The origin was a traffic circle of the last baroque city fortification. On its foundations, during the construction of the Prince's Garden in the 18th century, a traffic circle with a parapet and on the north side an entrance asymmetrically offset to the east was created. It was equipped with benches as a vantage point. Around 1903, Carl Anton Henschel had Weinbergstraße moved about 17 meters to the north in the course of the construction of his villa "Haus Henschel". This reduced the size of the traffic circle so that the entrance is now in the center. To commemorate the victims of fascism, the fallen soldiers and the bomb victims, the memorial designed by Professor Hans Sautter was inaugurated in December 1953. It is uncovered so that one can see the sky. In the center "floats" a wreath of thorns weighing 11 hundredweight with a diameter of 3 meters. Three steel dowels make it virtually float above the ground. The work of art was completed in Germany's oldest picture foundry Noack in Berlin-Friedenau according to a design by Prof. Sautter. It was transported to Kassel in four parts and installed here by nine employees.

The memorial was built with the dedication "To the annihilated" in Kassel for the victims of fascism. It is intended to honor those Kassel citizens who were persecuted for political, religious and racial reasons; especially concentration camp inmates, bombing victims and soldiers who fought against violence and dictatorship for democracy and peace. "The memorial shall be in its representational appearance a symbol of the inner heroic attitude of the resistance fighters." This quotation from the preamble to the call for entries for the competition for a memorial to the victims of fascism in Kassel was taken from the Kassel City Archives.

The fact that the memorial was erected on the remains of a roundel can be seen from the darker lower stone layers. The entrance is flanked by two columns with the half-sculptures "Hope" and "Mourning". It is inscribed with the words: "To the annihilated", "1933 - 1945", "The living I call. The dead I lament."