate in a cryptic message from another Senior officer to " drive very slowly " so he did before surrendering to the British in May then spending 3 yrs in a POW camp in Britain being interrogated and debriefed before his release in 1948 .. 

Keitel got his comeuppance on the end of a rope for War Crimes at the Nuremberg trials .. 

Edited April 30, 20206 yr by Justgrazing
Sp

Berlin, one of my all time favorite cities, I was fortunate to get a posting to Berlin in the late 80’s, a marvelous time and experience.

 

If you are a bookworm, have a look at Hans Falada’s ‘Alone in Berlin’ Jeder stirbt für sich allein, a moving insight and gripping read.

 

I’ve not bothered with the film of the book, I’d like my recollection of the book to remain un-spoiled.

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 20206 yr by Chomper Higgot

3 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Berlin, one of my all time favorite cities, I was fortunate to get a posting to Berlin in the late 80’s, a marvelous time and experience.

 

If you are a bookworm, have a look at Hans Falada’s ‘Alone in Berlin’ Jeder stirbt für sich allein, a moving insight and gripping read.

 

I’ve not bothered with the film of the book, I’d like my recollection of the book to remain un-spoiled.

 

 

 

Great book. Didn’t know there was a film, but, like you will give it a miss.

Very interesting story . Curious to find out more, read from Wikipedia: according to declassified archival data, Soviet forces sustained 81.116 dead and 280.251 wounded or sick. German losses :458.080 killed and 479.298 captured. Germans put the number of dead at approximately 92.000-100.000. The number of civilian casualties are unknown, about 125.000 are estimated to have perished during entire operation. It is also mentioned that the Soviet soldiers were furious when they saw the rich German cities .They wondered why the Germans attacked the Soviet Union,  a poorer country. The Soviet soldiers were revengeful indeed, they couldn't forgive the atrocities committed by German soldiers. My country was also occupied by Hitler's army. There was an order in force : for one dead (killed) German soldier ,100 local men would be shot. So it happened that people rebelled against German soldiers in one town. German soldiers took all young boys (age 16-19 )and their teachers from a school, lined them up and shot dead. So , when I read about how the British bombed   Dresden or how Soviet soldiers didn't have mercy on Germans I can only say: Germans asked for it and got what they deserved.

was there in 2015. The more extensive rubble was from the latter Berlin Wall, and its tearing down...  

 

Similar bullet/ shrapnel damge like the photo are world over, and those left, are there as a reminder for the future

 

Our RAAF Officers Mess in Darwin still holds not just Holes, but the shrapnel/fragments of Japanese aircraft Cannon fire from 1941/2 

 

it is all now Heritage  

 

If Berlin is still bitter, then maybe they didn't learn the lesson after all?