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Though it came tumbling down in 1989, parts of the Berlin Wall still stand as a testament to the Cold War era.
One such stretch of the wall is located appropriately enough at the Topography of Terror, an outdoor and indoor history museum located on Niederkirchnerstrasse, on the site in which during the Nazi regime from 1933-1945, buildings housed the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS. During Allied bombings in 1945, these buildings were destroyed and the ruins demolished after the war.
The Berlin Wall ran along the south side of the street, previously known as Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse and separated the American and Soviet zones. Here, adjacent to the Topography of Terror, the longest outer segment, still remaining, can be seen both from within the museum’s grounds and from the outside.
Exhibitions marked the museum’s beginnings on Berlin’s 750th anniversary in 1987. Shortly after, the cellar of the Gestapo headquarters, a gruesome site of torture and execution, was located and excavated. The site, covered at the time with canopies, was turned into an open-aired memorial and museum and detailed the history of repression under the Nazis. Today, a permanent open-aired museum informs visitors of the timeline of the Third Reich, from Hitler’s rise, to the fall of Berlin, through the use of statistical information, anecdotal clips, photographs and architectural remnants.
Both fascinating and sobering at the same time, the Topography of Terror is worth a look, if not for the information, but for an up-close and personal look at the historical barricade.
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Topography Of Terror
- http://www.topographie.de/
- Address: Niederkirchnerstraße 8, 10963 Berlin, Germany
- Hours: Daily, 1000-2000
- Admission: free
- Note: Additional sections of the Berlin Wall can be seen at and near the Potsdamer Platz.
