Graffiti written in Cyrillic on the walls of the in 1945 by roof has became an iconic soldiers were uncovered of history from the walls. image: it forms part of their col- when the building was conver- By an irony of history, some lective memory of the ‘great ted to house the new plenary nineteenth-century decoration war for the fatherland’, even chamber of the German Bundes- and some traces of the battle though it was staged by Khaldei tag. Immediately after Christo that raged around the Reichs- a few days after the event and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapping tag building in April 1945 and retouched by him several of the Reichstag building, survived precisely because times. Over the following in consultation with the Bundes- architect Sir Norman Foster they were hidden by the fibre- days Soviet soldiers flocked to tag’s Building Committee and (b. 1935) began to remove its board. They included the graf- the occupied Reichstag buil- Art Council. Foster incor- inner covering of gypsum fiti written by Soviet soldiers. ding, which for them embodied porated these ‘imprints of the fibreboard and asbestos. Paul their victory over Hitler’s past’, as he called them, in the Baumgarten (1900 – 1984), In the final days of the war, Germany. They took symbolic Over two hundred graffiti came interior design of the remodel- the first architect to remodel during the Battle of , possession of the building by to light when Sir Norman led building: he framed them the building, in the 1960s, had the Reichstag building was the writing their name and where Foster removed the 1960s clad- with areas of plaster, like installed the sheets of fibre- scene of particularly fierce they came from in coloured ding from the walls. They frescoes, and separated the board in front of the walls of fighting. At times, rooms at the crayon or charcoal on the inside had covered much larger sur- modern plaster from the the original nineteenth- bottom were still occupied and outside walls. Straight faces originally – as far up the historical masonry by a deep century structure by Paul by German troops, while areas from the heart they expressed inside and outside as the groove in order to mark the Wallot, concealing historical higher up had already been their joy in survival and their soldiers could reach, sitting gap in time. In this way, he poin- evidence behind new interior taken by the Red Army. Not overwhelming sense of on the shoulders of their com- ted up the contrast between surfaces. In an act of what until 30 April 1945 did Red triumph, and they heaped rades or clambering onto the writing as a spontaneous Foster has termed ‘civic van- Army units succeed in hoisting abuse on Hitler. As people have balustrades. The surviving reaction to a moment in history dalism’, Baumgarten had also the Soviet flag over the buil- done for thousands of years, graffiti were cleaned and con- on the part of individual destroyed the original archi- ding. For Russians, a photo- they left behind a mark of self- served under the supervision people and the seemingly time- tectural decoration in many graph by Yevgeny Khaldei affirmation, a sign of their of Berlin’s head of conservation less, archaic monumentality places and removed all traces of the flag being raised on the presence in the world. (the Landeskonservator) and of the stone walls.

Art at the German Bundestag Cyrillic graffiti Inspection of the graffiti revealed that the vast majority In view of the large number of consisted of the formula graffiti it is scarcely surprising ‘… was here’ (Russ. ‘здесь был’), that some of their originators followed by the date or the can still be identified decades name of the soldier’s hometown later. Anar Nayafov, a student or region, his rank, the route from Azerbaijan on an intern- taken by his troops or the mili- ship with a member of the tary unit to which he belonged. Bundestag, discovered a graffito A few contained abuse or written by his grandfather politically motivated remarks, Mamed Nayafov. Veterans Pavel such as ‘Gornin was here and Zolotaryov and Professor spat’ and ‘They’ve paid the Boris Sapunov, both from price for Leningrad’. Others St Petersburg, actually found indicate that the writers had an arrow accompanied by the the graffiti they had written confused the Reichstag building words ‘Anatoli and Galina’. over half a century earlier. with the : The hometowns and regions A tour guide tells of a similar ‘We were in the Reichstag, in reflect the ethnic and political experience: ‘A group of vete- Hitler’s den! Captain Koklyush- diversity of the peoples from rans’ wives from what was kin [,] Senior Lieutenant the who made up then Stalingrad examined the The Cyrillic graffiti are thus Krasnikov, J. 15/V 45’. Some the Red Army. ‘Todorov V.I.’ graffiti. After the tour an more than pieces of historical soldiers recorded pride in and ‘Todovrov V.’, for example, elderly woman from the group evidence. As deeply human their military prowess: ‘Glory state that they came from the came up to me and told me tokens, they bring history to to the pontoon builders, who Donbass, while ‘Shevchenko’ that her deceased husband said life and deliver the recording conquered the and its is ‘from Ukraine’. Others reveal he’d been here and had also of major events into the hands canals. We were in the Reichs- ‘Marched Teheran – Baku – immortalised himself. Tears of those who experienced tag [,] 6.5.45 [,] Ivanov and Berlin’ or name their home flowed when the old woman them at first hand and who Tchikhlin’. One touching graf- as the Caucasus, Yerevan or eventually stood in front of her often enough were forced to fito shows a heart pierced by Novosibirsk. husband’s written testimony.’ suffer from them. Art at the German Bundestag Further information: Published by: German Bundestag, Tel. +49 (0)30-227-32027 or Secretariat of the Art Council, Cyrillic graffiti [email protected] Platz der Republik 1, 11011 Berlin, www.kunst-im-bundestag.de Germany Written and conceived by: Andreas Kaernbach, Curator of the Art Collection of the German Bundestag Translated by: Language Service of the German Bundestag, in cooperation with Michael Foster Designed by: büro uebele visuelle kommunikation, Stuttgart (Nadja Schoch) Printed by: MEDIALIS Offsetdruck GmbH, Berlin Photo- graphs by: DBT/Julia Nowak, Berlin (details), RIA Novosti. Reproduction (soldiers on the stairs), bpk/Voller Ernst – Fotoagentur/Yevgeny Khaldei (soldier writing on the wall)