Monument To The Battle of The Nations - Third Reich, Soviet Occupation, Present

Third Reich, Soviet Occupation, Present

During the Third Reich, Hitler frequently used the monument as a venue for his meetings in Leipzig. When the U.S army captured Leipzig on April 18, 1945, the monument was one of the last strongholds in the city to surrender. One hundred and fifty SS soldiers with ammunition and foodstuffs stored in the structure to last three months dug themselves in, but were blasted with artillery and defeated.

During the period of Communist rule in East Germany, the government of the GDR was unsure whether it should allow the monument to stand, since it was considered to represent the steadfast nationalism of the period of the German Empire. Eventually, it was decided that the monument be allowed to remain, since it represented a battle in which Russian and German soldiers had fought together against a common enemy, and was therefore representative of "Russo-German brotherhood-in-arms" (German: Deutsch-russische Waffenbrüderschaft). In 1956, the opening ceremony of the Gymnastics and Sports Festival took place in the memorial complex, the authorities stated that the monument could be interpreted as a symbol of "long-standing German-Russian friendship" The festival planners focused the spirit of the celebrations on German history, and the ceremony as a symbol of the desired German union.

As of 2012, the monument is under restoration, with work scheduled to be finished by 2013, the year of the two-hundredth anniversary. The Monument of the Battle of Nations is located in the south-east of Leipzig and can be reached by tram lines 15 and 2 (stop: Völkerschlachtdenkmal).