The story of this place
Karl Friedrich Schinkel built this severe neoclassical guardhouse in 1816 to honour the dead of the Napoleonic Wars, and its purpose has been rewritten by every regime since — Weimar memorial, Nazi shrine, Communist 'Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism' with an eternal flame and goose-stepping honour guard. After reunification it was rededicated in 1993 to 'the Victims of War and Tyranny'. At its centre stands an enlarged copy of Käthe Kollwitz's Pietà, a mother cradling her dead son, placed directly beneath a circular opening in the roof. Rain, snow and cold fall on the figure, exposing grief to the elements — a deliberately raw counter to triumphal monuments.