Original Communication The processing of skeletonized human remains found in Berlin, Germany Tanja Hollmann MD a , Roger W. Byard MD b, * , Michael Tsokos MD a a Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Charite ´ – Universita ¨ tsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany b Discipline of Pathology, Level 3 Medical School North Building, The University of Adelaide, Frome Road, Adelaide 5005, Australia Received 4 August 2007; received in revised form 11 January 2008; accepted 8 February 2008 Available online 13 June 2008 Abstract During World War II, and particularly the Battle of Berlin, many thousands of civilians and soldiers from a variety of countries were killed. Given the nature of the intense aerial and ground bombardments bodies were often fragmented and buried beneath rubble result- ing in many individuals, who were presumed to have been killed, not being identified. Skeletal remains are continually being uncovered in Berlin, particularly with accelerated building developments following German re-unification. A retrospective study was undertaken of records over a 10-year period from 1997 to 2006 to demonstrate the method of processing of skeletal material and to show the results of such analyses. Over the period of the study, 257 cases were investigated (approximately 26 per year). As bones were found in multiple areas at each site, this represented 290 collections of bones from the 257 sites. Only nine complete skeletons were found with a total of 40,344 single or fragmented bones. In 1997, a huge number of bones were unearthed during major construction work at Potsdamer Plaz and the central railway station (Lehrter Bahnof). This gave rise to 29,602 bones and fragments, excluding animal remains. Despite the passage of time, successful identification of remains is still occurring, with 44 individuals positively identified over the 10 years of the study, including eight in 2006. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd and FFLM. All rights reserved. Keywords: Skeletal remains; Identification; Berlin; World War II 1. Background Berlin, situated in the east of Germany, is the country’s capital and is a city of approximately 3.45 million people. The city began as two small trading posts that merged in the 14th century. Although ravaged by the Thirty Year’s War from 1618 to 1648, by the latter part of the 17th cen- tury Berlin had risen to become the capital of Prussia under Friederich I. Part of this renaissance involved the encour- agement of foreign settlement including Jewish families from Vienna and Huguenot refugees from France. The city continued to suffer troubled times and was occupied by the French for seven years during the Napoleonic wars. Later in that century the city again prospered and the population doubled under the influence of the Industrial Revolution. Political instability, however, followed World War I in the next century and led to the rise of the Nazi party in the 1930s. World War II followed and saw large-scale dev- astation to both the structure and people of Berlin, with continued bombing by Allied aircraft from 1943 to 1944. In April 1945, the ‘Battle for Berlin’ occurred with the inva- sion of 1.5 million Soviet soldiers. Widespread loss of civil- ian life with thousands of military casualties occurred during the intense street fighting that followed. 1 2. Recovery of human remains Given the extensive damage to buildings and infrastruc- ture that occurred during World War II (Fig. 1), the num- ber of casualties, and the chaos of the final months of the 1752-928X/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd and FFLM. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2008.02.010 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +618 8303 5441; fax: +618 8303 4408. E-mail address: byard.roger@saugov.sa.gov.au (R.W. Byard). www.elsevier.com/jflm Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 15 (2008) 420–425 JOURNAL OF FORENSIC AND LEGAL MEDICINE