Gedenkkirche Maria Regina Martyrum (Tegel)

As we've already said in Gedenkstätte and the sense of Collective Memory, in Berlin every commynity has found its place to remember their personal stories.

The Memorial Church Maria Regina Martyrum of German Catholics has been built in honor of the martyrs for the faith and freedom of conscience in the years 1933-1945 as a Roman Catholic church in Charlottenburg-Nord.

The church is not so far from the place of execution of Nazi resistants and opponents, the Plötzensee Prison.

The campanile of the church is a landmark at the entrance to the ceremonial courtyard, paved with cobblestone and surrounded by walls covered with slabs of black and grey basalt.

In some days is also possible to visit the crypt and the upper church.

More infos: WIKI

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/5BLMH

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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Schloss Cecilienhof - UNESCO Heritage (Potsdam)

In Potsdam, among the famouse buildings and parks, there is a very special one, less known at tourists, although is very important and historically famous.

Cecilienhof was the last palace built by the Hohenzollern family that ruled Prussia and Germany until 1918 but it is more famous for having been the location of the Potsdam Conference in 1945, in which the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States took important decisions affecting the shape of post WWII Europe and Asia. Cecilienhof has been part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.

The conference was mainly organized by the Soviets. Although the British prime minister Winston Churchill had refused to hold a summit "anywhere within the current Soviet military zone", US President Harry Truman and Soviet leader Josef Stalin had agreed in late May 1945 to meet "near Berlin".

After the conference ended, Soviet troops used the palace as a clubhouse. It was handed over to the state of Brandenburg and in 1952 a memorial for the Conference was set up in the former private chambers of Wilhelm and Cecilie. The government of Eastern Germany also used the palace as a reception venue for state visits. The rest of the complex became a hotel in 1960.

More infos: WIKI
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/V01wj

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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Plötzensee Nazi Prison Memorial (Charlottenburg)

The story of  this prison starts before the Nazi time, in 1868, but we know it for the stories of people at that time, expecially when the penal law was again tightened in WWII and Plötzensee, together with other 10 prisons, became also responsible for the execution of Wehrmacht members according to German military law. The convicts were beheaded by a stationary guillotine, from 1942 also by hanging and the bereaved were obliged to pay for the execution charge of 300 Reichsmarks.

After an RAF air raid in 1943 irreparably damaged the guillotine and destroyed large parts of the prison buildings, 250 people waiting in rows of eight were hanged during the so-called Plötzensee Bloody Nights from 7 to 12 September. The last execution was carried out till April 1945 and the remaining inmates were liberated by the Red Army in the course of the Battle of Berlin.

Onto the execution room a memorial wall was built "To the Victims of Hitler's Dictatorship of the Years 1933–1945". Among the others in this prison died Otto and Elise Hampel, the inspiration for Hans Fallada's 1947 protest novel, "Every Man Dies Alone" (Alone in Berlin).

More info: WIKI

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/8xUyj

See also:

Reichskriegsgericht - Palace of Military Justice of the Third Reich (Charlottenburg)

Old Prussian Prison, now Geschichtspark (Moabit)

"Asoziale" Detention Center at Nazi time (Rummelsburg)

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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The Allied Kommandatura after the WWII (Dahlem)

The Allied Kommandatura was the governing body for the city of Berlin following Germany's defeat in World War II. The victorious allied powers established control of post-war Germany and other territories via shared Military Government councils, including for Berlin. The Kommandatura was often known as the little brother to the Allied Control Council, which had the same function for the whole of Germany, and was subordinate to it. It originally comprised representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union but later included France.

In 1948 The Soviet Union lowered the red flag, removed its files, and the Soviets were gone for good.

The building was formerly the administration building for Public Fire Insurance Carriers in Germany. It was designed by Heinrich Straumer (the same designer and builder of the Funkturm Berlin - full reportage Here), and was built between 1926-1927. Since 1994 it has been used as the office of the President of the Free University of Berlin.

More infos: WIKI

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/UUshv

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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