Soviet War Memorial Tiergarten

The basics

The memorial, a six-column colonnade with a statue of a Red Army soldier in the center, is on the northwest side of the Tiergarten in central Berlin. It's one of the most significant 20th-century memorials in a city full of them and a common stop on tours focusing on the history of the German Third Reich, WWII, and the Cold War—these tours tend to travel on foot and visit other historically significant sites such as the Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, Reichstag Building, and Wilhelmstrasse.

Things to know before you go

• An inscription in Russian reads, "Eternal glory to heroes who fell in battle with the German fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Union."

• The memorial lies within the Tiergarten, which has many walking paths.

• The first two Soviet T-34 tanks to reach Berlin are part of the memorial.

How to get there

The memorial lies almost directly behind the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate on Strasse des 17. Walking is the best way to get around central Berlin—the monument is less than a 10-minute walk from the Bundestag subway stations. Berlin Friedrichstraße station and Berlin Central Station are also within walking distance.

When to get there

The memorial is on a public route through the Tiergarten Strasse des 17 and can be visited anytime. The memorial is an active pilgrimage destination for war veterans from former Soviet states—during the May 9 celebration marking the end of World War II in Europe, the memorial became a site of wreath-laying ceremonies.

Berlin’s Soviet War Memorials

The memorial in Tiergarten is one of several in Berlin built by the Soviet Union to commemorate the Battle of Berlin. The memorial in Treptower Park lies outside the city center, and the much larger memorial, Schönholzer Heide, contains the largest Russian cemetery in Europe outside of Russia.