By AFP | 2025-05-06

BERLIN -- In Karlshorst, a leafy area of former East Berlin, stands the imposing building where on the night of May 8, 1945, the Nazis formally capitulated to the victorious Allies, including the Red Army.

A tank outside bears the slogan "For the Fatherland!" in Russian, a jarring reminder of Moscow's current rhetoric justifying the invasion of Ukraine, which often invokes the Soviet victory in World War II.

The director of the museum, Joerg Morre, said he is well aware of the dangers of "the instrumentalization of history for political ends" by Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.

The display nevertheless aims to include "a Russian perspective" on history "but not from the Kremlin," he said.

"Instead we want to hear from academics who are able to express themselves freely, which happens more and more often in exile," he added.

The Russian flag previously flew outside the museum, but the museum's policy changed on February 24, 2022, when the Kremlin launched its invasion.

"In the early morning, when it became clear that Russia was attacking all of Ukraine and trying to conquer Kyiv, we decided as a team that it just wasn't right to raise the Russian flag," Morre remembered.

The Ukrainian flag now flies outside the building alone as "a symbol of solidarity."

The episode is just one example of how Morre and his team are trying to deal with the site's tumultuous past -- and present.

Previously known as the "German-Russian Museum," the site has since been renamed the "Museum Berlin-Karlshorst."

Hopes for reconciliation

Originally built for use by Nazi Germany's army in 1938, the building became the headquarters of the occupying Soviet army after the war.

It set up a museum there in honor of the Red Army troops who captured Berlin.

Vestiges of this history can still be seen near the ceremonial hall, for example in a diorama showing heroic Soviet troops storming the Reichstag.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and its East German ally, officials decided to run the museum as a joint project between Russia and the newly reunified Germany.

Later, they invited representatives from Ukraine and Belarus to take part in the running of the museum to reflect the extent of World War II combat on their territory.

The building houses the impressive parquet-lined hall where Nazi generals signed the capitulation as well as an extensive permanent exhibition on the war along the Eastern Front, which museum staff updated in 2013.

Marcel Krueger, a writer who spoke to AFP during a recent visit to the museum, said that he still felt the site retained some "Soviet pomp" but that "as a German I find it very, very important that this remain here."

The exhibition recounts in unsparing detail the Nazis' crimes in occupied eastern Europe, while also referring to Soviet troops' abuses of German civilians, albeit much more briefly.

In a post-Cold War context, authorities hoped the museum would foster "understanding between peoples and reconciliation," said Morre.

There was long an expectation of "permanent peace," he said. "Nobody believed there would be bad times ahead."

Definitive break

Despite the heightened tensions between Kyiv and Moscow over the war in eastern Ukraine since 2014, the museum was for a while able to keep some dialogue going with all sides.

Russia's full-scale invasion represented "a definitive break," said Morre.

"Since then I've had almost no contact with the Russian side," he said, adding that the museum has had little contact with Moscow-allied Belarus either.

Even the reaction to the Russian tricolor being taken down was "more informal," with Russian diplomats coming to public events to make their displeasure clear to Morre.

Within Germany, the museum's attempts to distance itself from the Russian government can lead to accusations that "we want people to forget about the consequences of the Second World War," said Morre.

With no end to the war in Ukraine in sight, Morre says he and his staff will need "a lot of patience" to continue navigating the turbulent political context while continuing their mission of bringing the tragic history of the Eastern Front to life.

Museum visitor Maria became visibly emotional as she told AFP she found the exhibition "very moving and very painful."

"I ask myself: 'What lessons have been learnt from the Second World War'?"