Lenin looks ahead, but this time it is not the usual victorious look of the revolutionary hero. The portrait bust by the prestigious sculptor Fritz Cremer presents a contemplative, perhaps even worried Lenin. What he is thinking about or worrying about is up to the viewer. Weiterlesen
How Germany’s largest bust of Lenin ended up in the Saxon district town of Pirna three decades after the reunification is one of the many surprising chronicles of German monuments to Lenin. The bronze sculpture, two and a half meters tall, two meters wide and weighing nearly four tons, was erected in 1981 in front of the Kremlin-like Soviet pavilion at the Old Exhibition Center in Leipzig. It is a work of art by sculptor Georgij Neroda and a copy of the world’s largest bust, a bust of Lenin by Neroda in Ulan-Ude, Siberia. It shows Lenin with slightly Asian features and a friendly look. Weiterlesen
In the course of our documentation of all German monuments to Lenin, it became increasingly clear that despite the frenetic destruction of all leftovers from the GDR in the early 1990s, the Soviet revolutionary hero can still be found in the most unexpected places. This is also the case at Seepark Lünen, a 63-hectare green space in the Ruhr region. When the recreation area was created in 1996 as part of the National Garden Exhibition, nine Soviet monuments that had landed in Lünen by chance were also erected. To the present day, they stand there as an unconventional tourist attraction. 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
One of the most surprising chronicles of Lenin monuments in Germany is that of the statue ensemble „Hessendrescher“ in Groß-Gerau. This work by the artist Mario Derra has been standing in front of the historic town hall of this small West-German town since 2007 and shows five figures from the pre-industrial era: three peasants threshing grain and, a little further away, a woman with a child. One of the threshers clearly shows the facial features of Lenin: The leader of the October Revolution holds up the flail and appears relaxed despite the hard work. He probably already suspects that the oppression of the agricultural workers will soon be over. Weiterlesen
Old photos of the Soviet barracks in Möhlau show a relief with a side portrait of Lenin. For years it was thought to have been lost when the Soviet army left, because the remaining stele was blank. But after a quarter of a century of weathering, the top layer of the stele began to peel away and surprisingly, the red colour of the former monument and the outlines of Lenin’s head appeared, although diffuse and blurred. We immediately set out in the hope of restoring the original relief.
Das versteckte Wandbild
Auf dem ehemaligen Flugplatz in Sperenberg (Brandenburg) befindet sich im Inneren eines verlassenen Gebäudes noch ein abblätterndes sowjetisches Wandbild mit Lenin. Es ist selbst für erfahrene Urbex-Erforscher ein schwieriger Fund, denn der Gang zum Raum ist nur durch ein kleines Loch in einer Wand zu erreichen. Aber zuerst muss man in dieser weitläufigen Geisterstadt überhaupt das richtige Gebäude finden. Weiterlesen
Almost exactly 35 years to the day after the last inauguration of a statue of Lenin on German soil (Schwerin, 22.6.1985), a statue of the Soviet revolutionary leader was unveiled in Gelsenkirchen on 20 June 2020. The 1.2-tonne, 2.10-metre-high cast iron sculpture is located in front of the headquarters of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) at the corner of Schmalhorststraße/An der Rennbahn in the district Gelsenkirchen-Horst. Weiterlesen
Die Gemeinde Dallgow-Döberitz liegt südlich von Falkensee, nur wenige Kilometer von Berlin entfernt. Im dortigen sowjetischen Kriegsfriedhof – einer von den vielen hierzulande – liegen 628 im Kampf um Berlin gefallene Soldaten und Offiziere der Roten Armee und einige Armeeangehörige, die nach 1945 auf deutschem Gebiet stationiert waren und hier verstorben sind. Das Ehrenmal entstand unmittelbar nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und steht unter Schutz des deutsch-russischen Kriegsgräberabkommen. Es wurde 2014 gründlich saniert. Weiterlesen
LENIN IS STILL AROUND 