The 1926 Monument to the Revolution to the fallen
Spartacists, designed by
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1926; after 1935 destroyed by the
Third Reich. On the left:
Ernst Thälmann Unveiled in 1926, the
Monument to the Revolution was erected in front of the mass grave where the coffins of
Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxemburg had been interred in 1919. Designed by architect and future Bauhaus director,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, it was a wide and high red brick monument which the
National Socialists destroyed in January 1935.
The 1951 Memorial to the Socialists The current
Memorial to the Socialists () stands close to the cemetery's main gate and was inaugurated by
Wilhelm Pieck in 1951. Although constructed at a significant distance from the site once occupied by the 1926
Monument to the Revolution, the 1951 memorial was planned as its "moral successor" and as central memorial site for East Germany's Socialists, Communists and anti-fascist fighters. Until 1989, decisions whether a person should be buried in the
Memorial to the Socialists or the adjacent
Pergolenweg section of the cemetery rested solely with the
Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, and many honoured this way were also given a
state funeral. The 1951
Memorial to the Socialists consists of a central garden roundel surrounded by a semi-circular brick wall. The central garden roundel is dominated by a porphyry stele or obelisk with the words
Die Toten mahnen uns (), which is surrounded by 10 graves commemorating foremost socialist leaders, namely:
Karl Liebknecht,
Rosa Luxemburg,
Ernst Thälmann,
Wilhelm Pieck,
Walter Ulbricht,
Franz Mehring,
John Schehr,
Rudolf Breitscheid, , and
Otto Grotewohl. Into the semi-circular brick wall are set gravestones and niches containing the urns of distinguished Socialists and Communists. Also in the semi-circular brick wall is a large red marble tablet recording the names of 327 men and women who gave their lives in the cause of fighting Fascism between 1933 and 1945. Included in the list are
Hans Coppi,
Hilde Coppi,
Heinrich Koenen,
Arvid Harnack,
Harro Schulze-Boysen,
John Sieg, and
Ilse Stöbe. Immediately behind the semi-circular brick wall of the
Memorial to the Socialists lies the
Pergolenweg Ehrengrab section of the cemetery. Here are buried the urns of Socialists, Communists and anti-fascist fighters of merit who were considered distinguished enough by the
Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany to rest in the vicinity of the foremost party leaders yet not as eminent as to entitle them to a grave in the
Memorial to the Socialists itself. People buried in the
Pergolenweg section could also have the urns of up to three family members buried with them. ==Notable interments (selection)==