The „Ferienland Luhme“ is located in the middle of an idyllic lake landscape in northern Brandenburg and offers its guests cozy accommodations at a camping site, in bungalows or in apartments. A nostalgic and historical highlight on the site is the Lenin Square, which features an original street sign from the old Berlin Lenin Square and a portrait of the revolutionary leader. Weiterlesen
Shortly after I posted the photos of a painted Lenin emblem on the former nuclear bunker site, I received a tip regarding a bust of Lenin that used to exist there. In old black and white photos, Lenin’s head can be seen on a black pedestal over two meters high. The monument stands in front of a stylized Soviet flag made of concrete. In the left back you can see the year of construction 1977 on the outer façade of a two- or three-storey building. Weiterlesen
The abandoned airfield in Wittstock an der Dosse presents a contrasting scene: Lenin is standing at the lectern in a Statesmanly pose, but he is covered with fissures and moss. His head is smashed. In the background is a red brick building erected by the Wehrmacht with broken windows and crumbling walls. A time document of the last 100 years of German history in the form of a post-apocalyptic setting. Weiterlesen
Two red stars can still be seen on the rusted gate. It stands wide open and leads nowhere, because the garages and warehouses behind it have been demolished in the meantime. Dismantling and complete renovation in Krampnitz are proceeding rapidly, and all traces of the Soviet Army will probably be erased in the coming months and years. Also the red stars and an already heavily weathered Lenin mural. Weiterlesen
Many Lenin monuments on abandoned Soviet sites are highly endangered. Despite their historical value as authentic contemporary documents of the Soviet Army in Germany, there is usually a lack of people or institutions as well as financial resources to ensure their protection. Therefore, every rescue of such a monument deserves to be celebrated. The last one to be saved is the 3-ton Lenin Stele from Himmelpforter Heide, which is now at the German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst, where it will soon be re-erected. Weiterlesen
In contrast to other Soviet Army sites that today are crumbling apart, the Officers‘ House in Brandenburg an der Havel is in a perfect state of preservation. The association „Jugendkulturfabrik“ is based there and uses the facilities for cultural events. The history of the house and especially the Soviet period is not forgotten, but deliberately emphasized, so that Lenin is also still a present figure. Weiterlesen
When the Soviet Army left East Germany in the early 1990s, a vast network of empty barracks and ghost towns was left behind. There are still traces, leftovers and some mysteries of the Soviets to be found there today. One of these enigmas is the Lenin head, about one meter high, carved into the wall in the abandoned complex in Kummersdorf. Weiterlesen
The hall is dark and has to be lighted with a torch. Now Lenin appears on the back wall in a resolute forward march. Behind him are symbolic buildings and infrastructure of the Soviet Union as well as a waving red flag with a Roman XXVII. Apparently, the mural was created on the occasion of the 27th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which took place in Moscow from 25th February to 6th March 1986. There, the General Secretary of the Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev, introduced the political reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) with which he wanted to modernise the Soviet Union. This process failed and only five years after the announcement of the plans, the USSR disintegrated. Weiterlesen
The Special Weapons Depot in the wooded area near Stolzenhain was once a strategically important facility of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, but after the German reunification the complex was abandoned. The traces left behind give the forest a post-apocalyptic aura today, to which especially the abandoned nuclear bunker contribute. But there are also some Soviet traces left in the barracks area, including a small Lenin mural commemorating the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution. Weiterlesen
In the Rathenau Park, at the southern end of Hennigsdorf, there is a Soviet war cemetery that cannot be overseen. The red stars, especially the big one on the central monument, stand out against the surrounding green and brown tones. Weiterlesen
LENIN IS STILL AROUND 