Workers in Berlin dug up an old granite head of late Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin as part of a campaign by historians to preserve German monuments.
The 8,600-pound head used to be part of a 62-foot statue of Lenin unveiled in 1970 on East Berlin's Leninplatz, or Lenin Square, reported SFGate. In 1991, after the fall of ther Berlin Wall, the statue was removed, broken into 129 pieces and buried in the woods at Berlin's southeastern edge. The plaza where the statue once stood was remaned United Nations Square.
The city encountered a few difficulties in its attempt to remove Lenin's head from the earth, according to The Telegraph.
First, while officials and historians had knowledge of an approximate location of the head, none of them knew precisely where it was located. This issue was resolved by American filmmaker Rick Minnich, who stated that not only did he film the head, but he also knew where it was buried.
Second, some simply didn't want the head to be dug up. Some of the opposition said they didn't want the head exhibited, while others said it would be too expensive to dig it up.
Lastly, there were various endangered reptiles who made the area their home, so workers had to wait until the lizards were removed before work could begin.
After all the obstacles were cleared, workers used a crane to dig the massive head from the earth.
While the rest of the statue remains underground, the head was moved Thursday to an exhibition in the Spandau Citadelle museum, where it will be displayed alongside monuments that once stood in Berlin, including a few from Nazi Germany.
