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89-582: In 1662 Countess Sophie Theodore, a scion of the Holland - Brederode family and wife of the Brandenburg general Christian Albert of Dohna , acquired the lands Niederschönhausen and Pankow , then far north of the Berlin city gates. In 1664 she built a manor at Niederschönhausen in "Dutch" style. Minister Joachim Ernst von Grumbkow acquired it in 1680 and, in 1691, his widow sold it for 16,000 Thalers to

178-700: A Pankow Künstlerinitiative so that it could be used for an exhibit as early as September 1945. Soon thereafter the Soviet Military Administration confiscated the palace and turned it into an officer's mess. Later it served as a boarding school for Soviet students. When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was established in the Soviet occupation zone on 7 October 1949, the Soviets turned Schönhausen Palace over to

267-617: A Waffen-SS counter-attack forced the Soviets to withdraw from the building. To the south-west the 8th Guards Army attacked north across the Landwehr canal into the Tiergarten. By the next day, 30 April, the Soviets had solved their bridging problems and with artillery support at 06:00 they launched an attack on the Reichstag, but because of German entrenchments and support from 12.8 cm FlaK 40 guns 2 km (1.2 mi) away on

356-426: A few isolated buildings where some SS troops still refused to surrender, but the Soviets reduced such buildings to rubble. The city's food supplies had been largely destroyed on Hitler's orders. 128 of the 226 bridges had been blown up and 87 pumps rendered inoperative. "A quarter of the subway stations were under water, flooded on Hitler's orders. Thousands and thousands who had sought shelter in them had drowned when

445-480: A large contingent of German soldiers in the basement who launched counter-attacks against the Red Army. By 2 May 1945 the Red Army controlled the building entirely. The famous photo of the two soldiers planting the flag on the roof of the building is a re-enactment photo taken the day after the building was taken. To the Soviets the event as represented by the photo became symbolic of their victory demonstrating that

534-639: A light skirmishing screen. Instead, Heinrici arranged for engineers to fortify the Seelow Heights , which overlooked the Oder River at the point where the Autobahn crossed them. This was some 17 km (11 mi) west of the Oder and 90 km (56 mi) east of Berlin. Heinrici thinned out the line in other areas to increase the manpower available to defend the heights. German engineers turned

623-605: A long resistance, Königsberg in East Prussia fell to the Red Army. This freed up Marshal Rokossovsky 's 2nd Belorussian Front to move west to the east bank of the Oder river. Marshal Georgy Zhukov concentrated his 1st Belorussian Front , which had been deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt (Oder) in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the Seelow Heights. The 2nd Belorussian Front moved into

712-533: A pincer that would meet the IV Panzer Army coming from the south and envelop the 1st Ukrainian Front before destroying it. They were to anticipate a southward attack by the III Panzer Army and be ready to be the southern arm of a pincer attack that would envelop 1st Belorussian Front, which would be destroyed by SS-General Felix Steiner 's Army Detachment advancing from north of Berlin. Later in

801-641: A section of the United States Army's front line south-west of Berlin on the Elbe . With these advances, the Soviet forces drove a wedge between Army Group Vistula in the north and Army Group Centre in the south. By the end of the day, the German eastern front line north of Frankfurt around Seelow and to the south around Forst had ceased to exist. These breakthroughs allowed the two Soviet Fronts to envelop

890-483: A tearful rage when he realised that his plans, prepared the previous day, could not be achieved. He declared that the war was lost, blaming the generals for the defeat and that he would remain in Berlin until the end and then kill himself. In an attempt to coax Hitler out of his rage, General Alfred Jodl speculated that General Walther Wenck 's XII Army , which was facing the Americans, could move to Berlin because

979-764: The Berlin Police force, boys in the compulsory Hitlerjugend , and the Volkssturm . Many of the 40,000 elderly men of the Volkssturm had been in the army as young men and some were veterans of World War I . Hitler appointed SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke the Battle Commander for the central government district that included the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker . He had over 2,000 men under his command. Weidling organised

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1068-834: The Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union , and also known as the Fall of Berlin , was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II . After the Vistula–Oder offensive of January–February 1945, the Red Army had temporarily halted on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin . On 9 March, Germany established its defence plan for the city with Operation Clausewitz . The first defensive preparations at

1157-717: The Bundesvermögensamt , the division of the German treasury in charge of managing government-owned real estate. In 1991 the state of Berlin became the new owner of the palace and its gardens, and in 1997 the state put the property up for sale. In 1994, 100 years after the revival of the Olympic Games , the representatives from Argentina , Austria , China , Cyprus , Ecuador , France , Germany , Greece , Kazakhstan , Libya , Liechtenstein , Lithuania , Mexico , Nigeria , Philippines , Poland , Russia , Slovakia , Switzerland , United States , who arrived to

1246-739: The County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century. While the Frisian kingdom had comprised most of the present day Netherlands, the later province of Friesland in the Netherlands was much reduced. Already in the early Middle Ages West-Frisia (Frisia west of the Vlie) was not considered to be a part of Frisia anymore, and came to be known as Holland (present day provinces North and South Holland and Zeeland). Floris II

1335-721: The Danube River for future operations, but the depleted German forces had been given an impossible task. By 16 March, the German Lake Balaton Offensive had failed, and a counter-attack by the Red Army took back in 24 hours everything the Germans had taken ten days to gain. On 30 March, the Soviets entered Austria; and in the Vienna Offensive they captured Vienna on 13 April. On 12 April 1945, Hitler, who had earlier decided to remain in

1424-726: The German nuclear weapons program (but unknown to the Soviet Union, by the time of the Battle of Berlin, the bulk of the uranium and most of the scientists had been evacuated to Haigerloch in the Black Forest ). On 6 March, Hitler appointed Lieutenant General Helmuth Reymann commander of the Berlin Defence Area, replacing Lieutenant General Bruno Ritter von Hauenschild . On 20 March, General Gotthard Heinrici

1513-557: The Havel River to the east of Berlin, and another had at one point penetrated the inner defensive ring of Berlin. The capital was now within range of field artillery. A Soviet war correspondent, in the style of World War II Soviet journalism, gave the following account of an important event which took place on 22 April 1945 at 08:30 local time: On the walls of the houses we saw Goebbels ' appeals, hurriedly scrawled in white paint: 'Every German will defend his capital. We shall stop

1602-661: The Hohenzollern elector Frederick III of Brandenburg , who had fallen in love with the property earlier. Frederick put the manor under the care of the Amt Niederschönhausen and had it remodeled into a palace from 1691 to 1693 based on plans designed by Johann Arnold Nering . In August 1700 the Prince-elector prepared and planned his coronation as King in Prussia at Schönhausen Palace. In 1704

1691-654: The Ministry of the Interior , were hampered by the lack of supporting artillery. It was not until the damaged bridges were repaired that artillery could be moved up in support. At 04:00 hours, in the Führerbunker , Hitler signed his last will and testament and, shortly afterwards, married Eva Braun . At dawn the Soviets pressed on with their assault in the south-east. After very heavy fighting they managed to capture Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrechtstrasse , but

1780-677: The Neisse River. The three Soviet fronts had altogether 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army ), 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars , 3,255 truck-mounted Katyusha rocket launchers (nicknamed 'Stalin's Organ'), and 95,383 motor vehicles, many manufactured in the US. [REDACTED] German [REDACTED] Soviet [REDACTED] German [REDACTED] Soviet [REDACTED] German [REDACTED] Soviet The sector in which most of

1869-404: The Seelow Heights and Halbe . On 20 April 1945, Hitler's birthday, the 1st Belorussian Front led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov , advancing from the east and north, started shelling Berlin's city centre, while Marshal Ivan Konev 's 1st Ukrainian Front broke through Army Group Centre and advanced towards the southern suburbs of Berlin. On 23 April General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of

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1958-519: The Seven Years' War in 1760, while the queen retreated to the Magdeburg fortress, Russian troops pushed deep into Prussia, occupied Berlin and devastated Niederschönhausen Palace. After 1763 it was rebuilt in its current form according to plans by Johann Boumann and the gardens were remodeled in a Rococo à la française style. After the death of Queen Elisabeth Christine in 1797 the palace

2047-726: The United Provinces declared themselves independent from the Spanish rule of Philip II (who was Philip III of Holland). Until the Treaty of Münster in 1648, the kings of Spain still used the title Count of Holland, but they had lost the actual power over the county to the States of Holland . The county remained in existence as a constituent member state of the Dutch Republic until 1795. There were no more counts however since

2136-519: The Western Allies to seize the city by a ground operation. The Supreme Commander [Western] Allied Expeditionary Force , General Eisenhower , lost interest in the race to Berlin and saw no further need to suffer casualties by attacking a city that would be in the Soviet sphere of influence after the war, envisioning excessive friendly fire if both armies attempted to occupy the city at once. The major Western Allied contribution to

2225-486: The 1st Belorussian Front began shelling Berlin and did not stop until the city surrendered. The weight of ordnance delivered by Soviet artillery during the battle was greater than the total tonnage dropped by Western Allied bombers on the city. While the 1st Belorussian Front advanced towards the east and north-east of the city, the 1st Ukrainian Front pushed through the last formations of the northern wing of Army Group Centre and passed north of Juterbog , well over halfway to

2314-477: The 1st Ukrainian Front region, engaging the 2nd Polish Army and elements of the Red Army's 52nd Army and 5th Guards Army . When the old southern flank of the IV Panzer Army had some local successes counter-attacking north against the 1st Ukrainian Front, Hitler unrealistically ordered the IX Army to hold Cottbus and set up a front facing west. Next, they were to attack the Soviet columns advancing north to form

2403-566: The 5th Shock Army, the 8th Guards Army, the 1st Guards Tank Army and Rybalko 's 3rd Guards Tank Army (part of the 1st Ukrainian Front)—were forced back towards the centre, taking up new defensive positions around Hermannplatz. Krukenberg informed General Hans Krebs , Chief of the General Staff of Army high command that within 24 hours the Nordland would have to fall back to the centre sector Z (for Zentrum ). The Soviet advance to

2492-458: The American front line on the river Elbe at Magdeburg . To the north between Stettin and Schwedt , the 2nd Belorussian Front attacked the northern flank of Army Group Vistula, held by Hasso von Manteuffel 's III Panzer Army . The next day, Bogdanov 's 2nd Guards Tank Army advanced nearly 50 km (31 mi) north of Berlin and then attacked south-west of Werneuchen . The Soviet plan

2581-567: The Americans, already on the Elbe River, were unlikely to move further east. This assumption was based on his viewing of the captured Eclipse documents, which organised the partition of Germany among the Allies. Hitler immediately grasped the idea, and within hours Wenck was ordered to disengage from the Americans and move the XII Army north-east to support Berlin. It was then realised that if

2670-576: The Battle of Berlin, as well as the Eastern Front hostilities as a whole, ended with the total Soviet victory. As the 756th Regiment's commander Zinchenko had stated in his order to Battalion Commander Neustroev "... the Supreme High Command ;... and the entire Soviet People order you to erect the victory banner on the roof above Berlin". During the early hours of 30 April, Weidling informed Hitler in person that

2759-747: The Dohna-Schlobitten collection have been exhibited there. Restoration of the gardens to their layout when the president of the GDR worked here was planned. Thought was also given to the future of the garage, which was protected as a historic landmark. Beginning in 2003, the Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik (BAKS) was housed in two of the palace's auxiliary outbuildings. 52°34′42″N 13°24′20″E  /  52.57833°N 13.40556°E  / 52.57833; 13.40556 Count of Holland The counts of Holland ruled over

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2848-562: The East German authorities and until 1960 it served as the official seat of the GDR president Wilhelm Pieck , where he received state guests like Nikita Khrushchev and Ho Chi Minh . For this purpose, it was again renovated and expansion of the complex took place to the north for garages for the vehicle fleet of the President and to the south for a casino and a chancellery in a prestigious courtyard with two gatehouses. The castle garden

2937-551: The Estates of Holland and West-Frisia were the sovereign of the county (although the countship was offered to William the Silent in 1584, shortly before his death). The stadtholders , who were servants of the Estates, were the de facto chief-executives during this period. Battle of Berlin Total: 361,367 Total: 917,000–925,000 The Battle of Berlin , designated as

3026-649: The German 9th Army in a large pocket west of Frankfurt. Attempts by the 9th Army to break out to the west resulted in the Battle of Halbe . The cost to the Soviet forces had been very high, with over 2,807 tanks lost between 1 and 19 April, including at least 727 at the Seelow Heights. In the meantime, RAF Mosquitos conducted tactical air raids against German positions inside Berlin on the nights of 15 April (105 bombers), 17 April (61 bombers), 18 April (57 bombers), 19 April (79 bombers), and 20 April (78 bombers). On 20 April 1945, Hitler's 56th birthday, Soviet artillery of

3115-446: The Germans outside the city. By that time, Schörner's offensive, initially successful, had mostly been thwarted, although he did manage to inflict significant casualties on the opposing Polish and Soviet units, slowing down their progress. The forces available to General Weidling for the city's defence included roughly 45,000 soldiers in several severely depleted Heer and Waffen-SS divisions. These divisions were supplemented by

3204-399: The IX Army moved west, it could link up with the XII Army. In the evening Heinrici was given permission to make the link-up. Elsewhere, the 2nd Belorussian Front had established a bridgehead 15 km (9 mi) deep on the west bank of the Oder and was heavily engaged with the III Panzer Army. The IX Army had lost Cottbus and was being pressed from the east. A Soviet tank spearhead was on

3293-533: The Oder's flood plain, already saturated by the spring thaw, into a swamp by releasing the water from a reservoir upstream. Behind the plain on the plateau, the engineers built three belts of defensive emplacements reaching back towards the outskirts of Berlin (the lines nearer to Berlin were called the Wotan position). These lines consisted of anti-tank ditches , anti-tank gun emplacements, and an extensive network of trenches and bunkers . On 9 April, after

3382-514: The Red Army broke out and started moving west, up to 30 to 40 km (19 to 25 mi) per day, taking East Prussia , Danzig , and Poznań , drawing up on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin along the Oder River. The newly created Army Group Vistula , under the command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , attempted a counter-attack , but this had failed by 24 February. The Red Army then drove on to Pomerania , clearing

3471-536: The Red Army's outer encirclement forces west of the city. Early in the morning of 2 May, the Soviets captured the Reich Chancellery. General Weidling surrendered with his staff at 06:00 hours. He was taken to see General Vasily Chuikov at 08:23, where Weidling ordered the city's defenders to surrender to the Soviets. The 350-strong garrison of the Zoo flak tower left the building. There was sporadic fighting in

3560-448: The Red hordes at the walls of our Berlin.' Just try and stop them! Steel pillboxes , barricades, mines, traps, suicide squads with grenades clutched in their hands—all are swept aside before the tidal wave. Drizzling rain began to fall. Near Biesdorf I saw batteries preparing to open fire. 'What are the targets?' I asked the battery commander. 'Centre of Berlin, Spree bridges, and

3649-711: The SS had carried out the blowing up of the protective devices on the Landwehr Canal." A number of workers, on their own initiative, resisted or sabotaged the SS's plan to destroy the city's infrastructure; they successfully prevented the blowing up of the Klingenberg power station, the Johannisthal waterworks, and other pumping stations, railroad facilities, and bridges. At some point on 28 April or 29 April, General Heinrici, Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula,

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3738-545: The Western Allies would hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet zone, so he began the offensive on a broad front and moved rapidly to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two goals were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held useful post-war strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and

3827-488: The acquisition of Zeeland during the 14th century they had no lasting success. Instead, it became a part of the mighty medieval dynasties' possessions, first Wittelsbach then Valois and thereafter Habsburg. There was a war of succession between uncle ( John III, Duke of Bavaria ) and niece ( Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut ). This war was finally won by Philip the Good in 1433, who, in the meantime had inherited John's claims on

3916-523: The battle was the bombing of Berlin during 1945. During 1945 the United States Army Air Forces launched very large daytime raids on Berlin and, for 36 nights in succession, scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed the German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city. The Soviet offensive into central Germany, what later became East Germany , had two objectives. Stalin did not believe

4005-411: The chronology of the first few counts is uncertain. The existence of a count between Dirk I and Dirk II was only recently suggested, since it is thought that the references to counts named Dirk between 896 and 988 refer to three, not two, different counts. This third Count Dirk is placed between Dirk I and II and numbered as Dirk I bis to avoid confusion with the already established numbering referring to

4094-413: The city against the wishes of his advisers, heard the news that the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died. This briefly raised false hopes in the Führerbunker that there might yet be a falling out among the Allies and that Berlin would be saved at the last moment, as had happened once before when Berlin was threatened (see the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg ). No plans were made by

4183-401: The city centre was along these main axes: from the south-east, along the Frankfurter Allee (ending and stopped at the Alexanderplatz ); from the south along Sonnenallee ending north of the Belle-Alliance-Platz , from the south ending near the Potsdamer Platz and from the north ending near the Reichstag . The Reichstag, the Moltke bridge, Alexanderplatz, and the Havel bridges at Spandau saw

4272-414: The city until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May (9 May in the Soviet Union) as some German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than to the Soviets. On 12 January 1945, the Red Army began the Vistula–Oder Offensive across the Narew River; and, from Warsaw, a three-day operation on a broad front, which incorporated four army Fronts . On the fourth day,

4361-430: The city. On 26 April, Chuikov 's 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army fought their way through the southern suburbs and attacked Tempelhof Airport, just inside the S-Bahn defensive ring, where they met stiff resistance from the Müncheberg Division. But by 27 April, the two understrength divisions ( Müncheberg and Nordland ) that were defending the south-east, now facing five Soviet armies—from east to west,

4450-413: The county. Philip and Jacqueline were double first cousins, Philip's mother is daughter of Albert while Jacqueline's mother was daughter of Philip the Bold of Burgundy. In April 1433 he forced Jacqueline to abdicate from Hainaut and Holland on his behalf. During the 'foreign rule' by Burgundy and Habsburg, the county was governed by a stadtholder in name of the count. In 1581, the Estates General of

4539-409: The course of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . It was then opened to the public and used for numerous art exhibitions as well as the government's official art department during the Nazi era , when several paintings of banned so-called " degenerate art " were stored here. During the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II , the palace suffered some damage but was repaired almost immediately by

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4628-510: The day, when Steiner explained that he did not have the divisions to achieve this, Heinrici made it clear to Hitler's staff that unless the IX Army retreated immediately, it would be enveloped by the Soviets. He stressed that it was already too late for it to move north-west to Berlin and would have to retreat west. Heinrici went on to say that if Hitler did not allow it to move west, he would ask to be relieved of his command. On 22 April 1945, at his afternoon situation conference, Hitler fell into

4717-399: The defences into eight sectors designated 'A' through to 'H' each one commanded by a colonel or a general, but most had no combat experience. To the west of the city was the 20th Infantry Division . To the north of the city was the 9th Parachute Division . To the north-east of the city was the Panzer Division Müncheberg . To the south-east of the city and to the east of Tempelhof Airport

4806-435: The defenders would probably exhaust their ammunition during the night. Hitler granted him permission to attempt a breakout through the encircling Red Army lines. That afternoon, Hitler and Braun committed suicide and their bodies were cremated not far from the bunker. In accordance with Hitler's last will and testament, Admiral Karl Dönitz became the " President of the Reich " ( Reichspräsident ) and Joseph Goebbels became

4895-577: The defensive positions, having suffered about 30,000 dead, while 12,000 German personnel were killed. On 19 April, the fourth day, the 1st Belorussian Front broke through the final line of the Seelow Heights and nothing but broken German formations lay between them and Berlin. The 1st Ukrainian Front, having captured Forst the day before, fanned out into open country. One powerful thrust by Gordov 's 3rd Guards Army and Rybalko 's 3rd and Lelyushenko 's 4th Guards Tank Armies were heading north-east towards Berlin while other armies headed west towards

4984-429: The eastern part, local chieftains created their own states (within the Holy Roman Empire) in the late Middle Ages. They became a county after 1446 until 1744, after which it was incorporated within Prussia and later Germany. The first count of Holland, Dirk I, was the son or foster-son of Gerolf, Count in Frisia (Dijkstra suggests that Dirk may have been the son of a sister of Gerolf and that his own father died while he

5073-428: The encirclement of the city. Within the next day, 25 April 1945, the Soviet investment of Berlin was consolidated, with leading Soviet units probing and penetrating the S-Bahn defensive ring. By the end of the day, it was clear that the German defence of the city could not do anything but temporarily delay the capture of the city by the Soviets, since the decisive stages of the battle had already been fought and lost by

5162-409: The evening of 24 April. During the same period, of all the German forces ordered to reinforce the inner defences of the city by Hitler, only a small contingent of French SS volunteers under the command of SS Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg arrived in Berlin. During 25 April, Krukenberg was appointed as the commander of Defence Sector C, the sector under the most pressure from the Soviet assault on

5251-522: The fighting in the overall offensive took place was the Seelow Heights, the last major defensive line outside Berlin. The Battle of the Seelow Heights , fought over four days from 16 until 19 April, was one of the last pitched battles of World War II: almost one million Red Army soldiers and more than 20,000 tanks and artillery pieces were deployed to break through the "Gates to Berlin", which were defended by about 100,000 German soldiers and 1,200 tanks and guns. The Soviet forces led by Zhukov broke through

5340-419: The forces within Berlin. The garrison consisted of several depleted and disorganised Army and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Volkssturm and Hitler Youth members. Over the course of the next week, the Red Army gradually took the entire city. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide . The city's garrison surrendered on 2 May but fighting continued to the north-west, west, and south-west of

5429-429: The founding congress of the International Delphic Council to establish the Delphic Games of the modern era , met at the palace. In 2003 there was some discussion about using the palace as the temporary residence of the President of Germany until the renovation of Schloss Bellevue would be completed, but this plan fell through because of the high cost (approximately €12 million) that would have been required to bring

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5518-430: The heaviest fighting, with house-to-house and hand-to-hand combat . The foreign contingents of the SS fought particularly hard, because they were ideologically motivated and they believed that they would not live if captured. In the early hours of 29 April the Soviet 3rd Shock Army crossed the Moltke Bridge and started to fan out into the surrounding streets and buildings. The initial assaults on buildings, including

5607-408: The hill in question actually is a horse's grave has not been proven. In fact Condé outlived its owner and died in 1804, aged 38. Its skeleton is kept at the veterinary department of the Free University of Berlin . The Prussian ruling Hohenzollern dynasty owned Schönhausen Palace until it was dispossessed and became a property of the Free State of Prussia in 1920, following the end of the monarchy in

5696-429: The last link between the German IX Army and the city. Elements of the 1st Ukrainian Front continued to move westward and started to engage the German XII Army moving towards Berlin. On this same day, Hitler appointed General Helmuth Weidling as the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, replacing Lieutenant General Reymann. Meanwhile, by 24 April 1945 elements of 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front had completed

5785-406: The new Chancellor of the Reich ( Reichskanzler ). As the perimeter shrank and the surviving defenders fell back, they became concentrated into a small area in the city centre. By now there were about 10,000 German soldiers in the city centre, which was being assaulted from all sides. One of the other main thrusts was along Wilhelmstrasse on which the Air Ministry, built of reinforced concrete ,

5874-412: The northern and Stettin railway stations,' he answered. Then came the tremendous words of command: 'Open fire on the capital of Fascist Germany.' I noted the time. It was exactly 8:30 a.m. on 22 April. Ninety-six shells fell in the centre of Berlin in the course of a few minutes. On 23 April 1945, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front continued to tighten the encirclement, severing

5963-409: The now King Frederick I in Prussia contracted Eosander von Göthe  [ de ] to again enlarge the palace and its gardens. However, after the king's death in 1713, his son and successor Frederick William I did not care much for the place. As a result, civil servants, such as Minister Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow , moved in to use it as office space, part of the land was leased and both

6052-476: The other counts of Holland named Dirk. The counts of West-Frisia ruled locally in the name of the archbishop of Utrecht, but over time, the counts of Holland came to dominate the bishopric of Utrecht. The archbishop of Utrecht governed the area on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor, who saw his power diminished by the feudal system in which the counts and dukes ruled almost as sovereigns. The counts of Holland tried frequently to increase their territory but apart from

6141-432: The outskirts of Berlin were made on 20 March, under the newly appointed commander of Army Group Vistula , General Gotthard Heinrici . When the Soviet offensive resumed on 16 April, two Soviet fronts ( army groups ) attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city after successful battles of

6230-586: The palace and the park slowly became dilapidated in the ensuing years. Under King Frederick II of Prussia , also known as "Frederick the Great", the palace was once again turned into a royal residence for his wife, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern , who used it as her regular summer residence from 1740 to 1790. Artist Johann Michael Graff most probably contributed the lavish stucco decorations executed during this time. As Frederick's relations with his wife were strained, he never visited Niederschönhausen and spent his summers at Sanssouci in Potsdam . During

6319-416: The palace sufficiently up to standards. Furthermore, due to impregnation of the roof structure with chemicals to protect the wooden beams, for several years only the two lower floors could be used for occasional celebrations and guided tours. In June 2005, ownership of the palace was transferred to the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg. At the same time, €8.6 million in federal funds

6408-502: The positions being vacated by the 1st Belorussian Front north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress, gaps were left in the lines; and the remnants of General Dietrich von Saucken 's German II Army , which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig , managed to escape into the Vistula delta. To the south, Marshal Konev shifted the main weight of the 1st Ukrainian Front out of Upper Silesia and north-west to

6497-472: The public and surrounded by a tall wall. While German reunification was in progress in 1989 and 1990, the so-called Round Table met in the palace's outbuildings. Major portions of the negotiations leading to the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany also took place here, and a plaque now memorializes this period. After German reunification, the palace became the property of

6586-591: The remnants of the Berlin garrison attempted to break out of the city centre in three different directions. Only those that went west through the Tiergarten and crossed the Charlottenbrücke (a bridge over the Havel) into Spandau succeeded in breaching Soviet lines. Only a handful of those who survived the initial breakout made it to the lines of the Western Allies—most were either killed or captured by

6675-480: The right bank of the Oder River, thereby reaching into Silesia . In the south, Soviet and Romanian forces besieged Budapest . Three German divisions' attempts to relieve the encircled Hungarian capital city failed, and Budapest fell to the Soviets on 13 February. Adolf Hitler insisted on a counter-attack to recapture the Drau-Danube triangle. The goal was to secure the oil region of Nagykanizsa and regain

6764-510: The roof of the Zoo flak tower , close by Berlin Zoo , it was not until that evening that the Soviets were able to enter the building. The Reichstag had not been in use since it had burned in February 1933 and its interior resembled a rubble heap more than a government building. The German troops inside were heavily entrenched, and fierce room-to-room fighting ensued. At that point there was still

6853-571: The south of the Tiergarten. These Soviet forces had effectively cut the sausage-shaped area held by the Germans in half and made any escape attempt to the west for German troops in the centre much more difficult. During the early hours of 1 May, Krebs talked to General Chuikov, commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, informing him of Hitler's death and a willingness to negotiate a citywide surrender. They could not agree on terms because of Soviet insistence on unconditional surrender and Krebs' claim that he lacked authorisation to agree to that. Goebbels

6942-415: Was against surrender. In the afternoon, Goebbels and his wife killed their children and then themselves. Goebbels's death removed the last impediment which prevented Weidling from accepting the terms of unconditional surrender of his garrison, but he chose to delay the surrender until the next morning to allow the planned breakout to take place under the cover of darkness. On the night of 1/2 May, most of

7031-405: Was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula replacing Himmler. Heinrici was one of the best defensive tacticians in the German army, and he immediately started to lay defensive plans. Heinrici correctly assessed that the main Soviet thrust would be made over the Oder River and along the main east-west Autobahn . He decided not to try to defend the banks of the Oder with anything more than

7120-460: Was earmarked for renovation work. The palace was reopened to the public on 19 December 2009. In addition to the historic rooms dating to the time of the Prussian queen, the rooms used by the GDR president were reopened. Refurnishing the office used by Wilhelm Pieck and building a café for museum guests were also being considered. Furthermore, artworks from the collection of Elisabeth Christine and

7209-455: Was pounded by large concentrations of Soviet artillery. The remaining German Tiger tanks of the Hermann von Salza battalion took up positions in the east of the Tiergarten to defend the centre against Kuznetsov 's 3rd Shock Army (which although heavily engaged around the Reichstag was also flanking the area by advancing through the northern Tiergarten) and the 8th Guards Army advancing through

7298-534: Was relieved of his command after disobeying Hitler's direct orders to hold Berlin at all costs and never order a retreat, and was replaced by General Kurt Student . General Kurt von Tippelskirch was named as Heinrici's interim replacement until Student could arrive and assume control. There remains some confusion as to who was in command, as some references say that Student was captured by the British and never arrived. Regardless of whether von Tippelskirch or Student

7387-422: Was seldom used. At times Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , widow of Prince Louis Charles of Prussia , lived at Schönhausen and had the gardens again remodeled, this time by Peter Joseph Lenné into an English landscape garden . Apart from that it served mainly as a storage facility for furniture and paintings. It was rumored that King Frederick II had his favorite horse Condé buried in the gardens, but whether

7476-510: Was separated by a wall into an inner, no longer public, and an outer, public part. The interior design of the garden was done by architect Reinhold Lingner as a cheerful, open-looking garden in the typical style of the 1950s. After the death of the first and only President of the GDR in 1960 it served at first as the seat of the newly established East German State Council , which moved to the Staatsratsgebäude at Mitte in 1964. It

7565-472: Was still an infant). He received land around Egmond from Charles the Fat at a place called Bladella (modern-day Bladel near Eindhoven, The Netherlands) in 922. This is seen as the beginning of the county of Holland. However, until about 1100, the usual names for the county were West-Friesland, Frisia or Kennemerland; in spite of this the counts from Dirk I onwards are traditionally named of Holland . Note that

7654-612: Was the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland . The reserve, 18th Panzergrenadier Division , was in Berlin's central district. On 23 April, Berzarin 's 5th Shock Army and Katukov 's 1st Guards Tank Army assaulted Berlin from the south-east and, after overcoming a counter-attack by the German LVI Panzer Corps , reached the Berlin S-Bahn ring railway on the north side of the Teltow Canal by

7743-420: Was the first count who restyled his name from count of "West-Frisia", in count of "Holland". Frisia Proper in medieval time therefore only included the middle and eastern part. The middle part (corresponding to the present day Dutch province of Friesland) was populated by free peasants who successfully resisted all attempts by feudal lords to subdue them, mainly the counts of Holland and the bishops of Utrecht. In

7832-551: Was then used by the GDR government as its official guest house and officially renamed Schloss Niederschönhausen . Numerous state visitors lodged here, among them Indira Gandhi , Fidel Castro , the last Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev , and his wife Raisa Gorbachova , in October 1989 on the eve of the East German Peaceful Revolution . At that time, the palace and part of the gardens were closed to

7921-560: Was to encircle Berlin first and then envelop the IX Army . The command of the German V Corps , trapped with the IX Army north of Forst, passed from the IV Panzer Army to the IX Army. The corps was still holding on to the Berlin- Cottbus highway front line. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner 's Army Group Centre launched a counter-offensive aimed at breaking through to Berlin from the south and entering (the Battle of Bautzen ) in

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