Reichstag

After ten years of construction southeast of the River Spree, the final stone of the Reichstag was laid by Kaiser Wilhelm II on December 5, 1894, now considered the Cradle of German Democracy during the Bismarck Era of Prussian rule (BBC News). From 1894 until 1933 it housed the Reichstag, or Imperial Diet, during the periods of the German Empire from 1871-1918 and the Weimar Republic 1919-1933. "Dem deutschen Volke" (To the German People) was inscribed above the entry in 1916 near the end of the German Empire. (Berlin.de)

When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany he had a plan...and it was not about Democracy. He wanted to become a dictator and conquer the world. He wanted everything around him to become his version of German. Democracy was certainly in the way of his goal.

On February 27, 1933 a fire destroyed the Reichstag...the cradle of German democracy....Hitler and the Nazi party blamed Communists...and used this fire as a rallying cry to issue their Emergency Decree that began dictatorship.

Upon seeing the fire Hitler told a reporter, "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in German history...This fire is the beginning.

The Emergency Decree stated: "Restrictions on personal

liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for the confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed." Thousands of Communists and liberals were taken away into "protective custody."

All of this happened within one month of Hitler becoming Chancellor, the last free elections occurred on March 5th, 1933, and Hitler became the Fuerher of Germany on August 2, 1934 with the death of elderly President Paul von Hindenburg.

Fast forward 11 years...April/May 1945....The Battle of Berlin.....the Soviets are trying to take Berlin and defeat the Nazi regime.

70,000 Soviet soldiers die, but they are victorious.

The Nazis are defeated.

As Soviet soldiers bunker down in the destroyed building...the cradle of German Democracy that Hitler refused to recognize..., they start writing on the walls.

Some write victorious messages, some write derogatory messages, and some write:

"Everyone's dead, where is the victory?"

"Why are we here? What is it all about?"

Thankfully, those soldiers did not die for no reason. They secured Berlin and they aided in the ultimate defeat of Hitler's evil regime.

I am also thankful that the German government is once again practicing democracy in a beautifully renovated Reichstag building with the words, "Dem deutschen Volke." And...they have chosen to remember the past by leaving some of those Soviet soldiers' words on the walls.