The Topography of Terror is a project in Berlin that has existed
since 1987 to document and deal with the terror of National Socialism in
Germany, especially during the reign of 1933 to 1945. This includes a
permanent exhibition and special exhibitions in the new building, an
open-air exhibition along the Berlin Wall monument and a Tour of the
site with explanations of the history of the historic site. The site of
the former Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8 (today: Niederkirchnerstrasse 8) is
opposite the Berlin House of Representatives next to the Gropiusbau in
the district of Kreuzberg. There was the headquarters of the Secret
State Police (Gestapo) in the former arts and crafts school. In the
immediate vicinity was the Prince Albrecht Palace at Wilhelmstraße 102,
which had been the headquarters of the SS Security Service (SD) since
1934 and, from 1939, also of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).
The former Hotel Prinz Albrecht, Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 9, was the
seat of Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler from 1934. In 1983, IBA
director Josef Paul Kleihues and the Berlin CDU first summarized this
building ensemble under the term "Prinz Albrecht site". Since 1987, the
current designation has prevailed. The documentation site at
Niederkirchnerstraße 8 is one of the state museums in Berlin. The site
is centrally located between Anhalter Bahnhof, Potsdamer Platz and the
historic city center (to the north is the area around the Brandenburg
Gate). The long-standing director of the foundation was the historian
Andreas Nachama, who retired at the end of November 2019. On January 1,
2020, the historian Andrea Riedle, previously head of the scientific
department and deputy head of the memorial at the Dachau concentration
camp, succeeded him.
After the ruins were demolished in the 1950s, the site was used for a
decade and a half as a car driving practice area (operator:
"Straps-Harry") and as a rubble heap for the Kreuzberg site clean-up.
The first exhibition on the Topography of Terror was created for the
750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987 and was then continued. The
investigative work to organize the exhibition led to a documentation
center that collected further evidence of the terror of the National
Socialists in Germany.
Since 1992 there has been a foundation for
the construction and maintenance of a documentation center with an
attached permanent exhibition. The managing director was the historian
and rabbi Andreas Nachama. Plans to erect a memorial on the site of the
former Gestapo headquarters date back to 1978. That year, the Berlin
architecture critic Dieter Hoffmann-Axthelm was one of the first to
point out the importance of the former Gestapo site in essays and
reports , SD and RSHA headquarters.
Zumthor design
The Swiss
architect Peter Zumthor won the 1993 tender for the museum complex on
Niederkirchnerstrasse. He solved the tender's desire for a simple form
that only encloses the space that should speak for itself by adopting
the formal language of the Barackz of the provisional exhibition. With
its concrete beam structure, the concept is reminiscent of a skeleton
barracks, which, however, let in a lot of light through the glazed gaps,
with regular shadows stretching through the room.
The
architectural work of art turned out to be significantly more expensive
than expected when it was implemented. Even the unusual structure caused
additional technical costs. The contracted construction company for the
supporting structure became insolvent and no other company could be
found who wanted to build it for a capped price. The city of Berlin
could not bear any additional costs, not even for a reduced version
"Zumthor II" with three to five million euros more, and the full
assumption of the cost by the federal government was delayed by the
federal government for years.
In March 2004, after 15 years, the
historian Reinhard Rürup resigned as scientific director of the
Topography of Terror Foundation in protest. The immediate reason was
that "the funds approved by the federal government a few years ago for
preparing the initial installation of the new building are no longer
being paid out." He also accused the responsible representatives in the
state and federal authorities of "conspicuous disinterest" and "at best
lukewarm support”.
The state of Berlin finally separated from
Zumthor in a dispute. However, due to contractual agreements, he
received a severance payment. The three stair towers of the museum
building on the former Gestapo site, which had already been erected for
13.8 million euros, remained a torso. After Zumthor's constitutional
complaint was dismissed and despite protests from architects, they were
demolished in winter 2004.
New architectural competition 2005
In June 2005 a new architectural competition was announced. In January
2006, the architect Ursula Wilms from the Berlin office Heinle, Wischer
und Partner and the landscape architect Heinz W. Hallmann finally won
from 309 submitted and 23 selected designs. The design envisaged a
two-storey, cuboid, glazed building with a usable area of 3500 m² over a
ground floor and a basement. 15 million euros were available for
construction. Another five to nine million euros were used both for the
interior design and for the renovation of the outdoor area, with the
federal government and the state of Berlin each paying half. The
architect estimated a maximum of 20 million euros and a construction
period of two years.
While on the one hand the end of the
twelve-year adjournment of the development planning was welcomed, on the
other hand the "missed opportunity" for a total work of art was
regretted.
The construction of the new documentation center began
on November 2, 2007. Completion was originally planned for the 65th
anniversary of the end of the war on May 8, 2010.
Building
The
open-air exhibition in the ditch along the preserved cellar walls was
retained and covered with glass. The permanent exhibition room covers
800 m² and explains the development and functioning of the security
apparatus in the Nazi regime. A conference or function room in the rear
offers space for 199 participants. In the southern section of the site
is a grove of black locust trees, a remnant of Harry's Autodrome from
the 1970s, while the rest of the open space is covered with railway
gravel. A metal lamella facade is attached to the low-rise building,
which allows a clear view of the surroundings. In the basement there are
seminar rooms, a library with 25,000 volumes, space for about two school
classes and offices for 17 employees of the foundation.
The
documentation center was officially opened on May 6, 2010 by the then
Federal President Horst Köhler.
permanent exhibitions
Topography of Terror. Gestapo, SS and Reich
Security Main Office on Wilhelm- and Prinz-Albrecht-Straße
The
permanent exhibition “Topography of Terror. Gestapo, SS and Reich
Security Main Office in Wilhelm- und Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse” has been
presented in the building since May 7, 2010 – in a fundamentally revised
and redesigned version on an area of 800 m².
The German and
English-language exhibition focuses on the central institutions of the
SS and police in the "Third Reich" and the crimes they committed
throughout Europe. In addition to the depiction of the terror system,
the consideration of numerous groups of victims of the NS regime plays
an important role.
Berlin 1933-1945. Between propaganda and
terror
The exhibition ditch along the uncovered remains of the cellar
wall on Niederkirchnerstrasse (former Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse) will
continue to be used for outdoor presentations, probably from spring to
autumn.
Since the late summer of 2010, a permanent exhibition in
German and English on “Berlin 1933–1945. Between Propaganda and Terror”,
which addresses the historical role of Berlin as the capital of the
“Third Reich”.
The historical site Topography of Terror. A site
tour in 15 stations
With the opening of the new documentation center
in May 2010, the entire site of the "Topography of Terror" is accessible
again and the content is made accessible by an information system.
The tour of the site, which is primarily based on the remains of the
building that has been uncovered, includes 15 stations. Information
elements and an audio guide provide an overview of the history of the
historical site "Topography of Terror", the use of the site during the
Nazi era and the post-war period, as well as basic information about the
Nazi terror institutions located here during the "Third Reich".
The remains of the Berlin Wall, which are under monument protection, are
also integrated into the tour of the site, as well as the historical
sidewalk of the former Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, which is located directly
next to the Wall and was previously inaccessible and partially
preserved.
Special and temporary exhibitions
"Kristallnacht" -
Anti-Jewish Terror 1938. Events and Remembrance (2018/2019)
The
exhibition deals with the November Terror of 1938 and its history. The
stages from the discrimination against German Jews since 1933 to the
Holocaust are presented. The focus is on photo documents of the
anti-Jewish terror in November 1938 from six selected locations (Berlin,
Bremen, Brühl, Glatz an der Neisse, Guntersblum, Hof an der Saale). The
politics of remembrance of the November terror after 1945 will then be
discussed.
The title of the exhibition takes up the expression
"Kristallnacht", which is used for the burning down of synagogues, the
looting and destruction of Jewish shops and apartments, the imprisonment
and the murder of thousands of Jews on November 9th and 10th. November
1938 is used. The exhibition organizers criticize this expression and
see it as trivializing the events. Also, the term November pogrom does
not apply because this term describes a spontaneous violent attack
against a population group. However, the attack was planned and spread
by the Nazi regime. That is why the exhibition organizers speak of
"anti-Jewish terror" or "November terror".
The exhibition is a
joint project of the Topography of Terror and the Memorial to the
Murdered Jews of Europe Foundation.
A Wide Field: Tempelhof
Airport and Its History (2018)
The exhibition on the history of this
airport, which started operating in 1923, was shown in the former GAT
area (General Aviation Terminal) of Tempelhof Airport. The focus is on
the Nazi history of the place. The airfield was not only used for air
traffic, but also for propaganda events. One of the first concentration
camps, the KZ Columbia, was built on its edge. During World War II, men
and women from Europe were forced to work in the manufacture and repair
of aircraft. During the Cold War, Tempelhof was an air base for the US
Army. Until it was closed in 1975, the civilian part was West Berlin's
only unhindered connection to the outside world.
The People's
Court 1934-1945. Terror by "Law" (2018)
The exhibition shows the
origin and organization of the People's Court and the way it passed
judgment. It provides information on how former court personnel were
treated after 1945.
Berlin 1933 - The road to dictatorship (2018)
Key stages in the establishment of Nazi rule in Berlin in the first six
months are presented. The fate of the early victims of Nazi terror is
also shown.
"Action Reinhardt". They Came Out of the Ghetto and
Went Into the Unknown (2018)
The exhibition at the Majdanek memorial
focuses on the Reinhardt campaign. This is how the SS described the
planned murder of up to 1.9 million people in the Belzec, Sobibor and
Treblinka extermination sites using engine exhaust fumes. The murdered
were mainly Jewish children, women and men as well as around 50,000 Roma
from German-occupied Poland.
"In the Service of the Racial
Question". Propaganda photographs commissioned by Reich Minister R.
Walther Darré (2018)
The exhibition deals with the propaganda
photographs of young people commissioned by the Nazi Minister Richard
Walther Darré. The aim of the photos was to substantiate and spread the
thesis of the "Nordic race". The exhibition addresses the racist
stereotypes in Nazi propaganda photography. The Topography of Terror
showed the presentation in cooperation with the Photoinstitut Bonartes.
The way into the abyss. The Year 1938 (2018)
The far-reaching
events of 1938, such as the change in border regulations imposed by the
First World War (“Annexation of Austria” and the smashing of
Czechoslovakia), the “Work-shy Reich” action, the “Poland Action”, and
the “Reichspogromnacht” on November 9th are the subject of the
Exhibition.
Hidden. Dealing with Nazi Perpetrator Sites in West
Berlin (2017)
The exhibition describes the history of hiding,
concealing and remembering in West Berlin about the Nazi crimes that
were planned, organized and carried out in Berlin. The traveling
exhibition was developed by the Active Museum of Fascism and Resistance
in Berlin e. V. and the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and
Educational Site.
“Luther’s words everywhere…” – Martin Luther under National
Socialism (2017)
The exhibition shows the positioning of the
National Socialists on the person and work of Martin Luther. The
relationship between the Nazi state and the church and how
Christians deal with Luther's "legacy" is highlighted. One focus is
the use of Luther's late anti-Jewish writings. These were reissued
during the Nazi era and mediated in theaters and films. His writing
On the Jews and their lies was used by Nazi newspapers for their
propaganda and by representatives of the Evangelical Church, such as
the Thuringian regional bishop Martin Sasse, to justify violence
against the Jews. The use of Luther to legitimize the war, but also
the right to resist the Nazi regime, is presented in the exhibition.
The Topography of Terror realized this presentation together with
the German Resistance Memorial Center.
"What was right
then..." - Soldiers and civilians in Wehrmacht courts (2017)
In
this project, Nazi military justice is treated in the context of the
history of German military justice (1871–1939). The focus is on case
histories of deserters who have been convicted, "military strength
decomposers" and "pests of the people". The post-war careers of the
Nazi military judges and the exclusion and disregard for victims who
survived the Nazi judiciary in the Federal Republic and the GDR are
presented below, as is the struggle for the rehabilitation of the
victims. In addition, biographies of resistance fighters from the
European countries occupied by Nazi Germany are presented. This
traveling exhibition by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Foundation was created in cooperation with the Saxon Memorials
Foundation, the German Resistance Memorial Center and the Federal
Association of Victims of National Socialist Military Justice. V
mass shootings. The Holocaust between the Baltic and the Black
Sea 1941–1944 (2016/2017)
The Topography of Terror realized this
exhibition together with the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered
Jews of Europe. It provides information on the development of mass
murder in the German war against the Soviet Union and how it was
dealt with after 1945. Between 1941 and 1944, the German army and
police, with the help of collaborators, murdered more than two
million Jews, around 30,000 Roma and 17,000 in mass shootings and in
"gas vans". Patients in psychiatric institutions. Based on the
murder of around 1,500 Jewish children, women and men on October 14,
1942 in Mizocz, the extermination of the Jewish communities and the
interaction of local actors and the leadership in Berlin are
exemplified. Explanatory approaches to the question of what prompted
German men to take part in mass murder are offered in the
exhibition. The Topography of Terror realized this exhibition
project together with the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews
of Europe.
Stumbling Blocks – Commemoration and Social
Sculpture (2016/2017)
The touring exhibition of the Berlin
Stolpersteine coordination center presents Gunter Demnig's
"Stolpersteine" art and memorial project. The passers-by of the
stumbling blocks are viewed as part of a social sculpture in the
documentation.
marching orders. The Nazi Party Rally Grounds
in Nuremberg (2016)
The exhibition was created as part of a
research project on "Space and Movement" at the Technical University
of Braunschweig and the Technical University of Cologne. She deals
with the question of how the emotionalization of the masses for
political and ideological goals could be achieved through
architecture and events at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in
Nuremberg.
The face of the ghetto. Pictures by Jewish
photographers from the Litzmannstadt Ghetto 1940–1944 (2010 and
2016)
The photo exhibition about the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, which
was developed in cooperation with the Łódź City Archives, was shown
for the first time in 2010. It was the first special exhibition in
the new Topography of Terror building.
In the spring of 1940,
the National Socialists crowded over 160,000 Jews into the
Litzmannstadt ghetto – as Lodz was renamed by the German occupiers
in 1940. In the fall of 1941, another 20,000 Jews were deported to
Litzmannstadt from various Western European cities, including 4,000
Jews from Berlin. There were also 5,000 Roma from Burgenland. From
December 1941 to August 1942, 18,000 Jews from the liquidated
ghettos in Wartheland followed. Tens of thousands of people died of
starvation and disease in the ghetto by the summer of 1944. A large
number were sent to the nearby Kulmhof extermination camp from
December 1941 and to the concentration camps in Auschwitz,
Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück from mid-1944. Of the approximately
205,000 people deported to the ghetto, an estimated 5,000–6,000
survived.
Some Jewish photographers were commissioned by the
Litzmannstadt Jewish Council to take pictures of almost all areas of
ghetto life. 50 of the almost 12,000 surviving pictures, which are
in the Lodz State Archives as contact sheets, are shown in large
format in the center. The exhibition begins with a brief
introduction to the history of the ghetto. This is supplemented by
statements by former ghetto residents and entries from the ghetto
chronicle.
Germany 1945 - The last months of the war
(2014-2016)
The exhibition consists of 40 themed panels about the
last five months of Nazi Germany - from Christmas 1944 to May 1945.
A pair of opposites or three panels from different perspectives
are intended to question the usual views of this period. The breadth
of behavior is shown, such as cities that were defended to the end
and others that surrendered without a fight, or people who
participated in the policy of persecution and extermination until
the end of the regime, and those who helped the persecuted. A media
station then describes the transitional phase up to 1948 and the
history of how the war was received in German film.
Science -
planning - expulsion. The National Socialists’ General Plan East
(2015)
The exhibition of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
shows the participation of German science in the creation of the
"General Plan East". The plan was drawn up by agricultural scientist
Konrad Meyer on behalf of Reichsfuhrer SS and Chief of the German
Police Heinrich Himmler. According to this interdisciplinary plan,
almost five million Germans were to be settled in Poland and the
western part of the Soviet Union within 25 years. For this, millions
of inhabitants - Slavs and Jews - of the two countries should be
enslaved, expelled and murdered. At the time, these plans were
largely promoted and financed by the DFG.
The exhibition is
divided into three chapters. First, the history of the "General Plan
East" and the role of science, then the plans for an ethnic
reorganization of Eastern Europe during the Second World War and
finally the resettlement, expulsion and genocide from 1939 to 1945
are presented. One focus is on the technical roots of the plan: in
the 1920s, scientists whose research was largely co-financed by the
DFG laid the foundations for the Nazi policies of conquest and race.
Hans Bayer – War Reporter in World War II (2014)
The
exhibition about Hans Bayer divides his life into five phases,
beginning with his time as a Nazi propagandist in World War II.
Bayer, who published under the pseudonym Thaddäus Troll after 1945,
worked for Wehrmacht propaganda companies between 1941 and 1945,
e.g. as editor-in-chief of the army newspaper Der Sieg. In his
articles, which were subject to censorship, he could not publish the
portrayal of Nazi crimes that Bayer was familiar with. He also
refrained from documenting these in his private papers, in his diary
entries, for posterity. The Bavarian, who later became known as a
writer, journalist and Swabian “prince of poets”, concealed his past
as a Nazi propagandist, such as his involvement in the mockery of
the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, the spreading of the lie about the
German preventive war against the Soviet Union, the propagation of
perseverance for the final victory.
The exhibition focuses on
Bayer's dealings with the scope for action under National Socialism,
his time in the propaganda company during the war and the resulting
influence on his later life.
The Warsaw Uprising 1944 (2014)
The Topography of Terror and the Warsaw Uprising Museum prepared an
exhibition project about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The traveling
exhibition, put together by the Warsaw Uprising Museum, consists of
text and photo panels, exhibits, interactive multimedia elements and
a computer animation about the destruction of Warsaw by the Germans.
In Berlin it was shown in the covered outdoor area of the Topography
of Terror. A website is also an integral part of the project.
About 10,000 civilians and 6,000 Polish soldiers died fighting
to defend Warsaw during the German invasion of Poland. Ten percent
of the city was destroyed. 97,000 non-Jewish Warsaw residents died
as a result of the German occupation terror, around 60,000 of them
in concentration camps.
91,000 Jews died in the Warsaw ghetto
from starvation and exhaustion. Around 300,000 residents of the
Jewish ghetto were murdered in German extermination camps. During
the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the spring of 1943,
61,000 Jews died. After the murder of the Jews from Warsaw, the
Jewish quarter was systematically reduced to rubble.
Before
the Armia Krajowa (AK) rose up against the German occupation in the
summer of 1944, around 900,000 non-Jewish residents lived in Warsaw.
When the uprising began, the Reichsfuhrer SS and chief of the German
police, Heinrich Himmler, ordered the shooting of all Warsaw
residents and the destruction of the city. However, the advancing
Soviet troops did not intervene in favor of the Armia Krajowa (AK),
which was subordinate to the Polish government-in-exile in London.
After 63 days, the Germans crushed the uprising. 150,000 civilians
and 18,000 insurgents were killed. More than 5000,000 Warsaw
residents were deported to concentration camps, deported to Germany
for forced labor, or resettled. Around 1,000 people were able to
hide in the city destroyed by the Germans. When the Red Army took
Warsaw in January 1945, almost 90% of the buildings were in ruins.
The Warsaw Uprising was not remembered in Poland until the fall of
the communist regime in 1989.
The exhibition spans the
history of Warsaw from 1918 to the present day. The focus is on the
chapters "The Rebellious Republic" (the state, the administration
and civil society in the liberated districts, the suppression of the
uprising, the murder of 150,000 men, women and children by the
Germans), "The Destruction of the City" (Die resettlement,
deportation to Germany for forced labor, deportation to
concentration camps or imprisonment in POW camps for residents and
the systematic destruction of Warsaw) and "Stalin's stranglehold"
(the Soviet occupation and oppression of eastern Poland from 1939 to
1941, the lack of support for the Warsaw Uprising by the Red Army,
the assumption of government power by the Soviet-backed Lublin
Committee after the German withdrawal, the elimination of the Polish
underground state structures by the NKVD).
Berlin crime
scenes. Documents of right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence
(2014)
Since 2002, the counseling and documentation center
ReachOut has been documenting violent attacks with a right-wing,
racist or anti-Semitic background in Berlin. The victims “frequently
no one comes to the rescue. The indifference, sometimes perhaps the
secret or open consent of bystanders is at least as hurtful and
painful as the physical wounds inflicted on the victims,” says
ReachOut. Jörg Möller photographs in black and white the public
places - streets, squares, train stations - where such attacks took
place. In Möller's pictures, nothing reminds of what happened. The
brief explanations of the crime should enable the viewer to develop
scenarios of what happened. The interaction of the images and the
text should have an appellative effect: "Don't look away, get
involved and get help when others are threatened and attacked - also
and especially in places that are so familiar to us." Möller's black
and white photographs are used in presented by ReachOut in a
presentation designed as a traveling exhibition since 2005 and
updated annually.
Captured, pursued, destroyed. Sick and
disabled people under National Socialism (2014)
Under National
Socialism, disabled people were seen as a burden on the German
“national community”. From 1934 up to 400,000 people were forcibly
sterilized and more than 200,000 people from mental and nursing
homes were murdered.
The German Society for Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology, in conjunction with the
Topography of Terror Foundation and the Memorial to the Murdered
Jews of Europe Foundation, designed the five-chapter exhibition on
the murder of people with physical, mental and emotional
disabilities.
At the entrance is the chapter "Photo album".
Photographs from family albums of people before they were sent to
forced sterilization or murdered are shown there. These are
juxtaposed with photographs of the killers and the accomplices
(doctors, nurses, drivers, "cremation" and administrative staff).
The second chapter entitled "The question of the value of life"
deals with the history of ideas of forced sterilization and
"euthanasia". By postulating the classification of the value of
human life as high or low ("hereditary value"), eugenics aimed to
control reproduction in order to "stop the hereditary biological
decline of a nation and promote human advancement." The exhibition
presents series of photographs from the 1920s and 1920s 1930s in
which these eugenic ideas were propagated in public.
In the
subsequent unit "Racial Hygiene Policy", the health and social
policy implementation of the concept of "hereditary value" of people
by National Socialism is presented: the "hereditary" recording of
the population and the forced sterilizations. The chapter is
complemented with drawings by Wilhelm Werner about his forced
sterilization in Nazi Germany.
The fourth and largest chapter
"Murder" presented the history of the murder of sick and disabled
people in Nazi Germany, which began in January 1940. Shown are the
murderers and those involved in the murder and crime and their scope
for action. Selected life paths of the murdered are told with photos
and documents from their private and family life. The public
perception of the murders as well as the reactions of the churches
and the families of the victims are discussed.
The exhibition
closes with the chapter "After 1945: suppressing and remembering".
Four decades after 1945, in the 1980s, the victims were publicly
commemorated. The exhibition also deals with the legal prosecution
of the perpetrators and the struggle for compensation for the
victims. The exhibition ends with two photorealistic portraits of
Gerhard Richter: one of his murdered aunt Marianne Schönfelder and
him as a four-month-old baby and the other of his father-in-law
Heinrich Eufinger, who as a gynecologist took part in hundreds of
forced sterilizations, e.g. had been involved in Richter's aunt,
with his daughter, who later became Richter's wife.
Between
the lines? Newspaper press as an instrument of power (2013)
The
exhibition is dedicated to the newspaper press in the Nazi era. One
of the two main topics – reporting on the Nazi Party Rally of 1935
and the “Sportpalast Speech” of 1943 – is presented on a row of
partition walls with texts from newspapers and magazines and brief
explanations. Excerpts from the newsreel and the radio program for
these two events are presented at the end of the rows of partitions.
With the help of portraits of journalists and thirteen daily
newspapers (reprints), the journalistic strategies and the freedom
of thought and action of publishers, journalists and readers are to
be illustrated.
Wilhelmstrasse 1933–1945 – Rise and Fall of
the Nazi Government Quarter (2012)
Important ministries and
offices have been concentrated in Wilhelmstraße since the end of the
19th century. In the German Empire, in the Weimar Republic and
during the National Socialist era, Wilhelmstrasse became synonymous
with the German government. The National Socialists changed the
district: Extensive conversions and new buildings were built, the
authorities were restructured and new ones were established. There
was the power center of the Nazi regime with the Old and New Reich
Chancellery, the Prince Albrecht Palace, the Propaganda Ministry,
the Reich Aviation Ministry and the Foreign Office. From 1950 to
1961, the GDR blew up the remaining war ruins. What remains are some
administrative buildings and a neoclassical building that housed the
former Nazi Aviation Ministry.
The photo exhibition deals
with the history of the government district. The focus is on using
it for the planning and implementation of Nazi terror and
extermination policies.
2.40 meter high partition walls, each
representing one of 19 ministries, illustrate a "reconstructed
Wilhelmsstraße". The respective photographs of these buildings
feature hinged doors. Behind these hide information about their
history. Advertising pillars with pictures and text complete the
presentation of the area's Nazi history. In addition, the visitor
receives a report on the Wilhelmstrasse trial, in which high-ranking
officials of the Nazi regime were accused.
The Holocaust
against the Roma and Sinti and present day racism in Europe (2012)
The four-chapter exhibition The National Socialist Genocide of the
Sinti and Roma and Today's Racism in Europe comes from the
Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma. Sinti
and Roma were disenfranchised, ghettoized and murdered in the
extermination camps under National Socialism. The beginning of the
process of disenfranchisement of the Sinti and Roma in Nazi Germany
up to the start of the Second World War is presented in the first
chapter. The exhibition then deals with the genocide of around
500,000 Roma and Sinti in National Socialist Europe. The Nazi
persecution policy and the respective peculiarities of the
persecution in the states occupied and allied by Nazi Germany are
presented. The third area of documentation deals with the murder of
the Sinti and Roma from almost all European countries in the
Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. The last section deals with
developments after 1945. The fight for the recognition of the
genocide of the Sinti and Roma and the emergence of the civil rights
movement in the Federal Republic of Germany are described. One focus
is forms of discrimination against national Roma and Sinti in
Central and Eastern Europe due to social prejudices. The open and
violent racism to which the Roma and Sinti are exposed is
illustrated using examples.
Resistance!? Evangelical
Christians under National Socialism (2012)
The online exhibition
by the Evangelical Working Group for Contemporary Church History on
the computers provided deals with the resistance of individual
evangelical Christians during National Socialism. The resistance
that is based on the Bible and basic Christian values is called
Christian resistance. The project initiated by the EKD encompasses a
wide range of forms of resistance. The resistance therefore
includes, among other things, the attempted coup, the protest, the
refusal as well as the partial dissatisfaction with the regime.
The first chapter of the exhibition is entitled “Time”. It
begins with the depiction of the history of the church and mentality
in the Weimar Republic, and the roots of adaptation and resistance
in National Socialism are to be shown. The Nazi era is divided into
four periods: 1933-1934, 1935-1939, 1939-1942 and 1943-1945. The
development of the Nazi system of rule, the attitude of majority
Protestantism, the forms of resistance by Protestant Christians and
the resistance of Protestant people in certain regions of Nazi
Germany are presented for the entire period from 1933 to 1945. Based
on the development of the church and politics, the existing options
for resistant behavior are to be shown. The documentation contrasts
these possibilities for resistance with "the opposite behavior from
satisfaction to complicity". The last section deals with the
Christian resistance in the culture of remembrance in the Federal
Republic.
This is followed by the chapter "People" on the
path with its conflicts and contradictions from evangelical
Christians to resistant behavior and its consequences. In order to
outline the ecumenical dimension of the Christian resistance,
individual biographies of Catholic Christians are presented.
The third and last chapter is dedicated to the "basic questions".
Here the visitor should be encouraged to think about the question
"What does Christian-motivated resistance actually mean and how
would I have acted?". This chapter is divided into the following
sections: Introduction, reasons and motives, confessional
characteristics, contradictions, points of reference, role-specific
behavior. In addition, the exhibition organizers ask whether
"something for the present can be learned from the resistant or
adapted behavior of the past?" According to them, the conflicts of
the time between church and Nazi state, between church communities
and society and between the individual in the resistance and the
majority, which was "enthusiastic or conformist", "are relevant for
today's debate about the relationship between state, society and
religion of fundamental importance”.
The "house prison" of
the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. Terror and Resistance 1933–1945
The bilingual (German/English) exhibition about the "house prison"
of the Gestapo headquarters was presented in a special outdoor
exhibition area and also included the ground monument with remains
of the foundations of the former cells. With a total of over 400
photos and documents, it provided comprehensive information about
the history of the prison at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8 for the first
time and recalled the fate of numerous prisoners. This presentation
took place from August 2005 to April 2008 on the grounds of the
"Topography of Terror".
The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial
The
exhibition on the "Nuremberg Trial" presented on the occasion of the
60th anniversary includes around 110 photo and 50 text documents as
well as 15 audio stations. It outlines the history of the origins,
course, objectives and significance of the trial conducted by the
Allies in Nuremberg and focuses on the accused, whose responsibility
for war crimes and mass crimes is shown. This exhibition was
presented from October 2005 to April 2007 at the site fence on the
“Topography of Terror” site.
Realization competition
Topography of Terror. Berlin, 309 designs - exhibition of the
competition works
Presentation of all contributions and results
of the open, international realization competition "Topography of
Terror", which was awarded by the federal government and decided in
January 2006. All 309 drafts submitted by the working groups of
architects and landscape architects were on display.
The
People's Court – Hitler's political tribunal
German-English
documentation on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the
founding of the People's Court. Created in cooperation with the
German Resistance Memorial Center. Presentation from July 2004 to
July 2005 on the site fence on the "Topography of Terror" site.
"It's on fire!" Anti-Jewish terror in November 1938
The joint
exhibition project on the 70th anniversary of the November pogroms
of 1938 served as a historical documentation of the attack on German
Jewry that was visible to all the world after five and a half years
of Nazi rule.
In front of everyone. Photo documents of
National Socialist terror in the provinces
German-English photo
documentation of public scenes of everyday terror in the Nazi era,
based on nationwide research in regional and local archives to
develop new image sources.
Attacks - A student art action at
the site fence of the "Topography of Terror"
Exhibition on the
subject of right-wing extremism since 1990 in the Federal Republic.
Created in the communication design department of the
Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee as part of a semester project
"Attacks against the Right?", with the support of the Senate
Department for Urban Development and the Topography of Terror
Foundation. Presentation in May/June 2002 at the site fence on the
“Topography of Terror” site.
Fritz Bauer. The prosecutor.
Nazi crimes in court
Exhibition about Fritz Bauer, who, as a
Jewish remigrant, played a key role in the legal investigation of
the crimes of National Socialism. An exhibition by the Fritz Bauer
Institute in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Frankfurt/M.
"Luther's words everywhere..." - Martin Luther in National
Socialism
in cooperation with the German Resistance Memorial
Center (2017)
The face of the ghetto. Pictures by Jewish
Photographers from the Litzmannstadt Ghetto 1940–1944 (2010)
The
Nazi "euthanasia" murders
An exhibition of the German Research
Foundation, supervised by the Topography of Terror Foundation (2014)
Between the lines? Newspaper press as a Nazi instrument of power
(2017)
In front of everyone. Photo documents of the National
Socialist terror in the provinces (2002)
"It's on fire!"
Anti-Jewish terror in November 1938
in cooperation with the
Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the New
Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum (2008)
The library of the Topography of Terror Foundation, Berlin, is a special library on the subject areas of the police, SS, Gestapo in the Third Reich and on National Socialism in general. The library stock currently contains around 36,000 titles (as of July 2021). In addition to the majority of current literature on the above-mentioned topics, the library has a considerable part of contemporary National Socialist literature from the 1930s and 1940s (around 3,000 volumes). CD-ROMs relevant to the Special Library are also purchased. In the meantime Allegro-C was used as library software, meanwhile the library has joined the GBV and therefore uses the Pica library system, a card catalog was never kept.
Events are regularly held in the auditorium of the Topography of
Terror Documentation Center with seating for up to 200 people.
Essentially, these are lecture and discussion events as well as book
presentations on contemporary historical topics. In addition to
individual lectures, there are also series of events in which more
extensive thematic complexes are dealt with and some of which are linked
to current special exhibitions of the Topography of Terror Foundation.
In addition to the lecture events, which form the focus of the program,
film evenings, readings, etc. offered. The events take place once or
twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday evenings).
In addition, there
are also offers in “easy language” and additional offers in Arabic.
The memorial department of the Topography of Terror Foundation
coordinates Germany-wide and, increasingly, international cooperation
with memorial sites and memorial site initiatives.
In particular,
the nationwide memorial site seminars, which take place twice a year in
cooperation with other sponsors, serve the purpose of exchanging
information and experience, further training and cooperation. In
addition, specialist seminars and conferences are offered on specific
topics relating to the Nazi era and on current issues relating to work
at memorial sites and the culture of remembrance. In addition, there is
the regular organization of international seminars and symposiums in
cooperation with memorial sites and relevant institutions in other
countries.
The memorial department is responsible for the
management of the working group for concentration camp memorials in
Germany. It also organizes the regular working groups for memorial site
education and the memorial site libraries. It publishes a memorial site
newsletter on a quarterly basis.
memorial forum
The Memorial
Forum[94] is a portal that includes around 100 German institutions, each
of which is presented with introductory texts and web addresses. The
memorials can be grouped and selected on the interactive world map. An
offer from the Topography of Terror Foundation, which has been developed
further for years. The online forum is edited by Thomas Lutz in
cooperation with employees of the voluntary social year (culture).
Numerous new memorials have been created in Germany since the 1990s.
Their work primarily relates to the specific crime scene. From the very
beginning, however, the memorials have also seen themselves as a
network. The development and range of National Socialist persecution
only becomes clear when considering the numerous places in context. At
the same time, the recent intense discussion about the cooperation
between the memorial sites and the organizational structure based on
this has made clear the need for an improved and more efficient exchange
of information between the memorial sites.
For this purpose, an
online memorial site forum is being designed, which is intended to serve
as an interactive entry and communication platform for the memorial site
sector and to become a hub for memorial site work in Germany through the
widest possible participation of those interested.
In its
“Events” section, the forum also lists annually recurring memorial sites
open to the public that have not (yet) been developed into regular
memorial sites, such as the Landwerk Neuendorf in Brandenburg.
International memorial site overview
The Topography of Terror
Foundation has compiled a global overview of institutions dealing with
the history of National Socialist persecution. Some of the data sets
were created with the cooperation of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews
of Europe Foundation. This project is also used by the Task Force for
International Cooperation in Holocaust Education, Remembrance and
Research, from which a significant financial contribution to the funding
has been made.
The website offers brief historical information
and a description of the activities of the respective institutions,
travel instructions and contact addresses for the most important
existing memorials and monuments for the victims of the Nazi regime, as
well as for the museums and research and educational institutions that
are active in this contemporary historical area are. The overview
compiled here is intended to provide an introduction and to contribute
to networking and the initiation of further cooperation. Background
information on the cultures of remembrance in the various countries can
be found on cultures of remembrance – a network.
The Documentation Center for NS Forced Labor has been located in Schöneweide since 2006 as a department of the Topography of Terror. It is the last largely preserved former Nazi forced labor camp in Berlin. During the Second World War, it was one of the more than 3,000 collective accommodations for forced laborers spread across the city. As an archive, exhibition and learning location, the documentation center provides information in particular about the history and dimensions of the largest group of Nazi forced laborers. In its permanent exhibitions “Everyday Forced Labor 1938–1945” and “Between All Chairs. The History of Italian Military Internees 1943-1945” and regular temporary exhibitions and events, the documentation center captures the voices and historical legacy of the survivors for future generations and for further research on the subject. The international youth meeting place enables an intensive and transnational discussion of the topic.