![]() Hindenburg had requested a simple service and that he be interred next to his wife (who had died in 1921) in Hanover. Among those attending were Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Franz von Papen and Erich Koch, East Prussia's Nazi gauleiter.Ī year later, the monument again came to prominence on the death of Paul von Hindenburg. The Polish government allowed 1,500 cars to transit through the Polish Corridor. In August 1933 the Nazis held a massive demonstration at the memorial to commemorate the anniversary of the battle. The numbers of visitors did not meet expectations initially but during the Nazi era the numbers were such that the inn required to be extended. The architects had also built an inn nearby in traditional East Prussian style. Ten kilometers of veterans, resplendent in Imperial uniforms, paid homage to Hindenburg and the 20 unknown German soldiers from the 1914 battle who were interred at the memorial. An extract from the speech was later carved into a bronze plaque by the Nazi regime and installed in one of the towers of the memorial. His speech was deemed highly nationalistic and in keeping with the times for the Weimar Republic, but was not well received outside Germany since it denied German responsibility for the war. The 80-year-old Hindenburg was dressed in the uniform of a Colonel-in-chief of a Masurian regiment to which he'd been appointed by the Emperor (who had since abdicated). Opening and dedicationĪ gathering of thousands came to the dedication of the newly finished memorial on September 18, 1927. The design influenced other projects undertaken by architects and builders during the era. The monument's location on a hilltop was accentuated by massive earthworks and landscaping designed to look as if nature alone had shaped the site. The memorial was built in a prominent place in a shape reminiscent of the castles of the Teutonic Knights. The architects imagined the memorial to be a new volkish "community of the dead" and incorporated the burial of 20 unknown German soldiers from the Eastern Front into the project concept. This ideology was mooted in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. In doing so, the architects anticipated the concept of Totenburgen (Fortresses of the Dead) housing mass graves of soldiers. The memorial embraced the Anglo/French concept of the Unknown Soldier. Concept & designĪerial view 1944, from a Luftwaffe plane. In the 1950s, Polish authorities razed the site, leaving few traces. As the Red Army approached in 1945, German troops removed Hindenburg's remains and partly demolished key structures. ![]() Adolf Hitler ordered the monument to be redesigned and renamed "Reichsehrenmal Tannenberg". When Reichspräsident Hindenburg died in 1934, his coffin and that of his wife, who had died in 1921, were placed there despite his wishes to be buried at his family plot in Hanover. The octagonal layout with eight towers, each 67 feet (20 m) high, was influenced by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II's Castel del Monte, and by Stonehenge. The victorious German commander, Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg, became a national hero, and was later elected Reichspräsident.ĭedicated by Hindenburg on the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg in 1924 near Hohenstein (Ostpreußen) (now Olsztynek, Poland), the structure, which was financed by donations, was built by the architects Johannes and Walter Krüger of Berlin and completed in 1927. The Tannenberg Memorial was a monument to the German soldiers of the second Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 which was named after the medieval battle of the same name. In 1945, Hindenburg's coffin and several other items were removed from the site to protect them from advancing Soviet forces, and withdrawing German forces partially demolished the monument and collapsed several of the towers. The design in the center is an iron cross, a symbol originally from the Kingdom of Prussia but heavily used by Nazi Germany, and the whole site was designed to look like a medieval castle on a large hill.Īlthough it was initially intended to be a sort of tomb of the unknown soldier, in 1934 German general Paul von Hindenburg was buried there, and it became a site of pomp ceremony and military propaganda for Nazi Germany. This was the Tannenberg Memorial, built near the town of Hohenstein, East Prussia (now Olsztynek, Poland).īuilt in the mid-1920's, it was a monument dedicated to the German soldiers who fought in several battles in the area (two in WWI, and one from the 15th century).
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