Berlin WW2 History Tour

Take a trip to the top of the Berlin TV Tower, the Fernsehturm, for a sensational panoramic view of the city. The tower was built in the days when Berlin was a divided city and was intended to be a symbol of East German Communist power.

Visit the spectacular Dome of the Reichstag Building which was designed by the British architect Norman Foster. A huge lift takes you up to the roof of the Reichstag where you collect your audio guides and ascend the double helix stair case which rises inside the spectacular glass dome with ever expanding views across the city. The tour allows you to access the roof of the Reichstag for views across the city. (NB. Visits to the actual Parliament chamber are possible but subject to request and Parliamentary business scheduling so if you would like to do this, please let us know and we will try to arrange it).

Take a tour of the iconic Olympic Stadium which was used for the 1936 Berlin Olympics when American sprinter Jesse Owens won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler. It was subsequently refurbished and hosted the 2006 World Cup Final between France and Italy. Today the stadium is the home of Berlin football club Hertha Berlin.

The Topography of Terror documents the rise of the Nazis in the 1930’s as well as the crimes and atrocities committed during their 12 years of power. Constructed and opened following German reunification in 1991, it functions as Berlin’s principal Nazi museum and is located on the former site of the SS and Gestapo which was destroyed by Allied bombing raids. This location was at the heart of the Nazi government and many Nazi ministry buildings were located on nearby Wilhelmstrasse including Goering’s Air Ministry which survives to this day.

The Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is an extensive monument located between the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz. Opened in 2005 it is both striking in appearance and controversial in conception. It resembles an installation artwork and consists of numerous concrete blocks and slabs of irregular size and position. No sign or inscription tells the visitor the purpose of this monument and although there is a document centre beneath the stelae, it is not obvious or integral to the site. Whilst it is undoubtedly a unique feature of Berlin’s landscape, its existence has been fraught with controversy.

Potsdam is the location of the Cecilienhof Palace where the famous post-war conference between Churchill, Stalin and Truman took place in July 1945, just a few days before the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. The post-war borders of Europe which largely survive to this day were carved up between the great powers at this conference. The conference room where the Big Three met has been preserved in its original condition with the conference table set up for a meeting. The tour of the building also includes visits to the rooms used by Stalin, Churchill (subsequently replaced by Atlee after the election) and Harry Truman, along with an excellent selection of photographs and explanatory material.

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was built on the outskirts of Berlin in the summer of 1936, initially to house political prisoners but later extended to house people the Nazi’s considered racially inferior. It became the blueprint for future extermination camps built in Poland and the East. From 1936 until 1945 over 200,000 prisoners passed through its gates, and thousands died due to forced labour, starvation and disease.

Wannsee Conference House was the scene of the Final Solution Conference attended by Reinhard Heidrich, Adolf Eichmann, and other leading Nazis to settle the so-called ‘Jewish Question’ in Europe. The serene location of the house, which overlooks the beautiful Wannsee, belies the terrible consequences of decisions taken here in January 1942. There are many exhibits which detail the provisions and workings of the Nuremberg Race Laws and you can stand in the room where the short conference took place and see many of the original documents.

The Sony Centre is a Sony-sponsored building complex located at Potsdamer Platz. It opened in 2000 and features indoor shops, restaurants, an IMAX cinema and office space, all housed beneath a stunning canopy. Before WW2 Potsdamer Platz lay at the heart of Berlin but was totally destroyed in the War and when the city was divided by the Berlin Wall it found itself in the middle of no-man’s land and became a derelict empty space. After reunification in 1990 plans were drawn up to create a modern city centre and the Sony Centre now lies at the heart of this. Yes, its commercial, but its a great spot for dinner in the evening and you can visit the small exhibition here to see how much has changed in this part of Berlin in the past 30 years.

The Berlin Jewish Museum is housed in a spectacular new building designed by Daniel Libeskind. The museum documents the history of the Jewish people in Germany and is not solely focused on WW2 and the Holocaust.

At the famous Brandenburg Gate, which from 1961 until 1989 marked the division between East and West Berlin, you can see where President Kennedy, and later Ronald Reagan were confronted with the Iron Curtain.

The German Resistance Memorial Museum remembers those German citizens who had the courage to stand up to Hitler and the Nazis. The museum is situated in a building known as the Bendlerblock which survived the War and is little changed since 1945. At that time, it was a German military headquarters where Claus von Stauffenberg, who attempted to assassinate Hitler, was stationed. His former offices can be visited during the tour. The Memorial also remembers other resistance groups including the White Rose which saw young Munich university students publish and distribute pamphlets attacking Hitler and the Nazis, and for which many of them faced execution.

During World War 2 the German Railway – the Deutsche Reichsbahn - was instrumental in facilitating the mass deportation of Jews to extermination camps in the East and complicit in the Nazi crimes. Grunewald Railway Station is today an innocuous suburban commuter station in leafy Charlottenburg but from 1941 this was one of the principal places from where many thousands of Jews were deported to the East from the siding at Platform 17. Today, a memorial of heavy iron plates alongside the track mark the dates and destinations of the deportations.