Raising a Flag over the Reichstag

On May 2, 1945, Soviet combat photographer Yevgeny Khaldei climbed to the shell-blasted rooftop of the Reichstag in Berlin carrying his Leica III loaded with 36 frames, alongside soldiers holding a makeshift red banner stitched by his uncle from three tablecloths.

Khaldei angled low against the smoldering skyline as 18-year-old soldier Aleksei Kovalyov hoisted the flag over the defeated capital. When Khaldei returned to Moscow, editors noticed the supporting soldier below had a watch on each wrist (evidence of looting); Khaldei carefully scratched one watch off the negative with a needle, and smoke was dramatized in the darkroom to heighten the atmosphere.

The resulting frame became the defining visual symbol of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and one of the most famous war photographs in history, captured entirely on a Leica rangefinder.