The Karlshorst building was erected
in 1935 by Nazis to serve as a military college for engineers. The room were
the German surrender was signed in 1945 was previously the officer’s mess hall.
In 1945 the Soviet commander of the forces in Berlin chose Karlshorst because
it was in a location that he could secure. This is because until the Nazi
commanders could give the ceasefire order the city centre was still an active
warzone.
For a
period of time after the war the building was used by the occupational Soviet
forces as a command centre. Afterwards
Karlshorst was used for various reasons until 1967 when a museum devoted to the
German surrender opened. The Soviet museum was solely for the benefit of
members of the Russian or Ukraine army until its closure in 1994. After the
closing of the Soviet museum a decision was made to reopen the museum under the
auspices of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Russian Federation. With
the reopening of the museum its objectives changed also which prompted the
removal of the majority of Soviet pieces. The remaining pieces are used to
document the history of the museum itself and to give a different perspective
of the same subject.
What
impressed me most was the recreation of the room used for the signing of the
German surrender. Another aspect of the museum that I was impressed and fascinated
by was the discussion of the history and circumstance behind the photographs.
Exterior of Karlshorst Museum
1 comment:
I would have to agree with you about the history of the photographs. That was not something that I was expecting to see in this museum. The way that the guide and the museum explained why and how the pictures were taken was interesting. I definitely learned something new here.
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