Historical Critical Commentary on the Thälmann Monument

Denkmalplatz Greifswalder Straße 52, 10405 Berlin

The main entrance to the gasworks on Danziger Strasse, around 1983. The buildings in the foreground are still preserved. They have been used as cultural facilities since 1986 until today. On the left in the background one of the three gasometers.

The Gasworks

Ernst Thälmann Park was built on the site of an inoperative gasworks. From 1873, here a municipal gasworks (IV. Städtische Gasanstalt) produced gas for lighting as well as for industrial and private purposes. The production of gas and coke had a considerable impact on the quality of life of the local residents due to the development of dust and soot as well as unpleasant odours. The conversion to natural gas supply in 1979 made it possible to shut down the plant in May 1981.

Photographing and filming the demolition on 28 July 1984 was forbidden. Nevertheless, many citizens managed to take photos and make films.

The three gas holders, built between 1889 and 1900 and visible from afar, were a landmark of Prenzlauer Berg. To preserve them, the Office for Urban Development at the East Berlin municipal offices developed plans for subsequent use and for a cultural centre in the early 1980s.

Contrary to this, the government had the gasometers blown up on 28 July 1984. This was justified with alleged dilapidation and pollution.

Petitions, protests, and leaflets against the blasting of the gasometers were unsuccessful. The protesting citizens were punished with repression and arrests. In addition, the government brought forward the gas holders‘ demolition. Police officers surrounded the area and tried to prevent photography and filming. The blowing up of the gasometers furthered the loss of confidence in the government’s policies. A large planetarium (Zeiss Grossplanetarium) was built on the site of one of the blown-up gasometers in 1987. It was the largest domed building in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

In addition to the central monument, the focal points of the park’s design were a pond with a rhododendron grove, a rose garden and playgrounds. View of the area, around 1986.

Der Ernst-Thälmann-Park

The park, the residential buildings, and the central Ernst Thälmann monument were aspects of a project with symbolic value for the leadership of the Socialist Unity Party (SED). They were built by the collective housing combine (Wohnungsbaukombinat) Berlin under the direction of the architect Helmut Stingl. East Berlin housing construction in the 1970s and 1980s was dominated by the prefabricated building series type WBS 70 (building series 70), which was also used here. The twelve- to eighteen-storey high-rises, on the other hand, were designed especially for Ernst Thälmann Park.

Prefabricated building series type 70 (WBS 70) with glazed loggias and maisonette flats added as a ninth storey. Some of the buildings have clinker cladding that correspond to the old brick buildings of the gasworks.

While entire streets of old buildings in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were falling into disrepair, the state and party leadership concentrated their scarce resources and manpower on the prestigious project in preparation for Berlin‘s 750th anniversary. The planning, supply of materials and pace of construction resembled a show of GDR achievement. Around 1,300 flats were built, most of which were rented to loyal citizens, as well as cultural and educational facilities, kindergartens, shops and restaurants.

In 1990, after complaints from residents, contamination of the soil by the former gasworks was discovered. This resulted in extensive remediation of the contaminated site, which continues to this day. In 2012, the area was upgraded with the completion of modern, privately owned apartments in nearby Fröbelstraße. In contrast, the Ernst-Thälmann-Park apartments are managed by a housing cooperative and offer an inexpensive alternative.

Opinions on Ernst Thälmann Park still differ widely today and indicate the contradictory nature of the site. Increasingly, the ensemble is recognised as an example of contemporary urban planning, but because of the central monument, it is also perceived as a symbol of SED rule.

The Thälmann monument has been painted repeatedly with graffiti since the 1990s. In 1995, local residents protested against its progressive decay and painted the words “incarcerated - murdered - daubed“ on it.

Ernst Thälmann Monument and Park since 1990

After the Peaceful Revolution, a public debate lasting several years began about the name of the residential area and dealing with the Ernst Thälmann Monument. The discussions reflected the different points of view regarding the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Positions ranged from immediate demolition of the monument to its use as a place of learning.
In May 1993, the Prenzlauer Berg district assembly (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung) decided to dismantle the monument. The demolition was not implemented due to a lack of financial resources. In 1995, the monument was listed as a historical monument. In 1997, most of the residents of Prenzlauer Berg voted to keep the name “Ernst-Thälmann-Park“.

In the 1990s, the park and the monument were neglected. In the meantime, the residential area became a meeting place for right-wing youths, and the Thälmann monument was daubed repeatedly with Nazi slogans.

On 7 December 2012, the residents‘ initiative Ernst Thälmann Park (AI Thälmannpark) was founded. It campaigns for the preservation of the listed area, the concerns of the tenants, and the maintenance of the green space.

In 2014, the building ensemble Ernst-Thälmann-Park was listed as an historical monument. A residents‘ initiative has been campaigning for the park and the monument since the end of 2012.

In 2019, the Pankow district office launched the competition “Artistic commentary on the Ernst Thälmann Monument“. The project “THINKING FROM THE PEDESTAL“ by Betina Kuntzsch was selected from 110 applications and realised in 2021.

Ruthild Hahne in front of a model of the Thälmann Monument, 1950s. After many revisions, the project was abandoned in 1965.

The History of the Monument

A few weeks after the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the first competition for the creation of a monument to Ernst Thälmann at Thälmannplatz (Wilhelmplatz) in Berlin was announced. As a result of the competition, the artist Ruthild Hahne worked on the project until 1965. After the wall was built in 1961, the planned location was abandoned because of its proximity to the state border. More plans and designs followed but remained inconclusive. A decision by the X Party Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1981 put the project for a monument on the agenda again, now in Ernst Thälmann Park.

The sculptor Lew Kerbel (centre) in front of the bronze stele with the inscription by Erich Honecker. In 1990, the parks department removed the “guard stones“ at the sides of the monument without ratification by the newly elected district assembly.

The monument was intended to form the centre of the residential ensemble and the park. The General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), Erich Honecker, commissioned the Soviet sculptor Lew Kerbel (1917 – 2003), who was known for monumental sculptures such as the Karl Marx Monument in Chemnitz. He had also created the monumental sculpture of the Red Army soldier for the Soviet Memorial in Berlin-Tiergarten in 1945. Designs by artists from the GDR for the Thälmann monument were not considered. The Association of Fine Artists of the GDR and many artists reacted with protest. They criticised the traditional conception of the monument and their own lack of participation in the planning and selection of the artwork.

The erection of the monument in the mid-1980s can be seen as a symbol of the situation in the GDR. The urban planning concept presented the monument centrally in front of the large (parade) square. It was flanked on the right and left by two bronze columns with inscriptions by Erich Honecker and Ernst Thälmann. The residential buildings behind it served as a backdrop. In opposition to perestroika and emerging democratisation efforts, the memorial demonstrated the GDR leadership‘s claim to power and its resistance to socio-political transformation.

Ernst Thälmann (Mitte) bei einem Marsch des Roten Frontkämpferbundes (RFB) in Berlin, 1927. Thälmanns zur Faust erhobene rechte Hand galt als traditioneller Gruß des RFB. Der RFB war ein paramilitärischer Verband der KPD in der Weimarer Republik unter der Leitung Thälmanns.

The Thälmann Myth in the German Democratic Republic (GDR)

The GDR chose Ernst Thälmann as its first hero. The state leadership instrumentalised and idealised Thälmann into a cult figure. They turned him into a courageous fighter against fascism, a workers‘ leader who was bound to the people, and a martyr and victim of National Socialism. He was assigned a leading and paramount role in German history. The GDR used the cult of Thälmann for its own legitimisation: Thälmann‘s resistance to the Nazi regime was interpreted as the struggle of the working class for its liberation, from which the GDR emerged.

Vigil of “Young Pioneers“ in front of the Ernst Thälmann monument, 1986. Members of the Pioneer organisation took part in flag ceremonies and demonstrations, but also in disco evenings and craft afternoons. Disobedience was followed by disciplinary measures such as exclusion from class trips or high school. Membership of the Pioneer organisation shaped the childhood and youth of many GDR citizens.

From the very beginning of the GDR, Thälmann was the role model of socialist education. The state mass organisation for children, founded in 1948, was renamed the “Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation“ in 1952. In the GDR, it served to educate children between the ages of six and 14 in the spirit of socialist ideology. The organisation was closely linked to the school curriculum. Most pupils were members, and non-members were often disadvantaged.

The Thälmann myth was engrained in the whole of East German society through films, literature, songs, visual art, photographs and annual commemorations of his birth and death. Streets bearing his name shaped public space.

The naming of the residential area around the memorial as Ernst Thälmann Park made Thälmann into the spiritual father of the GDR‘s housing programme.

Ernst Thälmann was very popular among workers and was therefore also called "Teddy“, 1932

Ernst Thälmann

Ernst Thälmann was born in Hamburg on 16 April 1886. He grew up in modest circumstances. As a child he had to work in his parents‘ coal shop and greengrocery. He left home at the age of 16. The great dock workers‘ strike of 1896-1897 was an eye-opener for him.

From 1903 onwards, Thälmann was politically active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and from 1918 in the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). As an opponent of war, he deserted from military service in 1918. In 1920 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and quickly rose through the ranks. In 1925, the KPD elected him chairman and the Communist International (Comintern) appointed him to its Executive Committee. In the embezzlement affair involving John Wittorf in 1928, Thälmann was forced to give up party office. t was only under pressure from Stalin that he was confirmed as party leader.

Thälmann shaped the “Stalinisation“ process of the KPD, which began in the mid-1920s, and thus the purges within the party. In Thälmann, Stalin found someone with whom he could control the KPD and tie it more closely to the policies of the Soviet Union. Thälmann adopted the social fascism thesis from the Soviet Union and intensified the KPD‘s struggle against social democracy. This contributed significantly to the destabilisation of the Weimar Republic in its final phase.

As a result of the economic crisis in 1929 and social destitution, there were riots. The KPD under Thälmann used them to fight against parliamentary democracy. Since the SPD defended democracy, it became the main enemy for the KPD. This contributed to the division of the workers‘ movement and thus to the weakening of the struggle against National Socialism. In the view of many historians, this created the conditions that enabled Hitler and the National Socialists to come to power.

Ernst Thälmann had been a member of the Reichstag since 1924. As a well-known politician, he was arrested by the Berlin police on 3 March 1933. He was imprisoned in Berlin-Moabit, Hanover and Bautzen until his murder on 17 August 1944 in so-called “protective custody” at Buchenwald concentration camp. During his eleven years in prison, he was not brought before any court. Efforts to secure his release or an exchange failed. Stalin himself did not campaign for his release.