As Europe once again hurtled towards all-out war in the summer of 1939, a monster began terrorising the women of the Nazi capital city. Preying on his victims – lone females often on their way home from work – under cover of darkness for almost two years before being caught. His preference for hunting on Berlin’s train network earning him the sobriquet: the S-Bahn Murderer.
When viewed backwards, it is conceivable to see history as one straight line – twisting and turning through time but inevitably leading directly to the present day. The events that furnish this past, however, are not merely stations on a journey: but junctions – where the course of history is settled, as each new trajectory is plotted. The past, as we know it, is as much a matter of what is – as what could have been.
While for all intents and purposes, the German Democratic Republic – commonly referred to as East Germany – came to a ceremonious end on October 3rd 1990, there is a fringe theory that the workers’ and peasants’ state still lives on – in the form of a tiny island off the coast of Cuba.
The liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in April 1945 would finally put an end to nine years of Nazi atrocities commited here – but usher in a further five years of Soviet vengeance; as the site was promptly transformed into an NKVD detention centre. At the behest of the East German government, this ensanguined location would eventually open as a place of remembrance in 1961. Today, the Sachsenhausen site continues is similarly maintained as a memorial – just 35km north of the German capital. A place of education and learning – of coming to terms with the past and overcoming it.
Earlier this year, we covered the anniversary of the British Victory Parade that took place on July 21st 1945 – this month we take a closer look at the Allied Victory Parade of September 1945 when the four Allied powers gathered their troops to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The thump of the 3rd Royal Horse Artillery’s 25-pounder-guns at 10 am on Saturday, July 21st 1945 was intended to represent the last time that British artillery would be fired on the streets of Berlin – and the start of the British Victory Parade.
As the largest engagement of the Second World War to take place in Germany, the Battle of Berlin would prove to be the desperate last stand of Hitler’s regime; the bloody coda to a war long lost & ultimately the coup de grâce to National Socialism. Join us as we explore the bloody details of these important seventeen days in the spring of 1945 in our day-by-day coverage of the Soviet invasion of the Nazi capital.
As the largest engagement of the Second World War to take place on German soil, the Battle of Berlin would prove to be the desperate last stand of Hitler’s regime; the bloody coda to a war long lost & ultimately the coup de grâce to National Socialism… Seventeen days in the spring of 1945 that would define Europe for decades to come: setting the stage for Cold War confrontation between East and West, and ensuring that Berlin and Germany remain divided for another 45 years.
…Start of the Soviet offensive …Georgy Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front struggles to reach the 2nd German defensive line…the 1st Ukrainian Front push through the left flank of the German 9th Army…Hitler issues a call to arms…
…The second German defensive line at the Seelow Heights is broken…Ivan Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front is given permission to push towards Berlin…An RAF Mosquito raid arrives and attacks Berlin in the evening…
…1st Belorussian reaches the third defensive line of the 9th Army’s preparations …Stalin orders Marshal Rokossovsky to begin his part of the operation, two days ahead of schedule…1st Ukrainian cross the river Spree…a Royal Air Force Mosquito raid hits Berlin from the night of the 18th to 19th…
…Soviets troops break through the final line of Heinrici’s Seelow Heights defenses …German forces attempt to defend Berlin’s eastern approaches…the 1st Belorussian Front threatens to surround the German 9th Army…Royal Air Force Mosquito attack on the city (79 bombers)…
…Adolf Hitler’s birthday…Soviet artillery hits Berlin’s suburbs…execution of Operation Clausewitz…the Berlin Zoo closes…Hitler orders an evacuation of government departments…the Soviets launch a large-scale offensive south of Stettin…the battle of Bernau takes place as the 2nd Guard Tank Army reaches the town…Hermann Göring demolishes his Carinhall residence…Ivan Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front races to Zossen…
…The Red Army reaches Berlin…the Flight of the Golden Pheasants…the German Army Headquarters at Zossen is overrun…Hitler orders SS leader Felix Steiner to carry out a relief attack on Berlin…the evacuation of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp concludes…
…Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is liberated by the Soviet and Polish armies……Ivan Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front arrives in Berlin reaching the Teltow canal near Klein-Machnow…Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian moves into Weissensee and Pankow and crosses the River Havel north of Spandau…Hitler breaks down at his daily briefing in the Führerbunker…the German Army High Command moves to Krampnitz near Potsdam…the Siemensstadt Volkssturm participate in their first firefight…
…The Soviet 3rd Shock Army take Berlin’s northern suburb of Pankow…Stalin’s orders redrawing the lines between the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian come into effect…Ivan Konev learns that his 1st Ukrainian Front may be able to take the Reichstag…Hitler descends into the Führerbunker for the last time…Hermann Göring attempts to take control…
…General Helmuth Weidling assumes control of the Berlin defence forces…Soviet troops cross the Teltow canal…Troops of the 5th Shock Army reach the Berlin S-bahn ring network…the SS Charlemagne arrives in Berlin…the Soviets advance on Spandau aiming to close off Berlin from the west…Theodor Busse’s 9th Army is encircled in the Halbe Pocket…Hitler distributes cyanide capsules to his entourage…
…Soviet troops complete the encirclement of Berlin…Soviets and US forces meet at the Elbe…SS Charlemagne leader, Krukenberg, is appointed commander of Defence Sector C and arrives in Neukölln…the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute is captured…the Karstadt Department Store is destroyed…the Soviet armies attack the Halbe Pocket…Army Group Centre retakes the city of Bautzen…
Tempelhof Airport falls to the Soviets…General Wenck’s forces recapture the Beelitz Hospital…Chuikov’s 8th Guards Army reach the Kreuzberg, the highest point in the city centre…Soviet troops infiltrate the underground train network…Berlin’s telephone system is disconnected from the outside world…
…Soviet tanks appear on Wilhelmstrasse…SS Nordland retreat into the central government district of Defence sector Z…Berlin’s underground train tunnels are flooded..Himmler’s SS adjutant Hermann Fegelein is caught trying to escape…Vasiliy Chuikov moves his headquarter to near Tempelhof Airport…
…Word of Heinrich Himmler’s betrayal reaches Hitler…Himmler’s adjutant, Hermann Fegelein, is executed…Youth Divisions attempt to relieve Berlin from the south-west but are pushed back…Ivan Konev talks to Stalin and is assigned to take Prague…the Soviets arrive at the Moltkebrücke leading to the Reichstag…General Heinrici is relieved of command of Army Group Vistula…Konev is given orders for a new boundary in Berlin…Soviet General Berzarin takes control of Berlin…
…Soviet forces drive into the west of the city and capture the Charlottenburg Palace…Adolf Hitler marries Eva Braun…Hitler dictates and signs his political testament…the 3rd Shock Army crosses the Moltkebrücke and starts its assault on the buildings surrounding the Reichstag…Hitler hears of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini’s execution in Milan…
…The Soviets enter the Reichstag building and raise the flag of the Red Army…General Weidling informs Hitler that the defenders will soon exhaust their ammunition…Hitler gives permission for an attempted breakout…Field Marshall Schörner, still struggling further south of Berlin, is made the last Commander in Chief of the German Army…the Glienicke Brücke is destroyed…Hitler and Eva commit suicide…liberation of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp
…The remnants of the Berlin Defence Area attempt to break out…Joseph Goebbels commits suicide…General Krebs meets Vasily Chuikov to try to negotiate a ceasefire…Stalin is informed of Hitler’s suicide…the Zoologischer Garten is taken…Spandau Citadel surrenders…Hitler’s death is announced to the world…
…General Weidling surrenders with his staff to the Soviets…Weidling orders that the city’s remaining defenders should surrender…the storming of the Reich Chancellery…the Red Army control the Reichstag entirely…the Zoo Flak tower is taken…Soviet artillery stops firing…
Intended to establish the framework for lasting post-war peace it instead ensured the division of Europe for the next 50 years and set the stage for the coming Cold War. To learn more about the first – and final meeting – between the Big Three (Truman, Stalin, Churchill), check out our blow-by-blow coverage of the Potsdam Conference, held near Berlin over seventeen days in the summer of 1945.
In this series of posts we take a day-by-day look back at the Potsdam Conference. Seventeen days in the summer of 1945 that would change the course of human history forever. The first, and last time, that US President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin would meet.
…Stalin Villa, Churchill Villa, and the Little White House…American and British delegations arrive…Soviet Delegation is absent…Churchill and Truman meet for the first time…the Americans and British tour Berlin…the world’s first ever atomic bomb is tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico…
…Truman and Stalin meet for the first time…the first of thirteen plenary sessions is called to order…establishing a Council of Foreign Ministers…first discussion about the future of Italy…confirming each delegation’s agenda for the Conference…the Soviets conclude the day’s first session with a feast…
…Truman and Churchill discuss the atomic bomb over lunch…Stalin hosts Truman at his villa…German borders dominate the second plenary session….Churchill gets ‘wooly and verbose’ over the future of Poland…
…Churchill leaks his private conversation with Stalin…The Big Three address the German Navy…tensions flair on the topic of Spain…Truman hosts a dinner party
…Generals Eisenhower and Bradley visit the Little Whilte House…Truman attends a flag raising ceremony in Berlin…London is chosen as the seat for the Council of Foregin Ministers…the treatment of Italy dominates the fourth plenary session..
…Truman gets a full description of the atomic bomb test from five days before…Poland’s natural resources, refugees and borders are vigorously discussed…Stalin hosts a dinner party for the American and British delegations…
…Churchill has a morning meeting with U.S. Secretary of War Stimson…The Big Three clash over Poland…Germany’s resources are discussed…a debate ensues about Italy’s former colonies…Turkey is alarmed by Soviet presence near its borders…
…finalizing a warning message to Japan…Soviet intentions in the Black Sea…the future of the historic Prussian city of Königsberg is debated…Churchill hosts a dinner party for the American and Soviet forces…
…war strategy in the Pacific…projecting a land war with Japan…The Big Three clash over the future of Eastern Europe at the eight plenary session…Truman informs Stalin of the atomic bomb…
…The Big Three exchange further views on resources, food, and refugees in Poland..the conference is suspended and the British delegation returns to London…
…Truman takes a strip to Frankfurt….understanding Allied zones of occupation…the British elect a new leader…Japan is officially given one final warning to surrender…
…the Soviet’s fiery reaction to Japan’s ultimatum…Byrnes and Molotov clash over reparation…Japan rejects the Potsdam Declaration…
…Truman meets the new British Prime Minister….Stalin opens the tenth plenary session with a statement on Japan reaching out to the Soviet Union…The Big Three discuss reparations and the admission of Italy and the other satellite states into the United Nations.…
…Truman, Molotov and Byrnes discuss reparations and borders off-record…The first signs of progress are made…
…Stalin is still ill…the Foreign Ministers and their advisors meet at Cecilienhof to discuss a loaded agenda…the Allies decide to prosecute Nazi war criminals…
…Truman signs the historic order that gives the use of the atomic bomb to the U.S. military…Stalin is back…the eleventh plenary session begins with settling the value of reparations…The Big Three compromise reparation claims for temporary borders in Poland…
…finalizing the agreements….Nazi war criminals…the Allied Control Council…
…the agreements reached by The Big Three…the legacy of the Potsdam Conference…
In our ‘Mythbusting Berlin’ series we explore some of the most commonly asked – and most controversial – questions about the German capital; and the characters & events that have come to define the city’s unique history. Challenging popular misconceptions and exposing the unusual; the profound; and the strange along the way.
In the second installment in our Mythbusting Berlin series, we examine what is considered by many to be Berlin’s most famous fast food snack and lasting symbol of ingenuity in the face of Cold War shortages: the Currywurst.
Solving the enigma of the ‘Führer’ has become a preoccupation for many, since the arrival of the Austrian-German onto the world stage – although moving beyond the mythology without falling into the trap of prejudically extrapolating on the psychopathography of Hitler or demonising so as to excuse his actions has proven problematic. What to make of the man who became more than the sum of his masks? The painter; the military dilettante, the mass murderer, the teetotaler, the animal lover, the vegetarian, the anti-semite and anti-smoker… but also the drug addict?
One of the more bizarre claims to fame attributed to the first King of Prussia is that the man who would go down in history known as Frederick the Great introduced the potato to Germany during his reign back in the 1700s. This starchy root vegetable has undoubtedly become a staple part of German cuisine – an essential addition to any plate of Schnitzel, Schweinshaxn, and Königsberger Klopse – however, whether Frederick the Great is truly deserving of the additional moniker, Der Kartoffelkönig (the potato king), deserves closer inspection.
Various theories have been posited as to who actually set fire to the German parliament in 1933. Was it the opening act in an attempted Communist coup or a calculated false flag operation carried out by elements of the Nazi Party, intended to create the conditions necessary for introducing single-party rule? And what part did the young man from Holland, arrested shirtless inside the building the night of the fire, play in this event?
It is often said that you can tell a lot about a person by their relationship with animals; that owners often come to look and behave like their pets. Or is it perhaps more that people choose their pets to correspond to their personality? Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s love of dogs, for example, is well documented but what is there to make of his relationship with reptiles?
Unlikely icon of immigrant success; fast food symbol of the working class; over-hyped midnight disco eat; or culturally appropriated cuisine? There is certainly more to a Döner Kebab than its constituent parts. But was it invented in Berlin?
Although Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, certainly remains an inescapable figure, could there be any truth to the story of his escape to Argentina in 1945? That the most wanted man on earth could simply vanish, to spend the rest of his life in peaceful obscurity.
The fruits of wartime ingenuity are plenty – so many, in-fact, that it has become somewhat of a worn cliche that as the guns start firing the innovators get to work, often solving problems while providing more problems for the enemy to overcome.The kind of progress that results in the production of newer improved, more lethal weapons, such as to increase the chances of victory.
On a seasonally crisp night in November 1989, one of the most astonishing events of the 20th century occurred. After twenty eight years, three months, and twenty eight days of defining and dividing the German capital, the Berlin Wall ceased to exist – at least in an abstract sense. Although the removal of this symbol of the failure of the East German system would take some time, its purpose – as a border fortification erected to prevent citizens of the German Democratic Republic from entering West Berlin – was abrogated in an instant. How exactly this happened we will be exploring in the latest addition to our Mythbusting Berlin series…
One of the most common questions I have encountered from people curious about Berlin, and often so cryptically phrased. Who built the Berlin Wall? A simple five-word query, yet one that can be read one of two ways. More than thirty years since the ‘Fall of the Wall’, the story of its construction continues to baffle many who are mainly familiar with its existence through knowledge of its importance…
In our ‘Do You Know Berlin?’ series, we we give you the chance to test your knowledge of the topics we explore on our Berlin Experiences, a great way to prepare for any Berlin visit or just to check your skills against the experts.
The saying that ‘the devil is in the details’ applies to Berlin as much as anywhere else. There is little sense here in simply familiarizing yourself with the city’s landmarks, streets, and squares when you are exploring it. What these places disclose in their minor details is what makes them so fascinating. Our “Explore Berlin In Objects” series offers the chance to learn about the city’s history through its many quirks; the items and objects that make up the city’s orchestra also act as the notes in the greater symphony.
