|
 Memorial to the Murdered Members of the Reichstag - Berlin, Germany
N 52° 31.108 E 013° 22.489
33U E 389727 N 5819947
Honoring 96 members of Germany's last democratically elected parliament who were murdered by the Nazis.
Waymark Code: WM10B6V
Location: Berlin, Germany
Date Posted: 04/05/2019
Views: 12
|
On February 27, 1933, just four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, a fire destroyed the Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament. Hitler's ruling Nazi party used the fire as evidence that the Communists were beginning a plot against the German government. The fire paved the way for the Nazi dictatorship. Only one day after the fire, Hitler received from President Hindenburg the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending all civil liberties in Germany.
In the following weeks, thousands of members of democratic parties were arrested, among them many former members of the parliament. Other former politicians joined the political underground. Many of those were arrested during the Nazi years. The two largest waves of arrests happened directly after the fire, targeting mainly communists and after the failed coup of July 20, 1944.
|
|
In total, between 1933 and 1945, 96 of the 647 members of Germany's last democratic parliament (after the 1933 elections) were murdered by the Nazis.
In 1992, a Memorial to those Members of the Reichstag who resisted the Nazi dictatorship and paid for it with their lives was dedicated in front of the rebuilt Reichstag Building. It consists of 96 cast iron plates, with the names, birth and death dates and places engraved on the edges.
The memorial was designed by German sculptor Dieter Appelt under participation of art students K.W. Eisenlohr, J. Müller and C. Zwirner.
|
|
|
Civil Right Type: Class Equality
|
Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.
|