The Tannenberg Memorial commemorated fallen German soldiers of the second Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, which was named after the medieval Battle of Tannenberg (1410). The victorious German commander, Paul von Hindenburg, became a national hero, and was later elected Reichspräsident.
Dedicated by Hindenburg on the 10th anniversary of the battle of Tannenberg in 1924 near Hohenstein (Ostpreußen) (now Olsztynek, Poland), the structure, which was financed by donations, was built by the architects Johannes and Walter Krüger of Berlin and completed in 1927. The octagonal layout with eight towers, each 67 feet (20 m) high, was influenced by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II's Castel del Monte, and by Stonehenge.
When Reichspräsident Hindenburg died in 1934, his coffin and that of his wife, who had died in 1921, were placed there despite his wishes to be buried at his family plot in Hanover. Adolf Hitler ordered the monument to be redesigned and renamed "Reichsehrenmal Tannenberg". As the Red Army approached in 1945, German troops removed Hindenburg's remains and partly demolished key structures. In the 1950s, Polish authorities razed the site, leaving few traces.
Read more about Tannenberg Memorial: Concept & Design, Opening and Dedication, Inn, The Nazi Era, Modernisation of The Memorial, The New Crypt, Pomp, Hindenburg's Disinterment and Partial Demolition of The Memorial, Dismantling, Copy
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