6 Locations
Berlin confronts the history of national socialism directly, through memorials, museums and preserved sites. Rather than hide the past, the city examines national socialism to remember its victims and warn the future. This overview gathers Berlin locations that tell this history.
The Topography of Terror on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the House of the Wannsee Conference document the era in sobering detail. Stumbling stones mark victims across the city, and museums and tours add context. The sites invite reflection rather than spectacle.
Browse the venues below to explore the history of national socialism across Berlin, from documentation centres to memorials.
At Platz der Luftbrücke stands Tempelhof Airport, Europe's largest architectural monument, built from 1936 as a prestige project of the National Socialists. In 1948, the 'Raisin Bombers' of the Berlin Airlift landed here, after which the US Air Force used the site until the end of the Cold War. Guided tours lead through hangars, bunkers, and transit passages.
In the Anne Frank Center Berlin at Hackescher Markt in Berlin-Mitte the permanent exhibition "All about Anne" is shown.
Beneath Gesundbrunnen station lies an air-raid shelter with almost fifty rooms on three floors, rediscovered by Berliner Unterwelten e.V. only in 1998. Today, the association manages fourteen such sites and guides groups through them in ninety minutes. For a class trip to Berlin, this means: contemporary history without display cases, but with sturdy footwear.
Around 2,700 concrete stelae stand on 19,000 square meters; beneath them, on 800 square meters, lies the Place of Information with the Rooms of Dimensions, Families, Names, and Places. Admission and access to the field of stelae are free. For a class trip to Berlin, this is the place where a number transforms into individual biographies.
Between Hackescher Markt and Oranienburger Strasse, Art Nouveau courtyards from 1905, the New Synagogue from 1866, the Old Jewish Cemetery, and the Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind Museum are located within a few hundred meters, with 'Stolpersteine' (stumbling blocks) everywhere. A school trip in Berlin can fill a morning here without a single ticket.
From 1933 to 1945 the Gestapo, the SS leadership and the Reich Security Main Office sat on this site at Niederkirchnerstrasse. Today there are excavated cellars, a site tour with fifteen stations and around 200 metres of the Berlin Wall. Admission and guided tours are free for school classes. For a school trip to Berlin, this is the view from the perpetrators’ side.