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“The bastards will remember”, “We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, came to Berlin”, “For the blood of my father” — these are the inscriptions that thousands of Soviet soldiers made on the most famous building in the German capital in May 1945. There were whole phrases, poems, lists of cities on their combat path, or just short ranks and names.
The so-called “Victory autographs” were left with chalk, charcoal, paint, bayonets and knives — whatever was at hand. Almost all the walls and columns were covered with them.
After the unification of Germany in 1990, the German parliament was going to move to the Reichstag. During the renovation, it turned out that not all the inscriptions had been erased.
715 autographs were found under the plasterboard panels. A specially created Soviet-German commission decided to preserve and restore them. Some can still be seen by the public today: on the first floor, in the corridors on the way to the plenary session hall, and in the main staircase portal of the southwest wing.
