Berlin: Third Reich & World War 2 Walking Tour

Trace Berlin’s World War II and Third Reich history on a focused English-guided walking tour ending at the Reichstag Building.

Getting started

Meet your English-speaking guide at Neue Promenade 3 at the scheduled start time. After a brief introduction to Berlin under National Socialism and during World War II, set off on foot through the city. A public transportation ticket is required for parts of the route, so ensure you have this ready before the tour begins.

What to expect

Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt and Neue Synagoge

Begin at Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt and the nearby Neue Synagoge to explore early persecution and everyday resistance in Nazi Berlin.

Features:

• Visit the Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt, where your guide explains how Otto Weidt employed and protected blind and deaf Jewish workers during the regime.

• Stop at the Neue Synagoge, also known as Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum, as you hear about Jewish life before 1933 and the destruction of synagogues during the November pogroms.

• Your English-speaking guide provides context on how both sites illustrate the rapid transformation of Berlin under National Socialist policies.

Anhalter Bahnhof and Topography of Terror

Continue to Anhalter Bahnhof and the Topography of Terror, two key locations that show how Nazi power was organized and enforced.

Features:

• Pause at Anhalter Bahnhof, once one of Berlin’s busiest train stations, to learn how it became a departure point for deportations and how wartime bombing reshaped the city.

• Spend around 15 minutes at the Topography of Terror, on the grounds of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters, as your guide outlines the structure of Nazi security forces.

• Examine the remaining cellar walls and open-air exhibits while hearing how decisions made here affected millions across Europe.

Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus and Johann Georg Elser sculpture

Move through the government quarter to see how Nazi and later political administrations left their mark on Berlin’s architecture and memorial landscape.

Features:

• Stop at the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus, where your guide explains its construction for the Reich Aviation Ministry and its later role in East German government, linking the Third Reich to postwar power structures.

• Visit the Johann Georg Elser sculpture, a memorial to the man who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1939, and hear about his failed attempt and resistance to the Nazi regime.

• Learn how both the building and the sculpture demonstrate different forms of opposition and continuity in German political history.

Holocaust Memorial and Monument to Homosexuals

Continue to the area around the Holocaust Memorial and Monument to Homosexuals, where memorials commemorate groups persecuted by the Nazi regime.

Features:

• Spend about 10 minutes at the Holocaust Memorial, officially the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, as your guide discusses its design and how it commemorates six million Jewish victims.

• Walk to the nearby Monument to Homosexuals Persecuted Under National Socialist Regime and hear about the persecution and criminalization of homosexual people under Nazi rule.

• Your guide highlights why these memorials were created decades after the war and how public remembrance in Germany has evolved.

Soviet Memorial Tiergarten and Reichstag Building

Conclude near the center of political power, where the end of the war and the postwar order are remembered side by side.

Features:

• Visit the Soviet Memorial Tiergarten to see the large Red Army monument, while your guide explains the Battle of Berlin and the Soviet role in capturing the city in 1945.

• Walk to the Reichstag Building, the final stop of the tour, and learn about the 1933 Reichstag fire, wartime damage, and the building’s later function as the seat of the reunited German parliament.

Wrapping up

The tour ends at the Reichstag Building, giving you a clear sense of how Berlin’s landscape reflects the rise, collapse, and legacy of the Third Reich over four hours of guided walking.