Treptow Park

Treptow Park is located in the eastern part of Berlin, washed by the waters of the Spree River. The park area can be conditionally divided into two parts: a recreation area and an area dedicated to the veneration of historical memory. Here is a monument dedicated to the liberation of Berlin from the Nazis and the final surrender of Hitler.

History of Treptower Park

Treptower Park was founded in 1876-1888 as a public space for outdoor activities and sports. At the service of the townspeople were: a spacious meadow in the form of a hippodrome for games, alleys for festivities, an artificial pond with carps. The construction, landscaping and beautification of the park cost 1.2 million marks. The main designer and ideological inspirer of the object was Johann Heinrich Gustav Mayer, whose bust adorns the park grove today. He served as director of the City Gardens of Berlin. The openness and accessibility of Treptow Park to all residents of the city, regardless of class, was a democratic innovation of that time.

The Liberator Warrior Monument in Treptow Park

Outside of the USSR, this is the largest burial of Red Army soldiers who died in World War II. A total of 7200 buried, more than half of them are unknown. Monument to the "Warrior-Liberator" - a symbol of victory over Nazism, recognizable in the world. The memorial ensemble was designed in the Soviet architectural aesthetics. Opened to visitors on May 8, 1949.

According to the logic of the architects, the visitor passes through the sculptural symbols of grief and loss to the majestic figure of a victorious warrior. Two triumphal arches, located at different entrances to the park, are decorated with festoons and medallions with battle dates, inscriptions in Russian and German, and Soviet symbols. Both arches open alleys leading to the sad monument "Motherland".

Further on, a wide alley passes between two parts of a symmetrical composition of kneeling soldiers under bowed banners. And the main monument opens up - "Warrior-Liberator". The sculpture is a thirteen-meter figure of a Red Army soldier. With his boot, he steps on the remnant of the trampled swastika. In one hand he holds the girl he saved - a symbol of the future world. In the other, a lowered sword is a symbol of the end of the war.

The central sculpture stands on a cylindrical pedestal. Inside the pedestal there is a memorial hall where a tome with the names of the fallen in the battle for Berlin is kept.

There are five symbolic tombstones in the parterre of the complex. Real burial in their place was not possible, due to the close location of groundwater. Therefore, the actual mass graves are located in another part of the park - on a hill.

On both sides of the main monument and tombstones there are stone information plates with bas-reliefs depicting scenes of Soviet wartime life. At the end of the slabs, words of gratitude from I. Stalin to the Soviet people are carved for their hard work and defense of the Motherland.

Interesting objects in the recreation area

• An observatory founded in 1896 by the German astronomer Friedrich Archengold. The oldest observatory in Germany. Here Einstein gave his first lecture on the theory of relativity.
• A mooring for tourist pleasure boats.
• Rose garden of 25,000 rose bushes.
• Sunflower garden
• Bridge to Youth Island, where various events take place.