On 22 June 2023, the German Bundestag decided to erect a memorial to Jehovah’s Witnesses who were persecuted and murdered under National Socialism.
The memorial is situated in the Großer Tiergarten, near the Goldfischteich. The memorial was officially opened to the public on 24 June 2026, with a total of 900 guests in attendance. Speakers at the opening ceremony included Julia Klöckner, President of the Bundestag (speech in German), and Wolfram Weimer, Minister of State for Culture and Media.
Memorial
currently under construction
place
Großer Tiergarten near the goldfish pond, 10117 Berlin
Contact
+49 30 26 39 43 – 36
besucherservice@stiftung-denkmal.de
Historical background and the artist
The Christian religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses, also known as the Earnest Bible Students, was systematically persecuted in Germany from 1933 onwards and in Nazi-controlled Europe from 1938 onwards.
They refused to give the Hitler salute, join state organisations or perform military service. They were persecuted, imprisoned in concentration camps and murdered – in the German Reich as well as in most of the conquered territories.
Almost 14,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses – women and men – were imprisoned, including 4,200 in concentration camps, where they were stigmatised with a ‘purple triangle’. At least 1,750 Jehovah’s Witnesses lost their lives.
Why this location?
During a wave of arrests in 1936, leading Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout Germany were imprisoned. At least 17 of those arrested died as a result of torture. One of these Gestapo arrests took place on 22 August 1936 at the goldfish pond in Berlin’s Tiergarten park.
The artist Matthias Leeck
The artist Matthias Leeck designed the simple bronze sculpture for the memorial site. Due to its weight, it was transported to the memorial site in individual parts and assembled on site. The memorial site was integrated into the Großer Tiergarten garden landscape monument in accordance with the specifications of the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, together with an information board (is yet to be erected), an access path and various plantings.
Biographical supplement
In the run-up to the memorial’s inauguration, school projects and youth remembrance initiatives have created an interactive map at www.biographien-verfolgter-zeugen-jehovas.de showing places associated with the resistance and persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Under the heading ‘Memory of the Nameless’, young people, guided by teachers and those involved in youth work, have created a constantly growing database of biographies of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This data forms the basis for an interactive map of places of resistance and persecution. Historical documents and photographs, as well as video clips produced during the young people’s work, complement the biographical information on the interactive map. Throughout the project, the young people repeatedly shared their research findings in active discussion forums. The project was funded by the EVZ Foundation and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) as part of the ‘JUGEND erinnert vor Ort & engagiert’ programme.
Short documentary film ‘Bible Students – Incredible Courage’
The Permanent Conference of Nazi Memorial Sites in the Berlin Area took the German Bundestag’s decision on 22 June 2023 as an opportunity to produce a short film about the religious community. The film, entitled ‘Bible Students – Incredible Courage,’ was completed in January 2026 and provides information about Nazi persecution, the courageous resistance of many Jehovah’s Witnesses against the Nazi regime, and the ongoing repression in the GDR after 1945.
