Explore Berlin
Centropa’s Guide to Berlin
In this section we are collecting a lot of interesting information for you to explore Berlin
Use these buttons to jump directly to the respective section on this page.
Berlin Suggested Activities
Jewish Sites
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Installed in 2004, this monument is located on the former ‘death strip’ by the Berlin Wall that divided the city. It was designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. There is an information centre at the site’s eastern edge and there are a total of 2711 concrete “stelae”. Eisenman wanted to create an illusion of instability in an apparent system of order.
Centrum Judaicum (Jewish Museum)
Housed within the New Synagogue, the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum is under construction and has closed the entire museum.
New Synagogue
The synagogue was completed in 1866 as the main synagogue of Berlin’s Jewish community. Much of it was demolished prior to and during World War II, therefore much of the present structure is a reconstruction, however the dome and towers are from the original building. Jewish services are still held in the New Synagogue and also houses offices and the Jewish Museum.
Platform 17 Memorial
Between autumn 1941 and spring 1942, the Grunewald S-Bahn station was used to deport Berlin Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in the east by train. The memorial was initiated by the Deutsche Bahn to commemorate the deportations.
Weißensee Cemetery
Established in 1880, this is second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe with nearly 115 000 graves. Despite the destruction of Jewish life during the Nazi rule, this cemetery escaped relatively unscathed. In front of the entrance you will notice a Holocaust memorial where stones with the names of concentration camps written on them encircle a commemorative stone. There is also a memorial to Jews who perished during the First World War and a commemorative plaque to those who fought Nazism.
Block of Women ( Rosenstraße Memorial)
This memorial stands on the former site of the Old Synagogue that was destroyed in World War II. It is a memorial to the women’s uprising of 1943. The uprising was the result of the February 1943 detainment of nearly 2000 men, mainly Jewish, who were in mixed faith marriages. Today, the statue memorializes the courage of the women who put their lives at risk to secure the freedom of their husbands. It also reminds the audience of day-to-day discrimination, ethnic persecution, and their impacts on Jewish culture.
Anne Frank Centre
The permanent exhibition “Anne Frank. Here & Now” can be seen here. It is an exhibition about history and the present and tells the personal story of Anne Frank. The exhibit itself is housed in the Schwarzenberg House that houses Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind among other cultural centres. Admission: 5€
Jewish Cemetery on Schoenhauser Allee
This five-acre Jewish cemetery Schönhauser Allee was established in 1827 as a replacement for the Jewish cemetery in the Große Hamburger Straße. In 1961, a memorial to victims of Nazi violence was established. Similar to the famous Jewish cemetery in Prague, the deceased are partly buried here on top of each other. In the other sections of the cemetery mostly plain graves are created, many are characterized by number stones.
Former Jewish Girls’ School
The construction of the school was completed by 1928. The Girls’ School was occupied by Nazis as early as 1930 and the courtyard was even used to organize and carry out deportations in 1941. In 1942, the school was closed and taken over by a hospital until the end of the war. In 2006, it came to life again with the 4th Berlin Biennale held there. In 2011, gallery owner Michael Fuchs rented the school on a 30 year lease and has since established the ‘House of Art and Dining Culture’.
Jewish Orphanage Pankow-Berlin
The orphanage was built in 1882 to house refugee children of the Russian pogroms of 1881. The initial structure was destroyed by a fire and a new building was rebuilt on the same site in 1913. The orphanage was forced to close down in 1940 and fell into disrepair after Germany’s 1990 reunification. Since 2001, it has housed the district library and since 2007, a comprehensive school.
Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind
Weidt established his workshop in the Mitte district in 1940. Here, blind and deaf Jews produced brooms and brushes. The factory was considered to be important for the war effort and Weidt bribed the Gestapo to protect his workers from deportation for some time. His workforce was severely depleted after the 1943 deportations but continued production until shortly before the end of the war. In 1952, the East Berlin City Council shut down the workshop. Today, it is a functioning museum with a permanent exhibit that tells the story of Otto Weidt and his workers using personal documents and tours around the site.
House of the Wannsee Conference
In 1942, leading figures of the Nazi government and SS met at this luxury villa to discuss the ‘Final Solution’ to the Jewish question. Today, the exhibition houses original documents, audiovisual presentations, photos and books about the Jewish ghettos, and detailed information about the deportations and subsequent extermination of Jews.
The memorial site is free, guided tour 3€, extra admission charge for special exhibitions.
General Historical and Cultural Sites
Reichstag Building
It was opened in 1894 to house the Imperial Diet. It did so until 1933 when it was severely damaged after being set on fire. The building fell into disuse after the Second World War as East and West met separately in East Berlin and in Bonn, respectively. After German reunification, restorative efforts began. By 1999, it became the modern meeting place of the parliament — the Bundestag.
Berlin Wall Memorial
The Berlin Wall Memorial is the central memorial site of German division, located in the middle of the capital. The memorial contains the last piece of Berlin Wall with the preserved grounds behind it.
East Side Gallery
Formed part of the border between East and West Berlin, the East Side Gallery is understood as a monument to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful resolution of boundaries and conventions between companies and people.
Topography of Terror
The current museum is housed on the sites of some central institutions of Nazi persecution and terror, namely the headquarters of the Gestapo