Holocaust Memorial Berlin: visiting the Field of Stelae and the information centre

💡 The Short Version: The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is free. The Field of Stelae is open 24 hours a day. The information centre beneath it is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, and closed on Mondays; the last admission is 45 minutes before closing. Entry is through a security gate, and there can be a wait. Luggage over 55 x 40 x 20 cm is not taken in, and lockers are at Potsdamer Platz, Friedrichstraße and Hauptbahnhof stations. Allow about an hour for the exhibition. Or book a tour: the Third Reich and Cold War walking tourad, from €16.73, stops at the memorial.

Visiting the memorial

The Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas runs the memorial at Cora-Berliner-Straße 1, and describes it on its information centre page. It is the central Holocaust memorial of Germany, opened on 10 May 2005, and commemorates up to six million Jewish victims. Peter Eisenman designed the Field of Stelae.

• The Field of Stelae. An outdoor field of 2,710 concrete stelae on about 19,000 square metres, with heights from ground level to 4.7 m. It can be entered from all four sides. It is open 24 hours a day and has no ticket.
• The information centre. An exhibition beneath the field, on the persecution and murder of the European Jews. It is free.
• Wheelchairs. The field can be crossed by wheelchair through 13 marked entrances. The centre is accessible by lift: ask the visitor consultant at the entrance.

The Field of Stelae. Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The information centre

• The wait. Entry is through a security gate, and the length of the wait depends on the day. Registered groups go first.
• Luggage. Dangerous objects are handed in at the entrance. Suitcases are not taken in, and neither is any bag larger than ordinary hand luggage, about 55 x 40 x 20 cm. A cloakroom inside is free, and lockers are at Potsdamer Platz and Friedrichstraße stations and at the main station.
• Behaviour. The foundation asks for appropriate behaviour in the exhibition and asks visitors to switch their phones off. Photographs are allowed without flash.
• Time. About one hour, or about 90 minutes with an audio guide.
• Language. The exhibition texts are in German and English. The audio guide is €3 (€2 reduced) and gives translations in French, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
• Age. The foundation recommends the exhibition for students from 14.
• Tours. Free public tours of the Field of Stelae in English run on the first Sunday of the month at 14:00. Guides from outside are asked not to lead tours inside the centre.

What the exhibition holds

The exhibition begins with an overview of the Nazi persecution from 1933 to 1945, and then has four rooms.

1. The Room of Dimensions. Diary entries, letters and final notes written during the persecution.
2. The Room of Families. The fates of 15 Jewish families, shown through photographs and personal documents.
3. The Room of Names. Short biographies of murdered or missing Jews are read aloud, with each person’s name, year of birth and year of death.
4. The Room of Sites. Film and photographs of 220 places of persecution and murder, on four screens, and listening stations with witnesses’ accounts.

At the end, video interviews give the life stories of survivors.

Tours worth paying for

The memorial is free, and the information centre does not allow outside guides. The tours below stop at the Field of Stelae with a guide. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

Third Reich and Cold War walking tour

From €16.73 · 2 hours · 9,926 reviews

Berlin: Third Reich & Cold War 2 Hour Guided Walking Tourad is run by Insider Tour Berlin in English and German. It starts at the tourist information at the Brandenburg Gate and stops at the Reichstag, the Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten, the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitler’s bunker, the Topography of Terror, a section of the Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, where it ends. Cancel up to 24 hours ahead for a full refund.

Third Reich, Hitler and WWII walking tour

From €19.36 · 3 hours · 2,819 reviews

Berlin: Third Reich, Hitler, and WWII Walking Tourad is also run by Insider Tour Berlin, in English, German and Spanish. It starts outside Friedrichstraße station, stops at the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial and the site of Hitler’s bunker, and ends at the Topography of Terror. Cancel up to 24 hours ahead for a full refund.

What to see

The memorial stands beside the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, so it fits in a walk through the government quarter.

1. The Field of Stelae. Walk in from any side. It is open at all hours, so it can be seen on a Monday or after the centre has closed.
2. The information centre, where the history is. Plan for a wait at the security gate.
3. The Topography of Terror, a short walk south. It is free and open daily, and best museums in Berlin has its hours.

What to skip: the reading room and the foyer database if time is short. The four rooms are the exhibition.

Getting there

• Where: Cora-Berliner-Straße 1, beside the Brandenburg Gate. Potsdamer Platz and Friedrichstraße stations both have lockers.
• Closed days: the information centre is closed on Mondays. What to book before you go to Berlin has the closed days for every sight.

The Reichstag dome and the Brandenburg Gate are a few minutes away, and the Berlin Wall Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie and the Stasi Museum and Hohenschönhausen cover the later history. Free things to do in Berlin lists the rest of what costs nothing, and 3 days in Berlin puts the memorial on a day the information centre is open. To stay nearby, see hotels near the Brandenburg Gate. The memorial sites outside the centre are the Sachsenhausen Memorial and the House of the Wannsee Conference, both free; the Berlin underground tours and Berlin walking tours cover the same period with a guide.