German Resistance Memorial Center

Inner courtyard of the Bendlerblock

The German Resistance Memorial Center is a memorial and an educational facility to commemorate the entire German resistance against National Socialism , which is located on Berlin's Stauffenbergstrasse in the so-called Bendlerblock (east wing). It is led by Johannes Tuchel and Peter Steinbach . The Federal Ministry of Defense has had its second headquarters right next to the memorial since 1993 .

The other location of the executions in Berlin-Plötzensee is also part of the German Resistance Memorial Center. In addition, the memorial operates a museum in the former workshop for the blind of Weidt in Berlin and supervised by 2017 there also the Silent Heroes Memorial Center , the exhibition is on view since 2018 German at the memorial resistance.

History of the memorial

Statue of Richard Scheibe

Memorial plaque with the names of the officers who were shot

Quote from Ludwig Beck

The memorial was originally founded to commemorate the resistance fighters of July 20, 1944, especially those who died here, Ludwig Beck , Friedrich Olbricht , Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim and Werner von Haeften . On July 20, 1952, the widow of General Friedrich Olbricht, who was murdered on July 21, 1944, laid the foundation stone for the memorial. As part of various initiatives, the memorial was expanded, expanded and redesigned several times. On July 20, 1953, the mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, unveiled the memorial created by the sculptor Richard Scheibe , the bronze figure of a naked young man with his hands tied.

On the 11th anniversary of the commemoration of the resistance of July 20, 1944, Bendlerstrasse (then Bendlerblock) was renamed Stauffenbergstrasse on July 20, 1955 .

A plaque with the names of the officers who had been shot was presented to the public by the mayor of Berlin, Franz Amrehn, on July 20, 1962. The text includes the four people shot dead and Beck, who died shortly before:

Here died for Germany

on July 20, 1944

Colonel General Ludwig Beck

General of the Infantry Friedrich Olbricht

Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim

First Lieutenant Werner von Haeften

The Berlin Senate expanded the memorial in the courtyard to include a memorial and educational site, which was opened on July 20, 1968. The historian Friedrich Zipfel was responsible for the exhibition . The inner courtyard was redesigned in 1980 based on a design by Erich Reusch . Since then, on the wall of the entrance to the inner courtyard, there has been the inscription Here in the former Army High Command, Germans organized the attempt to overthrow the unjust Nazi regime on July 20, 1944. For this they sacrificed their lives.

Since 1983 the memorial has provided comprehensive information about the resistance against National Socialism. The governing mayor of Berlin Richard von Weizsäcker commissioned the fundamental expansion into a memorial and educational site for the entire German resistance against National Socialism. The historian Peter Steinbach developed the new exhibition. It was opened on July 20, 1989. Since then, it has been located in the historic rooms of the events of July 20, 1944.

In connection with the expansion of the memorial, Franz Ludwig Graf von Stauffenberg , a son of the Hitler assassin, criticized the inclusion of the Communists, the National Committee "Free Germany" (NKFD) and the Association of German Officers (BDO) in the permanent exhibition in 1994 . As a result, in July 1994 a group of former resistance fighters and survivors went public with a declaration that it was necessary to depict the entire resistance. The 75 signatories included Freya von Moltke , Rosemarie Reichwein , Franz von Hammerstein , Detlef Graf von Schwerin, Eberhard Bethge , Heinrich Scheel , Hans Coppi , Verena Onken-Trott, Inge Aicher-Scholl as well as Stefan Doernberg and Stefan Heym .

Two further projects resulted in a thematic expansion: the “Silent Heroes” memorial project aims to recall the saviors of the Jews , i.e. helpers for refugees in hiding, and another project is Georg Elser and his assassination attempt on November 8, 1939. This extends the concept of “resistance to National Socialism” in terms of content and personnel. The newly designed permanent exhibition was opened on July 1, 2014.

Fonts

Brigitte Oleschinski : Plötzensee Memorial . 2nd edition, German Resistance Memorial Center, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-926082-05-4 .
Hans-Rainer Sandvoß : Resistance in Berlin from 1933 to 1945 , 14 volumes, Berlin 1983 to 2003, ISBN 3-926082-03-8 .