Memorial places from 1933 to 1990
Various monuments from the national socialist era, the GDR years, and from the time during which Germany was divided, have been preserved in the state of Brandenburg and near the former capital of the Reich, Berlin, which was occupied and divided after 1945. Many of these sites have a double history, like the woodlands in the north of Berlin which served both the ruling class during the “Third Reich” and the political elite of the GDR as a recreational area. Sites for concentration and prisoner of war camps endured a similar fate: After 1945, the Soviet occupational force utilised these camps as special camps. The prisons and workhouses employed by the national socialists to imprison their opponents later served the Soviets and SED regime to put behind bars political prisoners.
