Ernst Thälmann memorial, Bronze memorial in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany
The Ernst Thälmann Memorial is a 14-metre-high, 15-metre-wide bronze sculpture on a pedestal of Ukrainian granite, standing on a slightly sloping 3,800-square-metre square off Greifswalder Straße. It shows Thälmann's head and shoulders with his right fist raised, a stylised workers' flag sweeping up behind him. The pedestal reads "Ernst Thälmann" in front and "Rotfront" on the sides.
Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbel made the monument between 1981 and 1986 on behalf of the SED Central Committee; it was unveiled on 15 April 1986, the day before Thälmann's hundredth birthday and the opening of the party's 11th congress. The bronze was cast at the Lauchhammerwerk works, where a hall 18 by 18 metres and 15 metres high was built for the purpose. After 1990 a historians' commission recommended demolition, and in 1993 the Berlin Senate voted to remove it, but the cost prevented the plan.
The monument's nickname in East Berlin was "Ernst-Lehmann-Denkmal", a pun blending Lenin and Thälmann because the face resembles Lenin. Since 2000 the Aktionsbündnis Thälmann-Denkmal, drawn from left-wing Berlin groups, has campaigned for the monument; since 2006 the city has cleaned it. Commemorations were held before it on Thälmann's birthday, 16 April, and the anniversary of his murder, 18 August.
The site is easy to reach and lies in a residential area with good public transportation connections in northeast Berlin. Visitors should note that some areas may be difficult to access with a wheelchair.
Because Thälmann's face resembled Lenin's, East Berliners nicknamed the monument "Ernst-Lehmann-Denkmal", a pun merging the two names. The two bronze steles that once flanked the forecourt were removed in July 1990 and have stood in the Spandau Citadel's exhibition on Berlin monuments since 2012.
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