Against oblivion
Spotlight on the Berlin memorials
Museums are places with a public mission to preserve cultural assets and cultural history - by collecting (art) objects and stories. But what about the things that cannot be collected? Memorials document historical events at the original site, they can tell stories even if there are no longer any contemporary witnesses. In Berlin, many historical sites characterise the city, because Berlin has always been the scene of Germany's eventful history. The memorials primarily commemorate the National Socialist era and the German post-war period. Here history becomes tangible, here it is possible to come to terms with history. This makes the memorials more important today than ever before.
A writer in Berlin
Anne-Seghers-Museum
Museums are places with a public mission to preserve cultural assets and cultural history - by collecting (art) objects and stories. But what about the things that cannot be collected? Memorials document historical events at the original site, they can tell stories even if there are no longer any contemporary witnesses. In Berlin, many historical sites characterise the city, because Berlin has always been the scene of Germany's eventful history. The memorials primarily commemorate the National Socialist era and the German post-war period. Here history becomes tangible, here it is possible to come to terms with history. This makes the memorials more important today than ever before.
Every Day Life in the Camp
Nazi forced Labor Documentation Center
Das Dokumentationszentrum in Berlin-Schöneweide ist das einzige fast vollständig erhaltene Zwangsarbeiterlager von ursprünglich 3000 Lagern in Berlin. Unter der Leitung von Albert Speer waren hier 1943 14 Baracken für 2000 Zwangsarbeiter*innen auf einem Areal von 3,3 Hektar inmitten eines Wohngebiets errichtet worden. Einige der Baracken wurden saniert und dienen heute als Ausstellungsort, für Veranstaltungen und Seminare. Die Ausstellung zeigt anhand von Objekten, Fotografien und Medienstationen, wie der massenhafte Einsatz von Zwangsarbeiter*innen organisiert war.
Centre of the conspiracy against Hitler
German Resistance Memorial Center
Since 1953, the Court of Honour has been the central place of remembrance of the resistance against National Socialism in Germany. The memorial is located at the historic site of the attempted coup of 20 July 1944 in the former Army High Command. The exhibition provides information on how individuals and groups resisted the National Socialist dictatorship between 1933 and 1945 and their scope for action, and comprehensively documents the motives, aims and forms of resistance.
Murderous plans in a rural idyll
House of the Wannsee Conference
On 20 January 1942, 15 high-ranking representatives of the SS, the NSDAP and various Reich ministries discussed cooperation in the planned deportation and murder of European Jews at what is now the memorial site. The exhibition tells the story of the deportations and the mass murder through the prism of the meeting at Wannsee and explains what anti-Semitism is and what remains of it to this day.
East Asia and Europe - a place of encounter
Mori Ōgai Memorial Center
The memorial is located on the site of the Japanese physician and writer Ōgai's first accommodation during his study visit to Wilhelmine Berlin (1887-1888). Here, visitors* can explore Mori's biography in particular and gain insights into a literary work that thematises encounters between the regions of the world and the disciplines of knowledge in a contemporary way.
Protection from persecution and deportation
Museum Otto Weidt's workshop for the blind
This museum uses letters and photographs to tell the story of the workshop for the blind. During the Second World War, the small factory owner Otto Weidt mainly employed blind, visually impaired and hearing-impaired Jews here. The workshop was often the last refuge for the workers and their families. Otto Weidt tried to protect his Jewish workers from persecution and deportation by providing them with forged papers and food or hiding them in a windowless room in the workshop.
Centre of Nazi terror
Topography of Terror
The most important institutions of the National Socialist apparatus of persecution and terror were located here from 1933 to 1945: Secret State Police Office, Reichsführung-SS and Reich Security Main Office. The tour of the grounds is based on the material traces of the site and is complemented by an exhibition dedicated to the central institutions of the SS and police in the ‘Third Reich’ and the crimes they committed throughout Europe.
History of political persecution in the GDR
Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial
The memorial is located at a site that is linked to the 44-year history of political persecution in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR like no other in Germany. A Soviet special camp was set up here at the end of the Second World War, followed by the central Soviet remand prison for Germany in 1946. The permanent exhibition presents rare objects as well as numerous historical documents and photographs relating to the Hohenschönhausen detention centre. The exhibition hall focuses on the prison experiences of the political prisoners.
On the barricades - revolution in Berlin and Europe
The cemetery of the March Fallen
Die (März-)Revolution von 1848 steht in vielen Ländern Europas für Forderungen nach sozialer Gerechtigkeit, Freiheit, Gleichheit und Demokratie. Frankreich, die deutschen und italienischen Staaten sowie Ungarn waren Hauptschauplätze. Viele Berliner, die am 18. März 1848 für ein besseres Leben auf die Straße gingen, waren einfache, bitterarme und oft junge Leute. Lehrlinge, Handwerker und Arbeiter, darunter auch einige Frauen, einte der Mut, ihr Leben für soziale Verbesserungen und Freiheitsrechte einzusetzen. 255 Opfer der Berliner Märzrevolution sind auf diesem eigens für sie angelegten Friedhof begraben. Am authentischen Ort wird der gefallenen Barrikadenkämpfer gedacht und gleichzeitig an zwei Revolutionen erinnert. Denn auch die Opfer der Revolution 1918/19 wurden hier beerdigt. Heute ist der Friedhof ein Lernort der europäischen Demokratie.
Surrender in the casino
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
The Berlin-Karlshorst Museum is located at a historic site that today symbolises the end of the war in 1945 and the post-war period in Europe: built at the end of the 1930s as an officers' mess for the Wehrmacht, the building was the seat of the head of the Soviet military administration in Germany from 1945 to 1949. On the night of 8 to 9 May 1945, the commanders-in-chief of the Wehrmacht signed the unconditional surrender here in front of representatives of the Soviet Union, the USA, Great Britain and France. The exhibition shows the war from the perspective of both the German and Soviet protagonists and addresses the consequences of the Second World War, which continue to this day.