- Duration
- 3 hours
- Product Type
- Tour
- Venues
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- Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
- Reich Main Security Office
- Former Luftwaffe Headquarters
- Site of Hitler's Bunker
- Reichstag exterior
We’ll begin our tour at the iconic columns of the Brandenburg Gate, from where we are able to look down the Strasse des 17. Juni, one of the main boulevards in the proposed designs for Berlin’s urbanization as the capital of the Third Reich. Traveling a few short blocks, we’ll end up at the memorial of the central tragedy of the Nazi regime: Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This controversial and enigmatic monument—a grid of hundreds of towering concrete blocks—will provide us with a context to discuss the historical events of the Holocaust, as well as an opportunity to touch on the complexities of the Jewish experience both during and after World War II. As we walk through the former government quarter of Berlin we will pass many other sites, memorials, and works of architecture that will help us confront the realities of Nazi rule, including the former site of Hitler’s Chancellery, the (now built-over) location of the Führerbunker, the former Reich Ministry of Aviation (Luftwaffe), and other major offices that orchestrated the war.
For visitors who would like to delve further into the history of the Holocaust: consider our Sachsenhausen tour, a trip to a nearby former concentration camp, or learn more about Jewish life, culture, and history on our Jewish Berlin Tour.
We'll conclude outside the Topography of Terror exhibition at the site of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. This exhibition represents a self-conscious effort in the city to confront its Nazi legacy. Instead of trying to make a final statement about the horrors of Germany’s past, this site is committed to active engagement and to making history vivid and comprehensible. The exhibition is available to visit after the walk’s conclusion. By the end of our three hours together, we will have encountered the ghostly spaces of Berlin’s tragic past, not in an attempt to sensationalize or historicize the Third Reich, but in order to forge a connection to the present and understand how this history still shapes Berlin and Germany today.
FAQ
Where do we meet? Where does it end?
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