Topography of Terror Berlin

The Topography of Terror (Topographie des Terrors) in Berlin's Mitte district documents the history of the SS, Gestapo, and Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) on the precise site where these organisations operated their central headquarters from 1933 to 1945. The site at Niederkirchnerstraße was a residential and commercial neighbourhood in the nineteenth century before the Nazi security apparatus cleared existing structures and established its administrative complex in the early 1930s. The Gestapo — the Secret State Police — was headquartered at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8 (now Niederkirchnerstraße 8), while the SS leadership occupied the adjacent Hotel Prinz Albrecht at number 9 and the SS security service (SD) used the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais at number 7. The entire complex was destroyed in the Battle of Berlin in 1945, and the site remained derelict for decades before a temporary outdoor documentation area opened in 1987 as part of Berlin's 750th anniversary programme. The permanent indoor exhibition, in a purpose-built structure completed in 2010, covers 800 square metres and consists entirely of primary documentary evidence: original photographs, documents, personal testimonies, and statistical records tracing the structure of the terror apparatus, the planning and execution of the Holocaust, Nazi crimes across occupied Europe, and the postwar prosecution of perpetrators at the Nuremberg Trials. A 200-metre section of the original Berlin Wall runs along the site's western boundary, connecting the Nazi-era history with the Cold War division that followed. The outdoor documentation corridor follows the excavated foundations of the former Gestapo and SS buildings and contains evidence of individual prisoners held in the basement cells of the Prinz-Albrecht-Straße building. The entire site is free to visit; the indoor exhibition is open daily, and the outdoor sections are accessible at all hours.