A Few Remains of Nazi Grandeur in Germany

Architecture is possibly one of the disciplines where the ringleaders of the Nazi dictatorship invested most, for it provided a direct mean to display and impose their ‘new aesthetics’ to the German people and to foreign visitors from abroad.

The victory of the Allies in WWII wiped out the Nazi apparatus, but nowhere as in Germany did the new post-war leadership take the  deletion of all traces of the Third Reich so seriously. Even in museums of military history – there is an excellent example in Ingolstadt,  Bavaria, perhaps one of the most beautiful museums on the topic in Europe – there are just a handful of Nazi insignia. Swastikas, Nazi uniforms, weapons and memorabilia can be found to an incredibly greater extent elsewhere in Europe, especially in Britain, or in museums in the US. They are really also abundant in the countless exhibitions about the Great Patriotic War – WWII for Russians – in the former USSR, and generally beyond the Iron Curtain.

Concerning architecture, especially in Berlin many buildings of all ages were totally demolished as a result of US/British air raids, and during the last battle for the city opposite the Red Army. Similarly, the town centers of many larger towns were severely damaged. In the reconstruction process, little care was taken in keeping trace of this dark page of the German history, and the reborn downtown districts assumed in many cases a new face, where 1950-styled buildings shared the stage with medieval cathedrals and public schools from Bismarck’s time – pretty much nothing from the 1930s.

Yet of course some creations of Hitler’s architects have come to these days. Despite the evil ideology behind them, some are remarkable works of art, displaying a clear relationship with functionalism, typically found through various interpretations also in many realizations of great architects of the Thirties, in the US as well as all around western Europe. Examples are those buildings connected with infrastructures, like airport terminals or railway stations – much needed in the post-WWII period, and preferably restored instead of being demolished. More items of this kind survive than possibly of any other from Hitler’s era in todays German cities. A majestic example is the terminal of the now closed Berlin-Tempelhof airport.

Most of the surviving buildings hold a public function – like departments of the government or sport arenas. In a very few cases, buildings strongly connected with the devious ideology of the Third Reich have been preserved – albeit not greatly publicized – as museums. A first notable example is the complex around the Zeppelin Field in Nuremberg, with the unfinished huge congress hall for the conventions of the Nazi Party. A second one is the disturbing ‘spiritual center’ of the infamous SS in Wewelsburg.

This chapter collects a few photographs from these three places. Of course, it is far from a complete review of the architectural heritage of the 1930s and 1940s in Germany. It just provides an insight on a relatively unknown group of relics from Hitler’s era in Germany.

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Sights

Berlin-Tempelhof Airport Terminal

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Possibly the most complete and grandest example of Nazi architecture, the airport terminal of Berlin-Tempelhof is interesting both from an architecture standpoint and for its historical significance. The terminal was designed and built in the late 1930s and completed in 1941, greatly enlarging a preexistent construction.

At that time, nothing comparable existed in the world. The terminal is more than a mile long. It was built with a direct access from the land-side buildings directly to the long side of a narrow hangar on the air-side, which basically ran all along the terminal. Considering the small size of the aircraft of the day, this ‘hangar-terminal’ configuration could be exploited to simultaneously load and unload a high number of flights, with operations taking place directly in, or just outside, of a covered hangar. During WWII, parts of the hangar were used to manufacture military aircraft, exploiting forced laborers from a concentration camp prepared nearby for the purpose.

But the features of the terminal turned also extremely handy during the Berlin blockade of 1948-49, when Stalin tried to force his former western Allies to withdraw from Berlin by cutting off the western sector of the city. The western Allies set up the famous airlift, supplying the western sector with basically everything that was needed for a population in the order of a million, for 15 months! Tempelhof was the major airport in Berlin – the other being the British airbase in Gatow, near Potsdam – and laid in the American zone of the city. Thanks to its peculiar structure, it could manage the immense flow of goods flown in by more than 1’000 flights per day.

In the Cold War years, the airport was operated as a logistic base by the US forces. In the meanwhile, the construction of a larger airport – with a smaller terminal, but longer runways – was started at Tegel, and this was promoted to the main airport of West Berlin for civil air traffic. State flights still were operated in and out of Tempelhof, President Reagan’s Air Force One 27000 notably operating from Tempelhof on a famous state visit in 1982. After the German reunification the airport went on working as a civil airport, but the relatively short runways and noise issues led to its closure in 2008.

Sadly, today this glorious airport has been turned into another city park. It is rather difficult to use it for the scope though, as all the cement and asphalt of the apron, runways and taxiways are still there, there are no trees, and the terminal is an imposing presence on one side. Moreover, it is really a surplus for a city like Berlin, scattered with plenty of beautiful and immense green areas. The terminal building has not yet found a new occupation, and is basically a well-guarded ghost. Plans for reopening it as a convention center are apparently consolidated in 2022, but renovation works are going on still at very low pace.

Most recently, a small but well-designed, mainly pictorial exhibition has been located in the old terminal building, retracing with beautiful historical pictures, technical schemes and essential explanations the history of Tempelhof Airport.

Pictures from the year 2015 – but luckily not much had changed in 2022, the date of my latest visit – show the main building giving access to the terminal on the northwestern corner of the airfield still in a rather good shape. The empty parking ahead of the passenger entrance with nobody around gives a lunar aura to the place.

The neat lines of this part of the building deceive its actual size. From a former visit still in the days of operation – year 2006 – you can notice the roomy check-in hall, right beyond the main entrance.

Close by one of the glass entry doors you can spot a memorial to General Lucius Clay, the American mind behind the Berlin Airlift.

The grand perspective leading to the entrance is really an architectural masterpiece. Also noteworthy is a series of covered passages leading to lateral courtyards to the sides. These service passages are not visible when approaching the terminal from the distance, preserving the general sense of order without renouncing to the functionality of the construction.

There are two surviving marble eagles from Hitler’s time, on the front walls of the buildings to the sides of the main perspective.

The eagle head ahead of the parking is from the eagle sculpture originally standing on top of the main façade in Hitler’s times. That eagle was taken away after the capture of the city and the end of the war. The head went to the Army Academy in West Point, NY as a spoil of war, and was returned after the German reunification.

Moving along the wings of the building you can appreciate the size of the construction, really uncommon for Europe in the Thirties. The quality of all materials is also really striking. Their cost must have been really high.

To the extreme northeastern tip of the building you can spot some former radio installations, likely connected with air traffic control or military operations. From there you can get access to the former air side of the airport. At the time when the pictures were taken it was possible to walk around freely, but unfortunately not close to the hangar. Most recently, a branch of the Allied Museum in Berlin has taken responsibility for a preservation effort, and is keeping the place off-limits, opening it to the public on rare guided visits in German only – but I could not join in any of them.

There is also a historical propliner ahead of the iconic ‘Berlin Tempelhof’ sign on top of the hangar. Anyway, walking on the apron and runways produces a ‘history was made here’ feeling, and it is worth trying! Again, a few shots from the days of operation show the hangar from inside the terminal building. Historical pictures from local panels show the use of the hangar for the production of aircraft and technical parts.

As said, a recent exhibition of special interest for getting an accurate historical perspective, retraces the timeline of the airfield, since its pre-Third Reich era, through the colossal redesign in the shape we see today carried out in Hitler’s time, and down to the Cold War era, when Tempelhof had a crucial role in the Berlin Airlift, and was operated for long as a regular city airport.

Remarkably, in April 1945 the airfield fell in Soviet hands – since the Soviet Army conquered Berlin – and was later ceded to the US, following the Potsdam agreements in July 1945, which split the capital of the Third Reich in four sectors. It is likely Stalin regretted his own ‘fair-play’ concerning Tempelhof at the time of the Airlift, just a few years later…

A picture portraying general Keitel, in custody, arriving at Tempelhof to sign the instrument of surrender in the Soviet headquarters (see here) together with other top-ranking Nazi officers, shows a Lisunov Li-2 in the background. This was the licensed Soviet copy of the Douglas C-47. Also interesting the demolished German fighters found on sight by the conquerors.

The US, having taken control of the field, organized open-days for the general public once per year – reportedly, mostly appreciated by the local population.

Actually, the years corresponding to the sealing of the Inner Border (see here), from the Berlin crisis of 1961 (which saw the construction of the Berlin Wall) until specific accords partially reopening the land borders especially to Westerners in the early 1970s, were those of the most intense activity for Tempelhof – reaching West Berlin was more convenient by flight. But soon after, the better infrastructure of Tegel, with longer runways and less surrounded by high-rise buildings, took over most of the airline connections to Berlin. Tempelhof went on hosting state flights, general aviation flights, and commercial flights to a lower scale. There was also a permanent presence of US Army forces.

Evoking pictures include one with Willy Brandt greeting general Clay, and much later, President Reagan and the First Lady on a state visit in 1987. In another, you see one of the former Third Reich top-ranking staff Albert Speer – who also contributed to the design of Tempelhof – leaving for Western Germany by flight, following release after serving a long sentence in the prison of Spandau. He had been sentenced in Nürnberg.

The closure on grounds of noise issues, as noted, left the infrastructure unused for some years. Plans for re-opening as a convention/exhibition centers have been prepared as of 2022, and partial updating works are being carried out.

Getting there and moving around

The former airport is not far from downtown Berlin, around 3 miles south from the Brandenburg Gate in the former western sector of the city. Access to the terminal is from Tempelhofer Damm. Parking is possible along this major alley, or on the many roads around the airport – parking is rarely a problem in Berlin. Be ready to walk though, as usual when touring an airport.

Access possible also with public means of transportation. The front terminal can be easily reached from the U6 stops ‘Platz der Luftbrucke’ or ‘Bhf Paradestrasse’. Access from the east is easier from the U8 stops ‘Boddinstrasse’ or ‘Leinenstrasse’. There is finally an S-bahn station on the southwestern corner of the airfield – ‘Bahnhof Tempelhof’ – where U6 meets with several S-bahn lines.

My last visit to the place dates back to 2022, and as the area was undergoing renovation with a consolidated plan for changing its role and shape – and some works having started in the southernmost part of the terminal building.

Anyway, at the time of this visit the terminal was closed to the public, with limited chances to visit inside on guided tours. The only chance to access the terminal is for the small – yet totally recommended – photo exhibition. The latter can be reached to the left of the main facade of the terminal building. Website with contacts and timetables here.

Touring the exterior is possible on your own, and there are also a few descriptive panels along the perimeter. There are multiple entrances to the former air side, which is a public park with many people around.

Nazi Party Rally Grounds, Nuremberg

Nuremberg is an ancient imperial city in the heart of Germany, taken over as the symbolic capital of the ‘new kingdom’ by the theorists of the Nazi doctrine, due to its historical significance in German history. This town became the focal point of Hitler-led Nazi Party (NSDAP is the acronym of the party name in German language) well before the fateful general elections of 1933, when Hitler was elected chancellor of the German Republic. Among the activities of the NSDAP since the Twenties was a yearly rally, where for a few days all sections of the party met in Nuremberg for a series of group activities, including political speeches, commemoration of the fallen soldiers of the German wars, sport, camping, dining, etc.

In the years preceding Hitler’s raise to power, these rallies took place in the Luitpoldhain Park, to the southeast of the town center. The park had at its center the Hall of Honor, a memorial to the soldiers of German Wars, erected at the end of the Twenties. Today, leaving behind some construction works carried out by the NSDAP in the 1930s – including a massive Luitpold Hall and a tribune, today completely demolished – the place has regained its commemorative function, and is still used as a nice and sober city park. Yet historical photographs of Hitler celebrating the fallen German comrades ahead of the very monument you can see today produce a strange feeling.

In the years of the dictatorship, the rallies turned into a megalomaniac ostentation of power, with hundreds of thousands participating in the reunions. Correspondingly, the area involved in these parades was greatly enlarged, and a plan was made to realize a group of dedicated buildings.

The most famous of them, thanks to the historical movies of the parades recorded at the time, is the Zeppelin Field. This was a parade ground designed from scratch by Nazi architects. The white tribune with the huge swastika on top, in the background of an immense, perfectly ordered and disciplined public, crowding the arena and listening to the voice of the Führer, is one of the permanent symbols of the Third Reich monstrous machine. Actually, the same tribune is the subject of another very famous movie, where the swastika is blown up with dynamite after the capture of the city of Nuremberg by US troops, marking the end of the Nazi rule in Germany.

The tribune and the constructions along the perimeter of the Zeppelin Field underwent major post-war deconstruction works, as the area came to host a car racing circuit and later a rather minimal sporting ground. What remains of the building is still rather massive, yet the top colonnade is gone, and as of 2016 the place looked little guarded and partly abandoned – eventually making it even grimmer! You can be on the exact podium where Hitler stood in his golden days admiring his evil creation.

The final and most prominent part of the plan is the congress hall of the NSDAP. Like most of the gigantic construction project for the area, this building was never completed, yet it reached a rather advanced state of completion. It is a U-shaped, three floors building, clearly inspired to the ancient Roman architecture. It should have been the building for the congresses of the NSDAP.

Today, this is the only preserved building of the complex, and hosts an extremely interesting museum and documentation center on the history of the Nazi Party and of the rallies. Really an interesting insight in the aesthetics of Hitler’s era and in the strange history of this strange political movement, which has been instrumental in shaping the face of todays Europe – and possibly of the world. Surely worth visiting.

A somewhat off-topic note, yet fitting in this chapter, concerns the hall of the Nuremberg Trials. These post-war trials were held in Nuremberg soon after the end of the war, mainly because of the significance this city had gained for the NSDAP. The courthouse, used as such also under the Nazi dictatorship, survived the war rather undamaged. Today, it is home to the Memorium, a very interesting museum documenting the trials from an anecdotal perspective, as well as from a more elevated viewpoint, describing its significance for international law – it was the first time an international conflict ended up in a trial.

Besides the museum, which is mainly centered on panels and photographs, you can see the famous Courtroom 600, where the trials took place. This was a bit altered since the years of the trials, yet some peculiar features, like the artistic doors, are exactly those you can see in the famous video recordings from the time.

Getting there and moving around

The area of the NSDAP rallies can be found about 2.5 miles southeast of the historical district of Nuremberg, Bavaria. It can be conveniently reached by car, or with public transport. Tramway line 8 departs the central railway station and has several stops in the area of interest. The S-bahn station ‘Nurnberg-Dutzenteich’ is 0.3 miles from the congress hall.

Today the area is mainly green, with much room for relaxing with a good walk. There are some explanatory panels with maps outlining the scheme of the Nazi master plan, including the buildings which were actually erected, those which were later demolished, and those which were just planned.

The centerpiece is the museum ‘Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände’, in the unfinished congress hall. Despite the distance from downtown Nuremberg, this is a major attraction for foreign visitors, hence the museum is prepared for large crowds. Visiting is possible with an audio-guide in many languages, and it is really worth the time and price. Website here.

The Memorium Nuremberg Trials, is hosted in a still active section of the Courthouse and is conveniently reachable by car of with the U-bahn U1, stop ‘Bärenschanze’, about 1 mile west of the historical town center. It can be visited on a self-guided basis, with audio-guides in many languages. This exhibition is really well designed and very interesting, and may take a couple of hours for a complete exploration. Yet due to the relative absence of tangible ‘hardware’ it may turn out unbearable for smaller children. Website here.

Spiritual Headquarter of the SS, Wewelsburg

The castle of Wewelsburg is connected to one of the most obscure aspects of the Nazi ideology – magic practices. The castle was founded centuries before the advent of the Nazis. Soon after the rise to power of the NSDAP, the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler got fascinated by the triangular perimeter of the castle, which appears to point towards the North. This is nothing special for a normal mind, but the SS  were the treasurers of the German race culture, and they were trying all the time to establish a solid link between basically themselves and the ancient settlers of Greenland – the Thule people – described in some legends as the most ancient northern population. This was instrumental in sustaining that the world belonged to the SS, which had been there since before everyone else.

This apparently silly idea represented for this group of fanatics a sufficient motivation to trigger a world war, were they saw themselves as the leaders of a liberation movement, regaining a rightful control over Europe (just to start) to the German race, after centuries of undue occupation by other races.

Wewelsburg gained more and more importance as the Nazis started preparing for war. The northern tower of the castle was declared the center of the world, and the heart of the SS soul. The School of Wewelsburg represented the spiritual leadership of this military organization, which enjoyed a surprising independence – and an extensive budget – even in the suffocating bureaucratic apparatus of Hitler’s political dictatorship. As such, Wewelsburg came in the middle of a visionary master plan, where it had to be at the center of a circular construction with a radius of 1 kilometer. Construction works started on this project, satellite concentration camps for forced laborers being opened on site for the purpose. The work did not develop much though, due to the intervening war events and things evolving differently from the Nazi plans.

The castle underwent some modifications under the SS. It was generally refurbished to host regular reunions of the comrades of the School of Wewelsburg, with SS-themed furniture which can be seen in the local museum devoted to this incredible story.

Furthermore, the northern tower was largely modified inside, with two round rooms appearing one above the other on two levels. The top one was completed as the ‘Room of the Black Sun’. It is centered on a mosaic pavement with a swastika motif. A disk made of pure gold, disappeared after the war, represented the sun in the center of the pavement, and marked the very center of the world.

The bottom room is basically a crypt, receiving little light from the outside, and resembling a chapel. At the center of the room you can find a basin like in a baptistery. All around there are little stands, possibly provisions for thrones. On top of the vault, just beneath the sun in the top room, there is a rare stone sculpture of a swastika.

The real use of these rooms is rather mysterious. It seems likely that Himmler with the School of Wewelsburg wanted to create a kind of ‘elite of the elite’ in the SS. The crypt might have been a place for ritual initiation ceremonies, and the top hall a kind of meeting area for the group. Selected officials and intellectuals of the SS met regularly in Wewelsburg, but basically no documentation exists of the content of these meetings. Yet the well-known mental inclination and conviction of the components of the group, the symbolic significance of the Wewelsburg site for these people and the temple-like setup of the northern tower suggest some sort of esoteric ritual might have taken place here.

The area reportedly fell into disrepair soon after WWII, and even worse, conceived by some as the shrine of the still alive ‘spirit of the SS’, it rapidly became the stage of black masses, magic practices and satanic rites. To contain the drift, the top hall was turned into a Christian chapel and an altar was put in place. This was later removed when castle opened as a museum on local history, a youth hostel and more recently as part of a very interesting museum and documentation center about the SS.

Getting there and moving around

The castle of Wewelsburg is located on top of a cliff in the homonym village, about 8 miles southwest of the medieval town of Paderborn, immersed in a beautiful north-German landscape. It appears to be about 2 miles south of the Paderborn-Lippe local airport. The castle can be conveniently reached by car, parking available nearby the entrance.

There are several exhibitions, including a museum about the ancient history of the castle, a documentation center and museum on the SS, which provides access to the Northern Tower and its mystery rooms, and a space for temporary exhibitions – at the time of my visit, there was one on the racial aspects of Nazi ideology. All museum are very modern and extremely interesting. There is also a hostel right inside the castle.

The site is really interesting to visit and a good destination for a nice half-day trip for everyone. Yet despite the nice panorama and the pleasant 16th century architecture, the association of the castle with dark activities in the dark years of Himmler and the SS makes this castle mysterious and somewhat grim, adding to the experience.

Minsk – A Soviet Capital of the New Millennium

Belarus is exceptional in the panorama of post-soviet countries. Maybe thanks to its geographical location, next to the heart of Europe yet in the closest vicinity of todays Russian Federation, this large piece of almost flat and fertile land is the contact point of two civilizations and ways of life – Russia and core Europe – which merge here in an inexplicable harmony. And this is perfectly reflected in the appearance of its unique capital town – Minsk.

If you have never been there but you are not new to former-communist countries in Europe, what you might expect from the capital of very little-mentioned Belarus, a republic once in the realm of the USSR, is a chaotic town, full of rotting, stripped buildings built with the huge volumes typical to the peripheral areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg, old and smoky Ladas and Chaikas rumbling along rough roads full of puddles, like ten years ago in Sofia or Bucharest (see for instance this chapter). Once there, you will soon understand the picture is really different.

The impression is that of a rich country, with infrastructures right at the level or even above those of western Europe, large and paved roads, modern cars, gas stations everywhere, freshly painted buildings, leveled walkways, colored lights and nightlife.

Of course, the soviet grand architecture is all there. Actually, since Minsk was totally destroyed in 1944, in a fierce battle between the Red Army and the slowly retreating German Wehrmacht – an episode which gained the town the high honor of ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’, still eagerly displayed today – after the war was over, a master-plan for the reconstruction in a perfect Stalinist style was put in place. As a result, Minsk is a rare – perhaps unique – example of a Soviet model-capital from the early Cold War era, when the USSR ruled by Stalin had just triumphed on the stage of a world conflict, and it was setting about to keep up its hold on all eastern Europe. In this sense, at least for a westerner Minsk looks today a town more soviet than others in Russia.

Another element you perceive clearly, not so typical to bigger and way more populated metropolitan areas in the nations of eastern Europe and even in Russia, is a strong sense of order. Nightlife is quiet and not bombastic, cars move around at moderate speed and without creating jams, everything is very clean and calm. Minsk is both busy and quiet, thriving and disciplined – maybe this is just how a soviet capital should have looked like? Belarus suggests how the Soviet Union might have evolved in our days, had it survived its own social and economic failure.

Still today the strong ties with the Russian Federation help feeding the economy on the one hand, but on the other make entering this country a complicated business, like the case is for Russia – anticipated invitations, visas, stringent time frame limitations, … All these rules are gradually being lifted, but the country remains oriented mainly towards its huge eastern neighbor – something you see confirmed looking at the airport timetable in Minsk, from where you can fly to anywhere in Russia, but almost nowhere in Europe. While possibly difficult to deal with, all these controls and bureaucracy help preserving some ‘soviet aura’, which may add to an uncommon travel experience.

This post presents some photographs from central Belarus, taken during a visit to Minsk and some neighbor sites – conveniently reached with a car in less than two hours – in spring 2018.

Map and Visiting

The majority of the sites listed on this chapter can be reached with a relatively short walk from whatever hotel in the city center. Nonetheless, the city is not small and some perspectives are really broad and long. For a more relaxed visit as well as for reaching Khatyn and the Stalin’s Line a car is highly recommended.

Entering the country with a car can be a nightmare, but flying into Minsk and renting a car is indeed possible – I landed in Minsk from Kiev in the Ukraine, and got my car from Avis. Differently from most former countries of the Eastern Bloc, roads are well in line with the highest European standard. Gas stations are abundant, and they accept credit cards. Plus traffic is really well-disciplined, totally different from the Balkan states or even Russia. Parking is generally not a problem, so hop-on/hop-off from your car allows for a time-saving, very effective way of moving in downtown Minsk.

Of course, if you are not planning to go beyond the city limits, you may choose to move around with the public transport system, with a fairly extensive network. Generally speaking, everything is like in the western world from the viewpoint of services, most top-tier western hotels are represented, there are shopping malls with international brands, and so on.

Minsk and its surroundings are unrealistically ordered, you feel perfectly safe both day and night – totally to the other end of the spectrum, compared to other post-soviet cities in eastern Europe.

I spent three full days visiting Minsk and its surroundings, including some historical sites not covered in this chapter, located farther west in the country. I would say this is a good compromise for getting a decent insight of this city.

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Sights in Minsk

Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi – World’s longest boulevard

The backbone of the Stalinist architectural master-plan put in place in Minsk is a multi-miles boulevard called Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi, the longest boulevard in the world at least in Minsk’s tradition, cutting through the most monumental districts and connecting the executive airport to the southwest of downtown to the eastern peripheral belt of the city. The end of the boulevard to the east is not evident, for at some point it changes into a highway, leaving Minsk behind, heading for Smolensk and Moscow.

If you are coming in town from the main airport, located well out of the urban area to the southeast, you are likely to be driven along the full length of this boulevard – with its unpronounceable name.

Along this boulevard, or very close to it, you will meet the majority of the sights described in this chapter.

You may get a really striking impression from this boulevard visiting at night, for every building along it is lighted. The pictures below give some examples.

Independence Square

Locating the actual focal point in the center of Minsk is not easy, but a choice may be Independence Square, once Lenin’s Square – as the name of the underground station recalls. This may be also a trail-head for your tour of the town.

This long and narrow square hides an underground shopping mall. The crystal cupolas on the ground are a distinctive feature of the square. The central monument is centered on the stork as a subject. This bird is not uncommon in this part of Europe, and is the national bird of Belarus.

Around the square you can find some notable buildings. On the northern side is the Roman Catholic church of Saint Simon and Saint Helena, dating from the beginning of the 20th century, and closed for the long decades of the communist dictatorship.

In the northwest corner it is impossible to miss the huge Palace of the Government, with a prominent statue of Lenin. Similar to Russia, the father of pragmatic communism and of the Soviet Union is still kept in high respect.

Continuing around the square, the tallest building to the west and the adjoining facades on the southern side are all part of the Belorussian State University. To the southeastern corner you can spot an office of the Department of Justice.

Central Post Office

Leaving the square along Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi to the east, a first distinctive building is the central post office. The hammer and sickle emblem is still proudly standing on top of the eclectic, soviet-classicism façade. You can find also an interesting clock, looking like a gigantic copy of a vintage radio alarm from the 1960s.

Inside, the small cupola covers a fully functional post office, where also many items of philatelic interest from the Eastern Bloc can be found (they accept credit cards).

Stately apartment and office buildings can be found on both sides of the boulevard as you walk east.

KGB Headquarters

Yes, the name is correct. It is not an exaggeration. Differently from the Russian Federation, the Belorussian government did not change the name of the world-famous State’s security service since the time of the USSR. The huge building of the headquarters is clearly the same. The façade looks impenetrable and grim.

The shield and sword emblem is still prominently standing on the wooden front door.

The ‘soviet aura’ around here couldn’t be more intense. This building is really magnetic, a living witness of a bygone era.

Cross the street, where a nice boulevard – with the very Soviet name of Komsomolskaya Ulitsa – takes to the south going slightly downhill, you can even spot a bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Bolshevik, Lenin’s friend, revolutionary, and founder of the Cheka – the revolutionary executive repression service, years later to evolve in the KGB.

Dzerzhinsky was the armed hand of Lenin, and due to its clear and heavy responsibility in the killing of many of the early victims of the October Revolution, he was put aside even in Russia, his statue being reportedly removed from ahead the Lubjanka, the KGB headquarter in Moscow. The same did not happen in Minsk, possibly because the man was from a noble family from around here.

Crossing with Ulitsa Lenina

Moving on, you will find more buildings with nice soviet-themed friezes and decorations, including the building of the Central Bank of Belarus.

The crossing with Ulitsa Lenina – not unexpectedly – is another focal point of the architectural master-plan. Clearly, here is McDonald’s – probably the neatest in the world!

One block to the south from this crossing along Ulitsa Lenina, you can find a house with tons of marble commemorative tablets on the front, where many notable people have lived. They include Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Kastrycnickaya Square

Taking again Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi and going west, you soon find to the north of the road a huge square – Kastrycnickaya Square – with the modern-soviet building of the Palace of the Republic right in the middle. This building was designed in the 1980s and partly built under soviet leadership. Following the collapse of the USSR, construction was halted for years, and the building was completed only in the late Nineties. It is basically an auditorium for artistic performances, conventions and public governmental meetings as well.

To the eastern side of the square the Labor Union Palace of Culture is a great example of soviet classicism, with sculptures adorning the façade and corners of the greek-temple-like building.

Presidential Palace

Cross the road there is a garden going gently uphill. There is no car access to the eastern side of the garden, and you can spot the stately, grim front of a building of the Armed Forces – once the Soviet Red Army. Today this is mainly a representative building, featuring also a theater. On the southern side of the park you can find the Presidential Palace, a pure soviet-style monster occupying the majority of the block. You will see policemen discreetly keeping a watch on the area.

There are other smaller government-connected buildings around, some with soviet insignia. On a corner of the park there is the Yanka Kupala National Academic Theatre, which for the location and style may be one of the few remains of pre-soviet Minsk in the area.

Television Center and Lee Harvey Oswald’s Home

Again on Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi, the road goes downhill and crosses a small waterway. The area is really nice, and looking northeast from the bridge you can spot the Television Center, with a distinctive tower made of iron beams and likely dating from soviet times.

Getting close to the center, you see the building right ahead of the tower, still today hosting a TV channel, is just another Soviet neoclassical building, still part of the Stalinist master-plan.

The nice apartment building to the the southern side of the TV channel headquarters has some historical significance, since it was there that Lee Harvey Oswald used to live when he spent some years in the Soviet Union in the Fifties.

Much has been said about the intricate plot leading to the shooting of President Kennedy, and the actual part of Oswald will probably remain largely unknown (see this post). Especially his relationships with the USSR are shrouded in mystery, but looking at the building – stately and very nice even for todays standard – the idea that Oswald could live there while being a poor, anonymous worker in a soviet factory does not seem very credible.

House of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

This small and modest house belonging to the pre-soviet era was until the end of the USSR a pilgrimage destination from all over the Union. It was here that the embryo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, namely the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, held its first congress. This happened back in 1898, and the reportedly largely unsuccessful meeting was held in secrecy among only a few notable political figures, known as troublemakers to the government of the Tzar.

Besides the political-historical interest, the small museum offers interesting memorabilia and furniture from the late Tzar’s era. This house was visited also by communist dictators and dignitaries from around the world, including Nikita Khruschev, Walter Ulbricht and Fidel Castro, whose visits are witnessed by signed documents and photographs.

Victory Monument

Going back to Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi and proceeding slightly farther east, you immediately find an oval square, with an eternal flame and a tall obelisk in the middle. This is the Soviet Victory Monument, celebrating the triumphal march of the Red Army against the invading forces of Nazi Germany. Passing under German control soon after the invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Minsk was hit with extreme violence by the maneuvers of both contending armies three years later, in a crucial battle which opened the Red Army the gate to the last rush through Poland to Berlin. The town was besieged by the Red Army, and as a result of the heavy fighting it was almost leveled when the front line moved west.

The monument celebrates without excesses the sacrifice of many soldiers and civilians in the struggle. Minsk and a handful of other Soviet towns – Stalingrad, Kursk and Murmansk, to name a few – were later decorated with the title of City Hero of the Soviet Union. These towns, which were the stage of as many fierce battles, are remembered here with stones bearing their names.

The monument is particularly striking at night, thanks to the eternal flame ahead of it and the accurate lighting of the buildings nearby making for a nice scenery.

Yakuba Kolasa Square

Further east along the Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi buildings start to look more average, but there are also more nice examples of soviet architecture. You soon meet the Yakuba Kolasa square, with a the philharmonic theater and other office buildings presumably from Stalin’s time or a little later.

National Library of Belarus

Closer to the eastern border of Minsk, where big apartment buildings from soviet times as well as more modern ones frame the road, you can find one of the most prominent modern buildings of Belarus, the state’s National Library, dating from 2006. The large glass volume over the main building is nicely lighted at night, but unfortunately I could not get a picture.

Close to this point, the long Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi changes into the M2 highway, leaving Minsk to the east.

Mound of Glory

An incredible Soviet relic lies about ten miles along the M2, right on the interchange with the road leading to the main airport of Minsk a few miles south. This monument is a further celebration of the victorious battle of 1944 against Germany.

It is built in the form of a mound with an assembly of four bayonets on top, representing the cooperation of various armies and local partisans, and a victory crown with the faces of representatives of the branches of the army and of soviet society. The monument is really soviet in style, and while not necessarily esthetically pleasant, is not excessively bombastic either.

The monument on top of the mound can be reached with a flight of stairs. From there you can enjoy a 360° view of the hilly and relaxing countryside around.

The monument is lighted at night, but I could not take a picture at that time.

Belorussian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War

This fantastic museum alone may easily justify a trip to Minsk! It is hosted in a building prepared on purpose, overlooking a huge green area in the city center. At the base of the hill you can spot a kind of triumphal arch, presumably built with the main building itself and forming an interesting ensemble.

The always growing collection relocated from a previous venue, where it had been opened to the public back in 1944, before the war had ended! By the way, the Great Patriotic War is WWII in the Soviet/Russian culture. Website here.

The collection is really huge, with rooms devoted to the many major battles fought by the Red Army in WWII. There are tons of memorabilia, including a very good collection of light weapons, and even a few larger crafts – tanks, aircraft, Katyusha rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns, field cannons, …

Similar to other museums in the USSR, it is packed with material from Nazi Germany, which by comparison cannot be found in Germany, nor in this measure in western Europe or the US. Among the countless items, you can find also display cases devoted to soviet war spies in the west, modern dioramas and uniforms from the time.

On the top floor there is a large modern commemorative installation, with the names of fallen soldiers, and hammer and sickle insignia. This installation is recent – or recently refurbished – so the presence of abundant Soviet symbolism produces a strange ‘dystopia effect’.

Outside, on top of the building you can find a further monument, with an obelisk, some sculptures, and a Red Banner waving above the cupola. Behind, there is a Lisunov Li-2, a licensed  USSR-built Douglas C-47.

Minsk hosts an excellent aviation-themed museum, centered on warplanes and transport aircraft from the soviet era. This is covered in this dedicated chapter.

Palace of Independence

This palace not far to the back from the Museum of the Great Patriotic War is apparently another building of the Government or where the president lives – not very clear. On the rare occasions when Belarus is mentioned internationally, this is what appears on TV. It is very big and carefully watched, so the only pictures I could get were from cross the road.

Zamcyska District

This central district is located roughly between the KGB building and the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. It features a large and nice pond in the middle. Here some of the few remaining notable buildings from pre-soviet age in Minsk can be found. The main group is composed of a handful of churches making for a nice sight on a low hill to the south of the pond.

There are an Orthodox and two Catholic churches, surrounding the old city hall. The area is really nice to tour, and at night it is very lively and fully lighted.

Close by, the Trinity Hill displays some rebuilt or refurbished buildings from the 18th century or earlier, giving an idea of how Minsk would have looked had it not been totally destroyed. Also this district is very picturesque at night, definitely a nice place for a relaxed stroll.

To the far end of the pond you can spot an unimaginable residential building, with a façade roughly as long as an airport, made a little more digestible when lighted at night.

In the same area there are a large soviet-themed metallic sculpture on the front of a building, and multiple huge banners in neon lights with celebration exclamations and slogans.

…More!

The city is full of majestic perspectives and interesting buildings. One of them is the totally ‘Stalin’s gothic’ Gate of Minsk, right behind the central railway station. It is composed of two bulky towers, with the façade adorned in a way resembling Kutuzovsky Alley in Moscow, or Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin, two eminent examples of this style. See this chapter for more examples of this iconic architecture.

There are also churches dating back to before the USSR era, or rebuilt after it. One of them is quite central, and surrounded by an Orthodox cemetery still used today.

To the west, the peripheral belt has been built functionally, with large infrastructures but also very big – let’s say, excessively big! – apartment buildings, in a style which is typical to post-soviet countries. Yet, as previously observed, even these areas do not look degraded, but on the contrary rather well looked after and actively maintained.

Sights around Minsk

Khatyn

Much confusion exists about this location, which is actually where the forces of Nazi Germany burned an entire village with its occupants back in 1943. By chance – or may be not – in a place with the same name but some 100 miles to the east in Russian territory the NKVD (later to evolve in the KGB) by direct order of Stalin had deported and mass executed a substantial quota of the officials of the Polish Army – in the order of the thousands – in 1940. The responsibility for this tragedy was fully recognized by Russia only after the end of the USSR.

The memorial in (Belorussian) Khatyn is a celebration monument made in the 1960s to remember the local tragedy with typical soviet pomp, with statues, stonewall retracing the area of the village and stones with inscriptions.

There are also bells producing a sad rhythmical tone. The place stands as a memorial of all similar horrible episodes for which the Nazis are responsible.

This location is very popular since the Cold War years, and it still attracts many visitors from Belarus and nearby Russia these days. There is also a very small indoor museum, which I had not the chance to visit.

Stalin’s Line History and Heritage Museum

Similar to other countries in the inter-war period – for instance, France and Czechoslovakia – the Soviet Union invested in the preparation of a long defensive line, to fortify the western border against an invasion from central Europe. The name of the USSR’s defensive line, which passed close to Minsk, was ‘Stalin’s Line’.

This was composed of a backbone of reinforced concrete bunkers, with a capability to withstand fire from the tanks of the enemy’s armored divisions. In these bunkers, often prepared in groups of interconnected pillboxes, anti-tank cannons and machine guns were installed for effectively counteract an invasion.

The strongholds of the line were surrounded by various obstacles, including anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire traps and so on.

Construction of the Stalin’s Line was interrupted after the Ribbentrov-Molotov agreement between the USSR and Hitler’s Germany in 1939. The unfinished line turned little effective in containing the surprise aggression by the Wehrmacht in 1941, when the country fell under German controls.

Nonetheless, parts of this line are duly preserved as monuments. The Stalin’s Line History and Heritage Museum is centered on one such fort, which can be visited thoroughly. The inside of most of the bunkers have been restored to a mint condition, and are really interesting to visit.

The size of the rooms in the bunkers is generally smaller than the French, Czechoslovakian or Finnish counterparts. All bunkers are painted in a camo coating.

The museum presents also a reproduction of the border line with the Soviet Union, with a watchtower, anti-penetration barriers and green-red posts with the emblem of the USSR. In the same area, a collection of turrets from more countries is displayed.

A second, very large part of the museum is composed of a world’s class collection of weapons, dating from various ages from WWII and the Cold War, and providing an insight on the USSR’s warfare capabilities.

On a first apron there are field cannons, motorized cannons, rocket-launchers and armored vehicles. Close by, you can try shooting with a machine gun or even an anti-tank cannon! This unique feature of the museum makes it very lively, for you are often distracted by the loud bang of a firing weapon!

In another area you can spot a group of soviet aircraft and helicopters, a steam locomotive, and a full array of prefabricated structures, intended to be buried to form bunkers with various purposes – missile storage, interred barracks, … These are extremely interesting, as you can see here the actual shape of the items often found elsewhere in the former Eastern Bloc, typically in abandoned bases covered in other chapters (see for instance this chapter).

Furthermore, there are both tactical and strategic missiles with their launching and monitoring equipment. Of particular interest is the SS-4 ‘Stiletto’

– involved in the Cuban crisis of 1962 – with its launching gantry. Notice the rig anchoring the gantry to the ground – you can find similar items even in Germany (see for instance this chapter), witnessing the deployment of this type of missile in eastern Europe.

Finally, if you dare, you can enjoy a run on an armored vehicle. The place is reportedly active with reenactments, and actually you can find a good reconstruction of a theater of war from the WWII years.

A striking feature, a recent bust of Stalin has been placed in the parking – close by an Orthodox chapel, to suitably exorcise his deadly presence.

The place is managed like a top class museum, and reportedly there are many visitors, also due to the close proximity with Minsk. Website with full information here.