Memorials of the City of Brandenburg an der Havel
Major memorials and memorial sites in the city of Brandenburg include:
• "euthanasia" memorial
• nine war gravesites
• two Jewish cemeteries
• memorials to the Victims of the Soviet secret service (NKVD) and the Ministry of state Security of the GDR 1945-1989
• anti-fascist memorial 1945-1989
• memorial stones and plaques
There are also a multitude of memorial stones and plaques.
"Euthanasia" Memorial
In 1997 in collaboration with the concerned organizations a "euthanasia" memorial was dedicated on the old penitentiary site near Nikolaiplatz in memory of the thousands of murders of mentally and physically impaired people in the town of Brandenburg.
From January until October 1940 there was an extermination centre with a nerve-gas chamber on the old penitentiary site in Brandenburg an der Havel disguised as a "state care facility”. The Nazis gassed about 9,000 patients because of their physical or mental handicaps.
The substantive work was done by KLIO, the Society of Historical Research. The memorial was renewed in 2003 in collaboration with the Dr. Wilke GmbH.
War Gravesites
- Kirchmöser-Ost Cemetery
- Klein Kreutz community cemetery (war grave)
- Crematorium cemetery
- Görden main cemetery
- Soviet memorial cemetery
- Wusterau Peninsula
- Old Town cemetery
The city of Brandenburg an der Havel currently maintains nine war gravesites located within the city territory.
The care and maintenance of the facilities is only exclusively funded by the state of Brandenburg through the Ministerium des Innern des Landes Brandenburg (Brandenburg state Ministry of the Interior).
War gravesites are subject to regulation under the burial law "graves of victims of war and tyranny."
Jewish Cemeteries in Brandenburg an der Havel
- Jewish cemetery in the Geschwister-Scholl-Strasse
- Jewish cemetery on the grounds of the Asklepios Clinic
Jewish cemeteries are first and foremost cemeteries like any other. In Germany the vast majority come under church or local authority control. Funerals take place here according to relevant customs and existing legal obligations. Cemeteries show some of the most fundamental religious or philosophical beliefs of the population. Jewish cemeteries are valued by visitors as "stone archives”, places of general and regional historical learning, and as authentic memorials. Strictly speaking, the term "former Jewish cemetery" is wrong, because the place never loses its functional purpose.
As usual in Islam and in the past also in Christianity, there is no limit to the burial sanctity for the mortal remains. Even if there is no longer a gravestone or any kind of marking, the burial area remains part of the Jewish cemetery. The Hebrew or Yiddish languages have varying conceptual descriptions related to the Jewish cemetery, such as "House of Eternity", "House of Tombs," "House of Life" or "Good Place".
Memorial to the Victims of the Soviet secret service (NKVD) and of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR 1945-1989
- The seat of the Soviet secret service
- The district office of the Ministry for State Security
- The district court (resistance to the murder of patients and memorial of 17 June 1953)
In 2004 surviving anti-fascist memorials were provided with information tables as part of a signing scheme. The memorials also commemorate the injustices after 1945, meaning both the arbitrary arrests by the Soviet secret service (NKVD) from 1945 and the workings of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR in the city of Brandenburg from 1950 to 1989.
But also the courage of over 15,000 Brandenburgers on the 17 of June 1953 is to be remembered, who demonstrated that day on the streets of Brandenburg against the repressive policies of the SED leaders.
Anti-Fascist Memorial 1945-1989
- Soviet Cenotaph
- Monument to the liberation of the Brandenburg-Görden penitentiary
- Graveyard of civilian casualties
- Jewish cemetery
- Memorial to forced labourers
Anti-fascism provided the SED leaders with a power basis due to the past Nazism, it was therefore necessary for them to always keep the memorials against fascism awake and alert. This depiction of history can still be found in many places.
Memorial Stones and Plaques
There are memorial stones to Karl Marx in the street of the same name, to Johann Gottfried Brosowski in the Krugpark, or to Georgi Dimitrov in the Gördenallee. There are also natural monuments such as the Marienberg with the Leue-memorial, or the park at Walther-Rathenau-Platz with a memorial to Friedrich Karl Grasow (see right).
Plaques for Gertrud Piter at Neuendorferstraße 90, for French deportees in the crematorium cemetery, or the memorial to French railway workers at the main rail station complete the picture.