A symbolic message… but possibly false. On Facebook, a video claims that the Soviet flag would have been raised on the roof of the German Parliament – the Reichstag – on May 8, the day of the Victory of the allied forces and therefore the end of the Second World War.
“In Berlin, on May 8, an unidentified person flew a Soviet flag over the Reichstag Palace where the German parliament sits,” claims a publication. On the video that accompanies the text, a red flag is visible. We manage to distinguish the sickle and the hammer, symbol of communism adopted by the Soviet Union.
The publication is viral on social networks, but also on sites like Qactus – a site wishing to “reinform” with the aim of “raising awareness”. “This action is in defense of the anti-Russian and anti-Soviet measures taken by Germany in terms of the flag,” writes the site. But did the scene really take place? 20 minutes checked.
FAKE OFF
About publishing from the Qactus website, several photographs were published of the Reichstag, with behind the famous red flag, which would be a Soviet flag. In one of the photos, several young people pose for example in front of the parliament, with a red flag still visible in the background. In another photograph, the building alone with several works around it.
According to a reverse image search, the first images of the flag seem to come mainly from the Telegram account of a pro-Kremlin Russian journalist, Dimitri Smirnov, very quickly relayed by Russian sites. “On German social networks, photos and videos have been released, in which the victory banner has again appeared on the Reichstag in Berlin”, explained Russian media Tsargard, Monday, May 8 at the end of the morning. However, the first accounts where the photos were published are mostly Russian.
The Reichstag denies
But in all the photos, one element stands out: the trees in the photo have no foliage. If spring seems a little late this year, the tree looks more like the one you might come across between autumn and winter. Weather still, in the photograph of the young visitors, we see several puddles of water in the background. Quite logically, this would mean that rain fell that day in Berlin, unlike what the weather forecast says.
Contacted by 20 minutes, the press service of the Reichstag confirms that the event never took place in the German parliament. The flag was probably added thanks to an assembly. By observing the video taken from further away – from the road – this would explain for example why the flag seems to fly in the opposite direction of the flag next to it.
Another detail is intriguing. On the video taken from a distance, we observe a bus passing with the following inscription “Vorwärts”… a detail that we find on the cup of the man present on the initial video. In Germany, Vorwärts [ « En avant » en allemand, Ndlr] is a German social-democratic newspaper originally aimed at German workers… but difficult to draw any connection between the newspaper and the videos.
A symbol… 78 years ago
The Soviet flag on the roof of the Reichstag is above all a historical reference. On May 2, 1945, a few days before the armistice, a photo that is still famous today was captured by photographer Yevgeny Khaldei. We see a soldier planting a red flag above Berlin, while another man holds him by the feet. The photograph would later represent the symbol of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
However, this great symbol of the end of the fall of the Third Reich was above all a propaganda tool when she was captured. In the series “Five revealing photos”, produced by France Culture in 2021, we learn that, for example, it took thirty-six breaks to capture the photo in question. But once sent to Moscow, this one was not suitable: the soldier holding the feet wore two watches. One of them was completely removed by scratching the photo and adding a few clouds of smoke in the background… history.
Moreover, the photo was largely prepared in advance. It is inspired in particular by the photo captured by the American Joe Rosenthal, on February 23, 1945 on Mount Suribach on the island of Iwo Jima, during the victory of the United States over Japan.