80 Years After WWII: Germany's Past Shapes Its Present

Call of 'Never Again' heard not only at remembrance sites but also in politics

- Markus Ziener

BERLIN - On a spring afternoon in Berlin's eastern district of Karlshorst, the Ukrainian flag fluttered alone in front of the four-columned entrance of the German-Russian Museum.

Dr Jorg Morre stood beneath the flag, his silver hair catching the light as he surveyed the building he had overseen since 2009. The 61-year-old historian has watched the museum evolve over the years, but none of the changes have been as dramatic as those since February 2022.

"On the morning of Feb 24, our caretaker called me," Dr Morre recalled. "He said, 'I don't want to hoist the Russian flag today.' That very morning, Russia had launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

The Ukrainian flag went up alone that day and has remained ever since.

Even the museum's nameplate changed. Where metal letters once spelt out "German-Russian Museum" on the facade, the words "German-Russian" were hastily covered with tape - a symbolic gesture of solidarity with Ukraine and a clear stand against aggression.

"We wanted to send a clear signal," Dr Morre explained in an interview with The Straits Times.

The museum was once the officers' casino of the Wehrmacht, or Nazi armed forces, and later served as the Berlin headquarters of Soviet troops in the final days of the war. The site was where Germany signed its final act of unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, in the presence of Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov, as well as Soviet, American, British and French commanders.

After the last Russian troops withdrew from eastern Germany in 1994 - four years after East Germany reunified with West Germany - a bilateral association supported by German and Russian ministries was formed to run the museum. Conceived as a place of reconciliation, it has since become a symbolic front line in Germany's culture of remembrance and its struggle with political identity.