Berlin Germany Reichstag Ruins 1945 WWII Destroyed Parliament Modern Postcard

Title: Berlin Germany Reichstag Ruins 1945 WWII Destroyed Parliament Eickemeyer Modern Reproduction Postcard

Description:

Front: A stark black and white reproduction of a famous 1945 photograph showing the catastrophically destroyed Reichstag Building (German Parliament) in Berlin immediately after the end of the Second World War. Captioned along the bottom in spaced sans-serif lettering in three languages: “REICHSTAGSGEBÄUDE” (German) on the left, “HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT” (English) in the centre, and “РЕЙСТАГ” (Russian Cyrillic, “Reichstag”) on the right. The harrowing image presents a frontal view of the western facade of the Reichstag in complete ruin following the brutal Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945. The massive sandstone building stands as a hollow gutted shell, every window blown out, the masonry pockmarked and scarred by countless bullet impacts, artillery shells, and shrapnel from the savage close-quarters fighting between Soviet Red Army troops and the last desperate German defenders (including SS units, Hitler Youth, and Volkssturm militia). The four corner towers stand decapitated, their upper sections sheared off by shellfire. The central dome, Paul Wallot’s iconic glass and steel cupola, is reduced to a skeletal twisted framework of steel ribs with all glass shattered, the metal structure mangled and partially collapsed. The triangular sculpted pediment over the central portico is heavily damaged but the famous bronze inscription “DEM DEUTSCHEN VOLKE” (To the German People), installed in 1916, is still partially visible across the architrave between the six surviving Corinthian columns of the western portico. Russian graffiti scratched into the stonework by victorious Soviet soldiers is faintly visible across the lower walls (the famous Cyrillic inscriptions left by Red Army troops, many of which have been preserved to this day inside the rebuilt building). In the foreground, the cratered moonscape of the former Königsplatz lies devastated, the ground torn up by tank tracks, artillery impacts, and trench systems dug during the desperate final battle. Scattered debris, twisted metal, and shell craters fill the foreground. The wartime industrial chimney visible at the left edge belongs to one of the surviving Berlin factories. The bleak overcast sky reinforces the apocalyptic atmosphere of the totally defeated capital of the Third Reich.

Back: Unused modern divided back postcard. The reverse is blank white with no handwritten message, address, postmark, or stamp. Three horizontal printed address lines occupy the right side. Printed vertically along the centre in small black sans-serif text: “BERLIN/DIE ZERSTÖRTE STADT NR. Z 8 © SAMMLUNG EICKEMEYER/BERLIN” (Berlin/The Destroyed City No. Z 8, copyright Eickemeyer Collection/Berlin).

Authenticity Note: This is a modern reproduction postcard published as part of the “Berlin / Die Zerstörte Stadt” (Berlin / The Destroyed City) commemorative historical series from the Eickemeyer Collection in Berlin, reproducing famous wartime and immediate post-war photographs of bombed-out Berlin. The card stock is bright clean modern white with sharp crisp corners and no aging, and the printing quality is modern offset lithography. The original photograph dates from approximately summer 1945, shortly after the end of the Battle of Berlin.

Historical Significance: The original photograph captures one of the most iconic and historically resonant scenes of the 20th century: the destroyed Reichstag in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The Reichstag was designed by Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot and constructed between 1884 and 1894 to house the Imperial Diet of the German Empire. On 27 February 1933, just weeks after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, the building was severely damaged by the infamous Reichstag Fire, which the Nazis exploited to push through the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties and the subsequent Enabling Act that established Hitler’s dictatorship. The building stood largely unused throughout the Third Reich as the Nazi regime had no use for parliamentary democracy. As the Red Army closed in on Berlin in late April 1945, the Reichstag became one of the primary symbolic targets for Soviet forces under Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who designated it as the centrepiece of the assault on the Nazi capital. The building was fanatically defended by approximately 5,000 German soldiers, SS units, French SS volunteers of the Charlemagne Division, Hitler Youth, and Volkssturm militiamen who fought from room to room and floor to floor against the assaulting Soviet 150th and 171st Rifle Divisions in some of the most brutal urban combat of the entire war. The fighting raged from 29 April to 2 May 1945, with the building changing hands multiple times. On 30 April 1945, the same day Hitler committed suicide in his Führerbunker just a few hundred metres away, Soviet soldiers Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria raised the Soviet Victory Banner over the Reichstag, an act famously photographed (and later restaged for propaganda purposes) by Soviet photographer Yevgeny Khaldei, producing one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. Approximately 2,000 German defenders and 2,500 Soviet soldiers died in the battle for this building alone. After the war, the Reichstag stood as a gutted ruin within the British sector of West Berlin, directly adjacent to the Soviet sector. The Wallot dome was so badly damaged it was finally demolished in 1954. The building was partially restored in the 1960s without its cupola for use as a museum and meeting hall. Following German reunification in 1990, the Reichstag was selected as the future seat of the Bundestag (German federal parliament). British architect Sir Norman Foster comprehensively rebuilt it between 1995 and 1999, crowning it with a new modern glass dome that has become a Berlin landmark. Remarkably, during the restoration, the Russian Cyrillic graffiti left by Soviet soldiers in 1945 was preserved on the interior walls as a deliberate historical memorial, including some inscriptions that were removed for being obscene or particularly provocative. Today the Reichstag once again serves as the seat of the Bundestag, with its preserved Soviet graffiti standing as a haunting reminder of the building’s tragic 20th-century history, from the Reichstag Fire to the Battle of Berlin to German reunification. This modern reproduction postcard, part of an educational series documenting the destruction of Berlin in 1945, offers a powerful visual reminder of the total devastation inflicted on the Nazi capital and the staggering human cost of Hitler’s war of aggression.

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