Trümmerfrau memorial, Memorial statue in Volkspark Hasenheide, Germany
The Trümmerfrau memorial is a limestone statue in Volkspark Hasenheide showing a woman sitting on brick rubble and holding a hammer. The sculpture stands at the base of Rixdorfer Hill near Graefestraße.
On 7 June 1954, the green Rixdorfer Höhe rubble hill was inaugurated in Volkspark Hasenheide, and district mayor Kurt Exner and city parliament president Otto Suhr promised a memorial to the Trümmerfrauen. Katharina Szelinski-Singer, a trained stone sculptor, won the commission with support from her teacher Richard Scheibe. The monument was unveiled on 30 April 1955, financed by West Berlin's emergency programme for artists.
The memorial honors women who cleared debris and salvaged materials from Berlin streets after World War II. Their work shaped how the city looked and felt during reconstruction.
The memorial is easily accessible in Volkspark Hasenheide and can be reached on foot from nearby Graefestraße. The statue is open year-round and free to visit at any time.
The inscription block was added in 1986, after the original metal plaque on a boulder was stolen. Sculptor Katharina Szelinski-Singer proposed a rough limestone "Mauerbrocken" with a flower relief sprouting from its crevices, partly hidden by the text panel. The statue was moved to its present spot near the Graefestraße park entrance that same year.
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