Good Bye, Lenin was said in the film and it was also the case for numerous monuments erected in the GDR after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But not for the Lenin statue in Schwerin, which was unveiled on the occasion of the city's 825th anniversary. It is now the only monument of its kind in Germany that was erected between 1945 and 1990 and still stands at its original location. Thus, it enjoys a national uniqueness among the public artworks in Schwerin. 

The plans for the third phase of the new housing area "Großer Dreesch" were already in full swing when the idea for a Lenin monument was born in the mid-1970s. After initially considering regional and national artists for the commission, the idea arose that a sculptor from Schwerin's partner city of Tallinn could also take on the task. Jaak Soans was proposed for the job. The Estonian was already well-known in his homeland as a non-conformist artist, having created oversized depictions of the writers Anton Hansen Tammsaare and Kristjan Jaak Peterson.

The Schwerin monument was intended not only to create a likeness of Lenin but also to commemorate the "Decree on Land," one of the revolutionary decrees of the October Revolution of 1917. After personally inspecting the proposed location and several discussions with local decision-makers, the design was finalized in 1983. Soans completed the final gypsum model for the bronze casting of the 3.20-meter-high sculpture in the workshops of the VEB Monument Conservation in Schwerin. These works were completed in the spring of 1984. The casting took place in the summer of the same year in Lauchhammer.

However, setting up the bronze statue posed problems for the workers commissioned to do so: there was no fixing point for a holding rope. So they had to improvise. With a loop around Lenin's neck, they finally managed to place the colossus on its pedestal. A press photographer captured this eerie scene, but the photo was not to be published on political instructions, as there were fears of a political interpretation of the image. Soans' created monument differs significantly from the well-known Lenin depictions in East Berlin and Potsdam – on the one hand, because it eschews heroic poses. On the other hand, the impressionistic form design also deviates significantly from the pathos of comparable works and at the same time shows the scope of political commissioned art in the final years of the GDR. After reunification, the only five-year-old Lenin monument was the subject of debate. After long discussions about this and other political monuments in Schwerin, an extraparliamentary commission recommended to the city council in 1993 to preserve the sculpture – a decision that fortunately was not revoked in later discussions. A plaque providing information about the depicted person and his political and social impact was integrated into the base of the monument in 2007.

Meanwhile, the cultural-historical significance of the monument is known beyond the city limits – as the sculpture represents an outstanding example of art commissioned by the GDR. Although Lenin's location has remained unchanged for more than 35 years, the work has still changed. From a former monument of power, it has become a memorial that invites reflection on the diversity of remembering and forgetting