24 students from Harrogate Grammar School travelled to Berlin as prizewinners in the nationwide TPYF Commemorative Visits Competition to explore and understand German attitudes towards their wartime past. The group visited a number of key sites in Berlin in order to gain an understanding of events leading to its fall in 1945, and how the city’s subsequent history has been shaped by conflict and the ensuing Cold War. The visit also focused on Berlin’s role in the history of the Holocaust in Germany and across Europe.
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Berlin Itinerary
Berlin Itinerary
Below is the itinerary that was followed by pupils on their seven-day visit.
If you would like to find out more about the places to visit on an educational tour of the Netherlands, please see the ‘Places to Visit’ section below.
Berlin Itinerary
Day 1
- Travel to London for early flight to Berlin the following day
Day 2
- Travel to Berlin
- Introductory tour of Berlin: Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the Neue Synagogue and the Grosse Hamburger Strasse Memorial
Day 3
- A visit to the Bernauerstrasse
- A visit to Jewish Museum
- A visit to Unter den Linden which included the Bebelplatz site of
the book burning, the Neue Wache and the Topography of Terror
- Visit to Rosenstrasse Memorial
Day 4
- A visit to the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Soviet War Memorial and the new Holocaust Memorial
- A visit to the Soviet War Memorial at Treptow and the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum
Day 5
- An excursion to visit Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
- A visit to Wannsee Villa, where the Conference of 1942 expounded the “Final Solution”
- A visit to the Olympic Stadium, built for the 1936 Olympic Games as a Nazi showpiece
- A visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Charlottenburg
Day 6
- A full day around Potsdam including a guided tour of Schloss Cecilienhof, an early 20th Century house and grounds built for Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife, later used for the Potsdam conference
Day 7
- A tour of the German Resistance Memorial museum
- A visit to Checkpoint Charlie and its memorial wall with 1,065 crosses representing those who were killed while trying to escape from East Germany
- Homeward travel
Places to Visit in Berlin
If you are planning a visit to Berlin to learn about the Second World War visit some of the places described below. You could also visit the following websites for further information:
http://www.lodging-germany.com/info/Berlin/index.htm
http://www.berlincitytourist.com/
http://www.potsdam-tourism.com/pages/press.html
http://www.potsdam.de/
Disclaimer:
All the sites listed are checked regularly. However, the changing nature of the Internet means that some sites may alter after we have visited them. Their Past Your Future is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Bebelplatz
Due to its location on Unter den Linden and the importance of the surrounding buildings, Bebelplatz is one of the most noteworthy tourist attractions in Berlin. On May 10, 1933, the square was the focal point for the "burning of the books" staged by the Nazis: the works of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Erich Kästner, Stefan Zweig, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Alfred Kerr, Kurt Tucholsky and countless other writers were thrown into the flames. Since 1995, this event has been commemorated by the monument designed by Micha Ullmann, which consists of an underground library with empty shelves and which can be seen through a transparent plastic window set into the ground.
Berlin-Karlshorst Museum
Address: Zwieseler Straße 4/ Ecke Rheinsteinstraße D-10318 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0) 30-50 15 08 10
Website: http://www.museum-karlshorst.de/
In 1967, the Soviet troops stationed in the GDR founded the Museum der bedingungslosen Kapitulation des faschistischen Deutschland im Großen Vaterländischen Krieg 1941 - 1945 ("Museum of the Unconditional Surrender of Fascist Germany in the 'Great Patriotic War' of 1941 - 1945"). The museum was located in the same building where the signing of the capitulation took place in 1945. Initially, the museum was open only to members of the Soviet Army; however soon afterwards, it opened to the general public.
The German unification on October 3, 1990, and the withdrawal of the Soviet troops raised new questions as to the future of the museum as well as the artefacts it contained. The Soviets offered to maintain the collection at Karlshorst and to allow for the continuation of the museum.
On behalf of the Federal Government of Germany and the "Senate" of Berlin, the German Historical Museum, in conjunction with their Soviet partners, was given the task of drawing up a new concept for the continuation of the museum. A committee of German and Soviet (now Russian) experts, consisting of political and military historians, archivists, and museum experts was appointed for this purpose. The committee began drawing up plans on April 14, 1991, and by October 1992 they created a broad concept of the continuation and re-evaluation of the museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
The museum opened its doors to the public on May 10, 1995.
Bernauer Strasse
Address: Bernauer Strasse/Ackerstrasse, S-Bahn: S1, S2 Nordbahnhof
Website: http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/guide/bernauer-str.htm
Some sections of the Berlin Wall, the Berlin Wall Memorial and an exhibition about the history of the Bernauer Strasse are the main attractions at Bernauer Strasse.
Bernauer Strasse is one of the typical streets, which separates two Berlin's districts: Mitte in the East and Wedding in the West.
Today empty areas lend the Eastern part of the street its character.
The Documentation Centre, situated in the former West, shows a historical overview of the Bernauer Strasse.
Brandenburg Gate
Address: Unter den Linden/Strasse des 17 Juni, Berlin
Website: http://www.berlin-landmarks.com/brandenburg_gate.html
The Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II to represent peace. Karl Gotthard Langhans, the Court Superintendent of Buildings, designed the Gate and the main architectural design of this landmark has not changed since it was first constructed in 1791. Ironically the gate was incorporated into the Berlin wall during the years of Communist government. The Brandenburg gate is probably the most well known landmark in Berlin; it now stands as a symbol of the reunification of the two sides of this great city.
Charlottenburg Cemetery
Address: Charlottenburg, Berlin
Website: http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/cemetery_details.aspx?
cemetery=2081150&mode=1
The British Occupation Authorities and Commission officials selected the site of Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery jointly in 1945, soon after hostilities ceased. Graves were brought to the cemetery from the Berlin area and from eastern Germany. The great majority of those buried here, approximately 80 per cent of the total, were airmen who were lost in the air raids over Berlin and the towns in eastern Germany. The remainder were men who died as prisoners of war, some of them in the forced march into Germany from camps in Poland, in front of the advancing Russians. The cemetery contains 3,589 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 392 of them unidentified. In addition, there are 266 post war graves of men of the British Occupation Forces or their dependants, or of members of the Control Commission.
Checkpoint Charlie
Address: Friedrichstraße 43-45, D-10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Post address: Postfach 61 02 26, D-10923 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 25 37 25 0
Websites: http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/checkpoint-charlie.htm
http://www.mauermuseum.de/english/frame-index-mauer.html
Checkpoint Charlie, established in 1961 on Friedrichstrasse, was the third checkpoint through which military personnel and tourists could enter East Berlin, on registering with the East German border guards. It existed until 1990. The famous Checkpoint Charlie Museum was situated looking out over the border (having moved from its original home on Bernauer Strasse in 1962) to document the border guard system and the brave attempts of escapees and their helpers. It contains many weird and wonderful contraptions that helped people to escape from the oppressive regime in the GDR, and tells the story of the Berlin Wall and the people whose lives it affected so deeply. It also houses a rich collection of art connected to the Berlin Wall and the Cold War.
German Resistance Memorial Centre
Address: Stauffenberg Strasse 13 – 14, 10785 Berlin Tiergarten
Tel: +49-30-26 99 50 00
Website: http://www.gdw-berlin.de/index-e.php
The German Resistance Memorial Centre is a site of remembrance, political studies, active learning, documentation and research. The courtyard site is where Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and three co-conspirators were shot to death for their part in planning a failed attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944. A plaque and a statue in the courtyard commemorate the attempt and executions. Inside, an extensive permanent exhibition, temporary special exhibitions, events and a range of publications document and illustrate resistance to National Socialism, but the displays are in German only.
Grosse Hamburger Strasse Memorial
Address: Hamburger Strasse, Berlin
Around the corner from Oranienburger is Große Hamburger Straße. This short street, which once epitomized Jewish life in Berlin in all its diversity, also bears witness to the Nazis' determination to extinguish it. The sculpture in Grosse Hamburger Strasse is a memorial to holocaust victims and is on the site of a destroyed former Jewish cemetery.
Jewish Museum
Address: Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 25 99 33 00
Website: http://www.juedisches-museum-berlin.de
The Jewish Museum's permanent historical exhibition extends over 3,000 square meters and invites visitors to journey through two thousand years of German-Jewish life. Temporary exhibitions, contemporary art installations, cabinet displays as well as various interactive multimedia shows in the Rafael Roth Learning Centre complement its range of themes.
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Address: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, Kurfürstendamm, 10789, Berlin
Website: http://www.classictic.com/venues/50.html
In the heart of Berlin’s shopping district, near the Kurfürstendamm and the Ka De We department store, the striking Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church juts into the skyline as a testimony to the destruction wrought on the city by Allied bombing during the Second World War. The half-destroyed church steeple has been left untouched as a memorial to those killed during the bombing, and a modern church has been erected right next to it signifying survival and regeneration.
Rosenstrasse Memorial
The Rosenstrasse Memorial is a monument to the German wives of Jewish men, who demonstrated in an unprecedented public protest to free their husbands and sons arrested by the Nazis, in 1943.
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Address: Straße der Nationen 22, D-16515 Oranienburg
Tel: +49-(0) 3301-200-0
Website: http://www.gedenkstaettesachsenhausen.de/gums/en/index.htm
Following the appointment of Heinrich Himmler as the Chief of the German Police, orders were given to build the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Construction took place during the summer months of 1936, at the same time that the Olympic Games were being staged in Berlin. Prisoners were brought here to do the construction work. The new camp was built further away from the town and the main roads: too many people could see what was happening at the former site. Sachsenhausen was used as a model for other concentration camps, and was also a training centre for the guards. The camp was for male prisoners (a separate camp was used for women).
Between 1936 and 1945 over 200,000 prisoners were kept at Sachsenhausen. At first these were mainly political prisoners or trade unionists. Later they were joined by groups, which the Nazis decided were "inferior", including Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and religious leaders from Germany and the countries, which had been occupied. Prisoners were marked with a triangle which identified why they were there, for example: black triangles for political dissidents, red triangles for communists, double yellow triangles (making a star) for Jews, pink triangles for homosexuals. Tens of thousands of prisoners died. Many died from hunger or disease. Many others were worked to death, or were murdered by the SS. Among the people who were brought to Sachsenhausen were those who were suspected of taking part in the attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20th July 1944.
In 1945 the war was going badly for the Nazis - Soviet soldiers were approaching Berlin. At the end of April that year the SS ordered the camp to be evacuated. Thousands of prisoners were sent on "death marches" to the Baltic Sea to the north. Many were put onto ships, which were then sunk, drowning all of those on board. The intention was to kill all of the witnesses who knew what had happened in the camps. However, some sick prisoners (and some doctors) were still at the camp when it was liberated.
Instead of destroying the camp or preserving it as a memorial, the Soviets decided to use Sachsenhausen as their own concentration camp. It was put under the control of the NKVD (the Soviet secret service). Former Nazi officials were imprisoned here, together with political prisoners. About 60,000 Germans were imprisoned here between 1945 and 1950, of whom over 12,000 died from hunger and disease. The camp was finally closed in March 1950, after which it was used by the East German army and police. In 1961 the site was turned into a National Memorial: at that time it was used by the communist regime as a symbol of the "victory of anti-fascism over fascism".
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the re-unification of Germany, Sachsenhausen has been administered by a public trust called the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation.
Schloss Cecilienhof
Address: Neuer Garten, Schloss Cecilienhof, Historische Stätte der Potsdamer Konferenz, Im Neuen Garten, 14469 Potsdam
Tel: 0331 / 96 94 244
Website: http://www.spsg.de/index.php?id=126
From 1913-17, Emperor William II had Cecilienhof Palace built in the north of the New Garden for his eldest son Crown Prince William and his wife Crown Princess Cecilie.
The palace was used for the Potsdam Conference in 1945.
Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park
Address: Treptower Park, Berlin
Website: http://www.war-memorial.net/mem_det.asp?ID=98
Sowjetische Ehrenmal was built 1946-1949 to commemorate the 20,000 Soviet soldiers that fell in the battle of Berlin in April-May 1945. It is located in the heart of the gardens of Treptower Park close to former East Berlin's embassy quarters.
The Neue Synagogue
Address: Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum
Tel: +49-30/88028-451
Website: http://mysql.snafu.de/cjudaicum/index.html
The New Synagogue was consecrated in 1866 to meet the needs of Berlin’s rapidly growing Jewish population. With 3,200 seats, it became the largest Jewish house of worship in Germany. The synagogue escaped major damage during the Pogrom of November 1938 (known as ‘Kristallnacht’), but it was severely damaged by Allied bombing later in the war. In 1958 the main room of the synagogue was demolished and only the parts of the building closest to the street remained structurally intact. In May 1995 the building was reopened and now houses permanent and temporary exhibitions about the building, and the diversity and traditions of Jewish life in Berlin.
The Neue Wache
Address: Unter den Linden 4,10117 Berlin-Mitte
Website: http://www.war-memorial.net/mem_det.asp?ID=105
The history of the Neue Wache (The New Guardhouse) goes back to 1816 when Friedrich Wilhelm III Commissioned Karl Friedrich von Schinkel to design a guardhouse to accommodate the Royal Palace Guards.
In 1931 the Prussian Government made Neue Wache into a memorial for the fallen soldiers in the First World War and placed a sculpture by Heinrich Tessenow in the middle of the building.
The New Holocaust Memorial
Address: Cora-Berliner-Straße 1 D – 10117, Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 / 200 766 - 0
Website: http://www.holocaust-mahnmal.de/en/
The memorial is situated in the centre of Berlin. It is a central place for remembrance and commemoration.
Additional to the field of stelae designed by architect Peter Eisenman, the Memorial is complemented by an underground Information Centre.
The Olympic Stadium
Address: Olympischer Platz 3, 14053 Berlin – Charlottenburg
Tel: +49 303 00 63430
Website: http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/cgi-bin/sehenswertes.pl?id=13678
The Olympic Stadium was constructed from 1935–36 to plans by the architect Werner March as the central building of the Reich sports field for the 1936 Olympic Games. The sports field includes the Maifeld, which was originally designed for and used for Nazi political rallies. The stadium is one of Berlin's best remaining examples of Third Reich architecture. Sports fixtures still take place in the stadium today, including the final match of the 2006 football World Cup, so it is not always possible to visit if a fixture is arranged.
The Reichstag
Address: Platz der Republik, Tiergarten
Tel: 2 27-0
Website: http://www.lodging-germany.com/info/Berlin/berlin-5reichstag.htm
http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/index.en.php
http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/index.html
The Reichstag, the seat of the German Parliament, is one of Berlin's most historical landmarks. It is close to the Brandenburger Tor and before the unification, it was right next to the wall.
It was constructed between 1884 and 1894, mainly funded with wartime reparation money from France. The famous inscription 'Dem Deutschen Volke' (To the German People) was added in 1916.
In 1933 fire broke out in the building, destroying much of the Reichstag. It is to date still unclear who started the fire, but the Communists were blamed. It gave a boost to Hitler's Party, the NSDAP, who would soon come to power. The building was even further damaged at the end of the war, when the Soviets entered Berlin. The picture of a Red Army Soldier raising the Soviet flag on the Reichstag is one of the most famous 20th century images and symbolised Germany's defeat.
The Soviet War Memorial
Address: Tiergarten
Website: http://www.warmemorial.net/mem_det.asp?ID=36
This war memorial was built to honour the Soviet soldiers that fell in the battles against the German army in the Second World War. It was located very close to the German parliament the Reichstag, in what would soon become West Germany, which meant that it was beyond everyday reach for the Soviet Army. To be able to visit the memorial it was agreed that Red Army troops had free passage to the memorial on certain days of remembrance.
The memorial is constructed as an arch with a bronze soldier on top of it. The design resembles the Brandenburger Gate, which is located only 100 metres away.
The Topography of Terror
Address: Niederkirchnerstrasse 8, near Martin-Gropius House, Kreuzberg
Tel: 25 48 67 03
Website: http://www.lodging-germany.com/info/Berlin/berlin-5memorials.htm
The Topography of Terror opened in 1991. It is an outdoor exhibit, which utilises pictures and texts to explore the history of the Gestapo, the SS, and the Third Reich's state security. The exhibit is located at the former Prince Albrecht Strasse 8 (now Niederkirchnerstrasse), which was the centre of Nazi police power during the Third Reich.
Wannsee Villa
Address: Am Grossen Wannsee 56-58 D - 14109 Berlin (-Zehlendorf)
Tel: 0049-30-80 50 01-0
Website: www.ghwk.de/
Fifteen top officials of the Nazi bureaucracy and the SS attended the Wannsee conference, which was led by 38-year-old Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of the Reich Security Main Office. The minutes of the meeting, 15 pages in all, were written by 36-year-old Adolf Eichmann. In 1947, long after the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal ended, the minutes of the conference at the villa in Wannsee were found. At this conference, the plans for the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" had been discussed. Today, tourists can stand in the very room where the plans for the genocide of the Jews were made.
