Graffiti

On 23 April, close to the 65th anniversary of the end of the war the LIFE magazine published a photo series of fifteen pictures on the occupied Berlin, primarily on the bunker of Hitler. The pictures were taken by the renowned photographer William Vandivert – later co-founder of Magnum Photos – who had worked for the magazine since the middle of the 30s. He was the only American photographer who obtained permission from the Soviets to enter the by then already completely sacked bunker where at that time some Soviet military experts were doing investigations.



The captions of a number of the above photos emphasize that they have never been published. I have not checked this, but even if it is so, almost all of them can be found in the public picture archive of LIFE as well. The ones I have found there at the first survey I have included as larger images to be displayed by clicking on the mosaic tiles. But of course the archive contains several photos on the bunker that were not selected for the above set.






The allegedly unpublished photos also include the thirteenth picture of the series which represents the interior of the ruined Reichstag, densely decorated with the names of the winners. Vandivert accurately went around this theme. The inscriptions are mostly of Russian soldiers, but the only one caught red-handed by Vandivert happened to be an Englishman.








The inscriptions remained intact for fifty years in the closed and isolated Reichstag. It was only in the 90s that they were discovered by Karin Felix, a collaborator of the restorations. She prepared a first, complete catalog of the inscriptions and she has made inquiries about the persons and the stories behind the names.



The first person to be identified in 2001 was Boris Sapunov from Leningrad, today retired senior research fellow of the Hermitage and doctor of historical sciences. Wolfgang Tirse, President of the Bundestag composed a festive document for the occasion and deposited it in the archive of the Bundestag.









The citizens of the Soviet Union, however, never forgot the glory of having reached, in a war that at the beginning almost appeared lost, to the heart of the enemy empire and to have written their names right there in the interieur of the “local Kreml”. Wartime memoires also remember this, such as Ivan Frolovich Klochko’s “Мы штурмовали рейхстаг – We laid siege to the Reichstag” published in 1986. This volume even includes a poem written on the way home by artilleryman K. N. Andreev which has become the official song of the company.

Бой затихал. Смолкала канонада. В Тиргартене еще свинец хлестал, А на стене разбитого рейхстага Солдат штыком автограф написал. С годами надпись на стене поблекла, Оставленная мной в чужом краю. Но тех солдат, что были вместе в пекле, Я сердцем чувствую и всюду узнаю. И как бы ни был путь солдата, труден, В каком бы ни был дальнем он краю, На стройке мирных напряженных буден — Он созидатель. Он всегда в строю!..

The war is over. The gutfire has stopped. In the Tiergarten the lead is still whipping, but the soldier with a bayonet has written his name on the wall of the collapsed Reichstag. During the years the inscription fades out which I have left in a foreign country, but I always keep in my mind and heart the comrades that were with me in the inferno. And however difficult the soldier’s way was, however far away he was from his home, of the coming, peaceful workdays he’ll be a builder. He serves forever!…

In spite of the expectations of the artilleryman-poet, however, the inscriptions have not faded out. During the restoration of the Reichstag they were conserved in situ.