Image Gallery The Neue Wache

The Neue Wache (New Guardhouse) was built in the years 1816 to 1818 on behalf of the Prussian King Frederick William III, according to a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. From 1818 until 1918 the Royal Palace Guard was located here.

In 1931 the Prussian government had the guardhouse redesigned. Heinrich Tessennow created a "Memorial to Those Who Fell in the World War". In the centre of the room, which was designed to invite reflection, stood a block of granite with a silver wreath of dark leaves.

Shortly before the end of the second world war the Neue Wache was severely damaged by bombs.

From 1960 the restored building served the GDR as a "Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism". In 1969 an eternal flame was lit in the middle of the room.

In 1969 the Mortal remains of an unknown soldier and an unknown concentration camp prisoner were laid to rest here. They are surrounded by earth from the battlefields of the second world war and from concentration camps.

Since 1993 the Neue Wache has served as the central memorial of The Federal Republic of Germany.

The interior design from the time of the Weimar Republic was largely restored. An enlarged replica of the sculputre by Kathe Kollwitz known as "Mother with Her Dead Son" stands in the centre of the memorial. It was made by Harald Haacke.

This was printed next to the history:

THE NEUE WACHE IS THE PLACE
WHERE WE COMMEMORATE THE VICTIMS
OF WAR AND TYRANNY.

WE HONOUR THE MEMORY
OF THE PEOPLES WHO SUFFERED THROUGH WAR
WE REMEMBER THEIR CITIZENS WHO WERE PERSECUTED
AND WHO LOST THEIR LIVES
WE REMEMBER THOSE KILLED IN ACTION IN THE WORLD WARS
WE REMEMBER THE INNOCENT WHO LOST THEIR LIVES AS
A RESULT OF WAR IN THEIR HOMELAND, IN CAPTIVITY
AND THROUGH EXPULSION

WE REMEMBER THE MILLIONS OF JEWS WHO WERE MURDERED.
WE REMEMBER THE SINTI AND ROMA WHO WERE MURDERED.
WE REMEMBER ALL THOSE WERE KILLED BECAUSE OF THEIR
ORIGIN, HOMOSEXUALITY, SICKNESS OR INFIRMITY.
WE REMEMBER ALL WHO WERE MURDERED
WHOSE RIGHT TO LIFE WAS DENIED.

WE REMEMBER THE PEOPLE WHO HAD TO DIE
BECAUSE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL CONFICTIONS.
WE REMEMBER AL THOSE WHO WERE VICTIMS OF TYRANNY
AND MET THEIR DEATH, THOUGH INNOCENT.

WE REMEMBER THE WOMEN AND MEN
WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES IN RESISTANCE TO DESPOTIC RULE
WE HONOUR ALL WHO PREFERRED TO DIE RATHER
THAN ACT AGAINST THEIR CONSCIENCE.

WE HONOUR THE MEMORY OF THE WOMEN AND MEN
WHO WERE PERSECUTED AND MURDERED
BECAUSE THEY RESISTED TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIP
AFTER 1945.