The granite head of Vladimir Lenin, exhibited at the Zitadelle Spandau, originates from the 19-meter monument that once stood on East Berlin’s Leninplatz (today Platz der Vereinten Nationen). Inaugurated in 1970, the statue was dismantled after reunification in 1991, cut into 129 pieces, and buried in a forest near Müggelheim. More than twenty years later, the museum requested permission to excavate the head. Authorities initially claimed that its exact location was unknown, although filmmaker Rick Minnich had already located it for his 2003 documentary “The Book of Lenins.” When excavation was finally approved, environmental regulators reported that a colony of rare sand lizards had settled above the buried sculpture. After the animals were relocated, Lenin’s head was unearthed in September 2015, and since 2016, the sculpture has been on display at the museum.