16 World War 2 Sites In Germany
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of World War 2 sites in Germany to visit. After its leader started the War in 1939, Germany was first bombed and eventually invaded to end the Nazi ‘Third Reich’ twelve years after Hitler came to power.
I’ve been visiting Germany for over 40 years, and visiting Second World War sites in Germany on many of these journeys. I’ve chosen these 16 sites as they reflect differing aspects of the War, and are also spread across the whole country.
They range from the site of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide to the place where the US and Red Armies met on the River Elbe shortly before Berlin fell. And from the V2 rocket development facility on the Baltic Sea to a tiny brush factory in Berlin whose owner courageously protected his blind and deaf Jewish employees from deportation by the Nazis.
I describe each place and its significance in detail, suggest guided tours where there are any, and advise on how to get to them. I also suggest places to stay near each location. I hope you find it helpful.
Reichstag, Berlin
The focal point of the German government, and of great symbolic significance during World War Two
Now known as the Bundestag, the Reichstag was of great symbolic importance during the Second World War – to Germans, and also the Soviet Red Army for which it was the ultimate goal in Berlin.
The Reichstag played an important incidental role in the Nazis’ taking hold of absolute power in Germany in 1933. They were the largest party in the Reichstag when President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor (Reichskanzler) on 28th January 1933. A month later the Reichstag was severely damaged by a fire, blamed on a Dutch Communist, Marinus van der Lubbe and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in general.
A few weeks after the fire the Reichstag passed (or was coerced into passing) the Enabling Law, which gave the Nazis freedom to introduce laws without reference to or input from other parties represented in the Reichstag. This was the first step on the road to Nazi Germany becoming a one-party totalitarian state.
Marinus van der Lubbe was later executed for his involvement in the fire. The building wasn’t used for its governmental purpose again by the Nazis after the fire, with sessions held in the nearby Kroll Opera House. During the War many of its windows were bricked up and it was partly fortified, and parts were used as a hospital and factory.
The Reichstag building inevitably fell to the Soviets on 30th April, and the famous photograph of the Soviet flag being placed on the Reichstag was made the following day. Many Soviet soldiers left graffiti on the interior walls of the Reichstag, and this has been preserved. For context, some of these would have then participated in the mass rapes perpetrated by the Red Army over the following weeks in Berlin and elsewhere in eastern Germany.
The Reichstag was finally rebuilt in the 1990 following the reunification of Germany. The original glass cupola was replaced by the modern dome and spiral walkway designed by Norman Foster. It’s one of the most famous Berlin landmarks and is free to visit – you just have to register in advance here. You will then receive a booking confirmation and visit time.
The Führerbunker Site
The irony: Hitler ‘disappeared’ in death, like his many millions of victims
It’s not often that I guide readers to a nondescript backstreet city centre car park, but this is what lies on the site of Adolf Hitler’s bunker, where he, wife of one day Eva Braun, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and others committed suicide on April 30th 1945.
After causing the deaths of tens of millions of people around the world the ranting racist dictator dreaded facing capture, so he shot himself dead to avoid this outcome. Once he and Braun had killed themselves (she swallowed a cyanide capsule), their bodies were burned. Once the Red Army had taken over the area a week later, the buildings and bunker were razed to the ground so that it wouldn’t become a place of pilgrimage for surviving Nazis and future followers.
I first visited the site with a German friend in 2000, when there was no information board outlining the events there. All that we could see was an empty space near some apartment blocks, on the corner of Gertrud-Kolmar-Strasse and In der Ministergarten.
The information board is very helpful, especially the diagram of the New Reich Chancellery and the position of the bunker beneath it. It’s worth a brief visit to the site, but the following location is far more worthy of your time, thought and contemplation.
Getting there: the nearest U-Bahn (subway station) is Mohrenstrasse, on the U2 line. Otherwise it’s roughly halfway between the Unter den Linden and Potsdamer Platz U- and S-Bahn stations, less than ten minutes’ walk from each.
Tours: This Berlin World War Two tour takes in the main sights including g the Reichstag, Hitler bunker site and Memorial to the Murdered Jews, finishing at the Topographie des Terrors exhibition.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The most poignant of Berlin World War 2 Sites, Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe stands on a large, prominent site between the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz. It consists of over 2,700 stelae, essentially concrete slabs, with numerous pathways between them.
For me, walking through it resembles some of the old, grand cemeteries of Europe, with large family vaults either side of the pathway. Except there are no names or inscriptions, just the feeling that many dead lie all around you. Then longer you spend there, the more you realise the immense scale of what happened. Whether or not this was Eisenman’s intention, I’ve always found it very moving.
You can walk around and through the Memorial at any time of day or night, but I recommend visiting the information centre underneath the Monument. This tells the stories of individuals and families murdered by the Nazis, and these stories help make things more understandable, especially for children learning about the subject for the first time. There are also smaller Memorials to the Sinti, Roma and gays persecuted and murdered by the Nazis – they are in the gardens across Ebertstrasse from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews.
Otto Weidt Blind Workshop Museum, Berlin
One of the most inspiring acts of bravery and dedication during the Holocaust
I always remember the old Jewish saying quoted in Schindler’s List that, “He who saves one life saves the world in time.” And this is so true of Otto Weidt, who founded a workshop for the blind and deaf in Berlin, thwarting the Nazis’ attempts to deport his Jewish workers, and then went to extraordinary lengths to save three of them, at great risk to himself.
This tiny museum in Berlin is one of few inspiring World War 2 sites in Germany. Among the countless tales of cruelty and murder, this man’s humanity shines brightly through the darkness. Weidt was a former anarchist who was visually impaired, and set up his workshop near the Hackescher Markt, employing up to 30 staff, many of whom were blind or deaf Jews. They were doubly vulnerable – their Jewish status meant that the Nazis wanted to kill them, and their disabilities were also seen by the Nazis as reason enough to murder the, as happened during the Aktion T4 euthanasia programme of 1940-41.
He supplied his custom-made brushes and brooms to the Wehrmacht (German Army) for a while, so he was able to continue to operate as his business was considered to be contributing to the war effort. He was able to stave off enquiries from the authorities for the first few years of the War, but most of his staff were eventually taken away and deported to the death camps in 1943.
The most poignant exhibit in the small Museum is the false wardrobe in one of the rooms . When the doors are opened, it leads you into the windowless hiding place where Weidt concealed his Jewish staff if Nazi officials visited.
However, Weidt did save three of his Jewish staff. One of them, Alice Licht, went to Terezin (also known as the Theresienstadt Ghetto) and he sent over 100 food parcels to her and her parents. She was later sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but thanks to a postcard she managed to send he was able to travel there and help her. She was able to move to a labour camp and eventually back to Berlin, where Weidt and his wife Else took her in.
Otto Weidt died two years later in 1947, and the workshop operated until 1952, when the East German state closed it down. In 1971, he was posthumously recognised as one of the Righteous Among The Nations at Yad Vashem.
Getting there: S-Bahn S3, S5, S7, S9 to Hackescher Markt, then a short walk to 39 Rosenthaler Strasse. The Workshop Museum is in the courtyard beyond the archway, on the left.
Where To Stay In Berlin
***** – Steigenberger Hotel am Kanzleramt – superb hotel very close to Berlin Hauptbahnhof and the Bundestag
**** – Lux 11 Berlin Mitte – stylish aparthotel a short walk from Alexanderplatz
*** – Hotel Aquino Berlin – highly recommended 3-star superior, just north of Friedrichstrasse, close to many Berlin sights
Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally Grounds
The former Imperial City used by the Nazis for their major rallies – and where their surviving leaders met justice
Much of historic Nuremberg was destroyed in World War Two, and the city was partly targeted for its associations with the Nazi party, which held its infamous mass rallies on the outskirts of the city.
The Nuremberg Nazi sites are two miles southeast of the city’s Altstadt (historic centre). The Nazis always considered the city important because of its role as one of the Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire, which covered much of what is now Germany during the Middle Ages.
They held their first Nuremberg party rally in 1929, but after they seized power (and banned all other political parties) in 1933, the rallies became much bigger affairs, heavily choreographed, and filmed by Leni Reifenstahl. Her Triumph of the Will is an exercise in Nazi propaganda, and the film, like the event it depicts, had one end aim – to brainwash the viewer.
The Nuremberg Nazi rally grounds are vast. The Zeppelinfeld where the main marches took place – past what’s left of the grandstand, the Zeppelintribune – stands next to the Dutzendteich park lake, the pink flamingo pedalos an incongruous sight in front of one of the largest buildings the Nazis ever conceived.
The Kongresshalle was partly inspired by Rome’s Colosseum, and built in concrete and brick – but on a much larger scale. It was intended to host vast indoor rallies, with audiences of up to 50,000 sieg-heiling in response to their ranting dictator. Like many of their grand projects, it had to be shelved because they started World War Two.
While in Nuremberg, I also recommend a visit to Memorium Nuremberg Trials, the courtroom where senior Nazis stood trial in 1946-47. They included air force chief Hermann Goering, Nazi financier Hjalmar Schacht, architect Albert Speer, racist ideologists Alfred Rosenberg and Julius Streicher, and foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Of the 21 tried, 18 were found guilty and were executed for their crimes.
See Also: One Day In Nuremberg – 24 hours in the Imperial City
Tours: This Nuremberg World War Two tour includes the Nazi Rally Grounds and the Nuremberg Trials Courthouse.
Where To Stay – Hotel Deutscher Kaiser – fine old Nuremberg hotel in historic building midway between the main station and Lorenzkirche
Dresden
The city of culture rebuilt from the rubble
Like Coventry in England, and Hamburg further down the Elbe, the historic centre of Dresden, the ‘Florence on the Elbe’ was largely obliterated by an Allied bombing raid on 13th February 1945. The core of the Altstadt was almost completely flattened, destroyed first by a wave of ‘bunker busting’ heavy bombs and then incendiaries, which whipped up a vicious firestorm, killing an estimated 25,000 people that night.
The raid has often been condemned as a war crime because of the high civilian death toll, arguing that Dresden wasn’t of great strategic significance. It was an important logistical and transport hub, one of the main rail links between the collapsing Eastern and Western Fronts. One of the arguments subsequently used to justify the Dresden bombing was that it would help expedite the end of the War, thereby saving Allied lives. The same justification was used in support of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Many of the art treasures of Dresden had been moved to the relative safety of locations including the Königstein Fortress 20 miles up the Elbe Valley. But most of its great historic buildings – the Semperoper, Zwinger Palace, and three of the major churches in Dresden, the Frauenkirche, Kreuzkirche and Sophienkirche – were severely damaged. The rebuilding would continue for 60 years, culm innating in the completion of the Frauenkirche in 2005.
Surprisingly, for such a momentous event, the memorials in Dresden are low-key, and compared to the main Dresden landmarks and sights, they don’t get a lot of publicity. You could say that the restored buildings, particularly the Frauenkirche, serve as memorials in themselves.
There is a small metal memorial in the pavement of the Altmarkt, the square where the Striezelmarkt Christmas Market is held during the Advent season each year. This is where the bodies of 6,865 victims of the Dresden bombings were cremated – their ashes are interred at the Heidefriedhof cemetery, in the city’s largest mass grave memorial. The cemetery can be reached by the number 3 tram which runs from Dresden Hauptbahnhof and Neustadt, and is a 10-minute walk beyond the final stop, Wilder Mann.
There is also an intriguing memorial to the lost Sophienkirche in the centre of the city. The ruin of Dresden’s last Gothic church was pulled down in the 1960s, and this Memorial consists of an interpretation of a Gothic chapel, encased in a glass cube. It’s secreted away down a side street next to the Taschenberg Palais Hotel, across the street from Dresden Residenzschloss and the Zwinger Palace.
Tours: The Dresden hop-on-hop-off bus is a brilliant way to see the city.
And this is perhaps the best Dresden walking tour, covering all corners of the Altstadt and the lovely riverfront Brühlsche Terrasse.
Where To Stay: Hyperion Hotel Dresden Am Schloss – 5-star luxury in Dresden;’s Altstadt, a few steps from the Residenzschloss (Dresden Castle) and a 5-minute walk from the Frauenkirche.
Eagles Nest or Kehlsteinhaus, Berchtesgaden
Mountaintop house built for major Nazi social gatherings
A short distance from the ruined Berghof, Hitler’s infamous holiday home, the Kehlsteinhaus was built in time for his 50thbirthday in 1939. It was intended to host large parties on occasions such as weddings, and Hitler visited it numerous times during his visits to the Berghof.
The Nazis – particularly Martin Bormann – were desperate to please Hitler, working forced labourers around the clock to ensure it was finished in time for his birthday. Twelve of the workers died building it. And then…the Dictator didn’t like it. It was too high for the Führer, who didn’t have much of a head for heights. And he hated using the lift up the mountain to the Kehlsteinhaus because he was paranoid (about plenty of other things too – for another time) about the lift mechanism being struck by lightning and electrocuting him in the process. Funnily enough, lightning did strike twice during its construction. So Hitler preferred the slow drive to the Eagles Nest instead.
The views from the Kehlsteinhaus are astonishing, and the building – intact at the end of the War – is still used as a restaurant. There is also an exhibition outside in the area where Eva Braun would often sunbathe. It has plenty of information panels, and these can be also be found elsewhere around the site, with images from the time the Nazis used it. Strikingly, much of it is as it was in the 1940s.
Getting there: shuttle buses run there from the Obersalzberg Documentation Centre lower down the mountain.
Tours: This Eagle’s Nest guided tour from Berchtesgaden, with additional time to enjoy the mountain views or have a meal in the restaurant.
Alternatively you can also visit on tours from Munich or from Salzburg – the latter is considerably closer.
St Pauli Flak Tower, Hamburg
An indestructible wartime bunker you can stay in
Hamburg was a major Allied target during the Second World War, with its port essential to German logistics and a shipbuilding industry responsible for its U-boats (submarines). It was the most heavily fortified city in Germany, and hundreds of bunkers remain around the city. The most prominent of them all is the St Pauli Hochbunker, overlooking the Millerntor Stadium where my German team, FC St Pauli, play.
This landmark bunker has been transformed from when I first saw it over 30 years ago. The square bunker is 75 metres on each side, 35 metres high, and its walls are 3.5 metres thick. No wonder it was able to withstand the many bombing raids on Hamburg.
It had two purposes. It served as a shelter (at one point for 25,000 citizens), but it was a flak tower, from which missiles could be fired by air defences. I vividly recall my Hamburg friends laughing as they told me that it was decided to keep the structure after the War because blowing it up would have also meant blowing up much of the surrounding neighbourhood.
Now also known as the Green Bunker, it’s home a nightclub and live music venue, a climbing centre, a ‘pop music school’ and other performance spaces. Some of the flak tower is now residential, and you can stay there yourself at the REVERB by Hard Rock Hamburg (click to follow booking link). It occupies the top floors of the tower, now transformed into a green building with trees planted on the balconies on each floor.
Tours: At the time of writing guided tours are only available in German – and this Green Bunker tour includes access to the rooftop garden with superb views of Hamburg.
Getting there: U3 to Feldstrasse – it’s just across the street from there.
Nikolaikirche, Hamburg
Monument to the destruction of Hamburg
One of the best-known Hamburg landmarks, the 19th-century Gothic Revival Nikolaikirche was, between 1874 and 1876, the tallest building in the world, until it was surpassed by the central spire of Rouen Cathedral in France.
The church had to be rebuilt following destruction in the Great Fire of Hamburg in May 1842. It was destroyed a second time a century later during Operation Gomorrah, the Allied carpet bombing of Hamburg in July 1943. The body of the church was badly damaged, but its 147-metre-high spire survived almost intact. The nave of the church was eventually pulled down in 1951.
As was the case with the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin (see my Churches in Berlin article for more information on this) it was decided to preserve the ruin as a war memorial. The focal point is the spire of the church, and there are also some sculptures (including the one pictured, Erdenengel by Edith Breckwoldt) and plaques around the church.
You can take a lift to the viewing gallery of the tower which gives a great view over the Hamburg skyline and the Speicherstadt warehouse district.
There is also an exhibition in the former crypt of the church, which has been updated with English translations since I last visited. The most gut-churning thing I read was about the Allied bombing strategy – explosive bombs were used to blow up the roofs of buildings, and then incendiary bombs were dropped to set everything (and everyone in the vicinity) alight. It’s estimated that around 37,000 people were killed in Hamburg in the week of Operation Gomorrah.
These tactics were partly the work of RAF commander Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, and authorised by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They are absolutely cynical, no different to the Russian ‘double tap’ strikes on Ukraine in which emergency services are targeted. This is widely considered a war crime, and it’s hard to see Operation Gomorrah in a different light.
Tours: This hop-on-hop-off Hamburg bus tour stops at 20 locations around the city, including two near the St Nikolai Memorial.
And this is the best Hamburg World War Two walking tour, with additional sights including Deichstrasse and the Elbphilharmonie concert hall.
Where to Stay: The Westin Hamburg Elbphilharmonie – five-star luxury with superb views over the Harbour, in the same building as Hamburg’s superb new concert hall
Feldherrnhalle, Munich
Site of the battle that ended the Nazis’ failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch
The Feldherrnhalle is a Renaissance-inspired loggia on the Odeonsplatz in Munich. On 9th November 1923 it was the scene of a confrontation between Bavarian State Police and armed followers of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It was the climax of the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’, in which Hitler, supporter General Erich von Ludendorff and members of his SA (Sturmabteilung, also known as Brownshirts or stormtroopers) tried to overthrow the Bavarian state government by stopping a speech by Bavaria’s leader, Gustav Ritter von Kahr the previous evening.
At one point von Kahr had agreed to Hitler’s demands, but when the latter left the building the initiative was lost. On the morning of the 9th, Ludendorff suggested marching through the streets, and they soon reached the Odeonsplatz, where 130 armed soldiers were waiting for them. A gun battle broke out, in which 16 Nazi rebels, four police officers and a passer-by were killed.
The Nazi putschists fled, but all, including Hitler, were captured within two days. Hitler and his cohorts were charged with high treason, and the leader was sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison. He only served nine months, during which time he wrote Mein Kampf (‘My Struggle’), his autobiography and statement of political philosophy.
After coming to power in 1933, the Nazis turned the Feldherrnhalle into a shrine to their movement, commemorating the 16 Nazis and bystander killed during the gun battle there. While they were still in power, passers-by were expected to give the straight-arm Nazi salute as they walked past. The memorial built by the Nazis was destroyed at the end of the Second World War.
Tours: This excellent Third Reich & WWII walking tour is a great introduction to the period, with coverage of the White rose resistance movement too.
Where To Stay: Hotel Torbräu – historic family-run hotel close to Marienplatz and the main Munich sights
Dachau
The first of many Nazi concentration camps
All of the World War 2 sites in Germany that I describe in this article have had a profound impact on me. But if the history of the Nazis is relatively new to you, I suggest going in at the deep end and visiting a Nazi concentration camp. Whenever I have done so, I have come out emotionally and mentally shattered, with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for days. I’ve done it because I feel it’s immensely important to bear witness to what was perpetrated in these places.
The concentration camps are where the Nazis, away from the eyes of the public and the international community, shattered all boundaries of humanity. They set out with a programme of mass murder – at first through torture and executions, and also working and starving people until they could no longer go on. The gas vans and gas chambers come in the 1940s.
Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp (KZ or konzentrazionslager in German). It was established on March 22nd1933, the day before the Enabling Law gave the Nazis unlimited powers. It was initially used to hold political prisoners – usually Communists and Social Democrats, but in theory anyone they considered opposition or a threat to themselves. After the proclamation of the Nuremberg Laws which discriminated against Jews and other minorities, Sinit, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jews were also imprisoned in Dachau.
Prior to 1933, the site had been an unused arms factory, but was converted into a prison camp. It initially held between 4,000 and 5,000 prisoners, but its capacity grew as more and more barracks were added. Conditions were horrendous from the outset, and Dachau became the ‘model’ (for want of a better word) for all other camps set up by the Nazis in Germany, and the territories of other countries which they occupied. At least 32,000 prisoners died in Dachau, but it’s possible that there were many more who remain undocumented.
The Dachau site is extensive. The famous ‘Arbeit macht frei’ (‘Work sets you free’) slogan can be found in the entrance gateway, and the international monument in the camp is also close to the entrance.
The permanent exhibition is thoroughly absorbing and much of it is painful to read – allow at least an hour to visit the entire exhibition. You’ll also need to factor in two hours or more to walk around the site. The barracks have all been razed to the ground, though one has been recreated, and the gas chamber and crematoria are intact. There’s a lot of empty space around the camp, with many information boards explaining what happened there.
Getting there: Take the train from Munich to Dachau Bahnhof, and follow the signs to the 726 bus from there. This bus drops you off next to the camp entrance.
Tours: This full day Dachau concentration camp tour from Munich includes 4 hours exploring the large Dachau site and Museum
Torgau Elbe Memorials, Saxony, Germany
Memorials at the site where the US Army and Red Army met in April 1945
The northern town of Saxony is one of the most intriguing places to visit on the river Elbe. It has three main claims to renown – its superb Renaissance castle, Schloss Hartenfels, and the Castle Chapel within which was the first purpose-built Protestant place of worship. It was also where the Soviet Red Army and US Army converged on 25th April 1945 as Nazi Germany teetered on the brink of total collapse.
The eventual meeting between the two commanders, Robertson and Silvashko, was friendly, although a mishap was narrowly avoided thanks to a Soviet officer, who realised that the Americans didn’t have a green flare to fire in response to the Soviets’ red one.
Although the town was liberated by the Americans, Torgau became part of what soon became Communist East Germany. The Soviets built a memorial, designed by Avraham Miletzky, a few months after the historic meeting of the armies, and the more recent, smaller Spirit of the Elbe Memorial a ten-minute walk away across the river.
Poignantly, the Spirit of the Elbe memorial mentions ‘peoples of all nations resolving their differences without war…working together for the mutual benefit of all people.’ A few people need a reminder, it would seem.
Where to Stay: Pension Wehner – by far the best-rated hotel or guesthouse in Torgau
See Also: Things To Do In Torgau, Germany
Aktion T4 Memorial Museum, Pirna
One of six places where the Nazis carried out mass murder on patients deemed unworthy of life or their ‘master race’
Many of the main participants in the Holocaust had already been involved in another Nazi mass killing programme before the massacres of Europe’s Jews began in 1941. This was the clandestine Aktion T4, named after the address, Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin, from which the murders were managed.
The targets of Aktion T4 were vulnerable people whom a state should protect, not persecute. The victims were a broad range of people, some of whom had a variety of disabilities, and the mentally ill. The Nazis deemed these people ‘unworthy of life’ and their term for them was ‘ballastexistenzen’ – ‘dead weight existences’.
It was long believed that around 70,000 were murdered through this programme, though documentary evidence over the last decade suggests the figure was more likely 250 to 300,000. It was spread around six mental hospitals across Germany and institutions in occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia. One of these euthanasia centres as at Pirna-Sonnenstein, in buildings that are part of the Sonnenstein Castle complex., where around 15,000 were murdered.
Across Germany, these people were killed by a variety of methods, including gassing in specially adapted vans or chambers, and lethal injections. A cellar in House C16 of the Sonnenstein complex was chosen for this purpose. The killing of patients continued until September 1941, and later over a thousand concentration camp internees were also gassed there.
Four of the doctors responsible for the murders at Pirna-Sonnenstein were sentenced to death in the 1947 Dresden Doctors Trial. Following the takeover of East Germany by the repressive Communist regime, discussion of the murders was suppressed, and this only changed with the fall of the GDR regime in 1989-90.
The small exhibition includes the harrowing stories of twenty of the victims.
The Memorial in House C16 (now called Schlosspark 11) is open daily – Monday to Friday 9.00 am to 4.00 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays 11.00 am to 5.00 pm. Entrance is free.
Getting there: It’s less than a mile walk from Pirna Hbf, which you can reach via the S1 S-bahn train from Dresden Hbf.
Where to Stay – Pirnscher Hof – Hotel Garni – popular hotel on the beautiful main square in Pirna
See Also: 12 Best Things To Do In Pirna and 14 Best Day Trips from Dresden
Colditz Castle, Saxony
Escape was supposedly impossible – but the Allied officers detained there weren’t going to stop trying
Colditz is one of the most popular day trips from Leipzig among English-speaking visitors, but the name is obscure to many Germans. However, the town’s name is well-known to Brits, especially of my and earlier generations, who grew up familiar with the Escape From Colditz board game and The Colditz Story movie.
Prior to World War Two Colditz Castle had been used as a political prison. Before being repurposed as Oflag IV-C, a prisoner of war camp for Allied officers. It was a high-security institution, intended to be escape-proof, and those incarcerated there had track records of escape attempts from other camps where they had been held.
At least 30 prisoners made good their escapes from Colditz. They had dug a network of tunnels, and even built a glider, which was never used, to fly out of the Castle. Many of the prisoners’ secrets were only discovered decades later when parts of the Castle were excavated.
Getting there: It’s a combined train and bus trip from Leipzig which takes 1 hour and 10 minutes. Take the RB110 from Leipzig Hbf to Grossbothen, then walk around the corner to the stop for the 619 bus to Colditz, which is opposite the Edeka supermarket.
The Colossus of Prora
A Butlin’s for the Nazis – a 1930s holiday camp, totalitarian style
Nobody ever took a holiday in Prora due to the outbreak of World War Two, but this mass resort on the island of Rügen would have accommodated up to 20,000 visitors. It would have been a gigantomaniac’s paradise, a complex of spartan apartments an astounding 4.5 kilometres – almost three miles – long.
The Nazis built Prora between 1936 and 1939 through their Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) organisation. Prora was their biggest project, and it was one of the best examples of fascist architecture in Europe.
British readers among you may be amused – or perhaps bemused – to learn that Prora was partly inspired by the Butlin’s holiday camps that opened in the 1930s. But it would have been very different, with the ideological undercurrent – the Nazis saw leisure time as something collective and communal, rather than individual. And offering cheap holidays by the sea was another means of extending their control over the masses.
Prora had another purpose, as instructed by Hitler, that it could be converted into a military field hospital in time of war. And when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1st 1939., it put paid to his fantasy concrete holiday camp by the sea. It was used to house refugees who had lost their homes (including many from Hamburg in 1943 after the Operation Gomorrah bombing raids). After the War, both the Soviets and the East German Volksarmee later used parts of the site, but shortly after the 1990 reunification it was abandoned.
Much of the site has been completely renovated since then. A section of it is now given over to the ‘world’s longest youth hostel’. If you prefer somewhere a little more upmarket, the Dormero Strandhotel Rugen occupies another part of the restored complex.
Peenemünde
Research facility where V1 and V2 bombs were developed
The last of our World War 2 sites in Germany, the Peenemünde Army Research Centre, was a weapons development facility and testing ground for the Luftwaffe (Air Force). The northern part of the island of Usedom was requisitioned for the purpose, and the technical director was Wernher von Braun, who later moved to the US and was in charge of the Saturn-V rocket project.
Peenemünde is best-known for the development of guided missiles and rockets, including g the long-range V1 and V2 rockets. These caused the British considerable anxiety, as London was within range from locations in northern occupie4d France. Both were considered superweapons, impossible to defend against and capable of devastation, and the V2 was the first rocket to reach space from a vertical launch in 1944. The weapons were costly to produce and, although they were feared by the British, they didn’t make much difference to the overall outcome of the War.
The outstanding Peenemünde Historic Technical Museum includes the vast brick power station, and the main exhibition is housed in an annexe adjacent to the power station. There are also several outdoor exhibits, such as a V2 rocket and a workers’ railbus. It’s also possible to follow a 25 km trail around the vast complex which includes bunkers, a POW camp and a concentration camp.
Getting there: You can get to the Peenemünde Museum by train. It’s between 3 ½ and 4 hours by train from Berlin Hbf, and the journey is a lot shorter and more manageable if starting out from Stralsund. The latter takes 2 hours, with two changes, at Züssow and Zinnowitz. Peenemünde is at the end of the short branch line served by the RB24 service which runs from Zinnowitz.
Where To Stay: Zinnowitz is a more pleasant place to stay with a great beach, pier and more restaurants. Hotel Asgards Midgard is ideal, only 100 metres from the beach.
World War 2 Sites in Germany – Final Thoughts
I hope that you have found this article helpful, and that you’ve discovered some new places to explore as well as the widely-known ones around Germany.
I’ve written widely about World War Two (which I studied at University) sites around Europe and also Germany in general, and here are some of my Second World War articles:
15 Best Berlin World War 2 Sites
16 Off The Beaten Path World War 2 Sites In Europe
Nuremberg Nazi Sites – seven sites including the infamous Nazi Party Rally Grounds
Prague World War 2 Sites – discover Prague’s Second World War locations
Heydrich Assassination Site Prague – where the ‘Butcher of Prague’ was attacked and eventually killed by the Czech Resistance
Visiting Auschwitz – Birkenau – Helpful Tips And What To Expect
Visiting Terezin Concentration Camp – complete guide to the infamous Theresienstadt Ghetto near Prague
12 Fascinating World War 2 Sites in London
Visiting The Churchill War Rooms London
And here are some more articles on Germany which may also pique your interest:
27 Best Places To Visit in Germany – from Hamburg to Heidelberg, Cologne to Quedlinburg and many more
17 Best Places To Visit In Eastern Germany – Dresden, Leipzig, the Baltic coast and much more
One Day In Dresden – a day in the rebuilt Florence on the Elbe
Things To Do In Quedlinburg – the stunning World Heritage town with over 2,000 medieval half-timbered houses
Visiting Nuremberg Toy Museum – one of the best toy museums in the world
Things To Do In Meissen – one of the most beautiful places to visit on the River Elbe
30 Best Places To Visit On The River Elbe – one of the great European rivers from source to sea
Visiting Naumburg Cathedral – World Heritage masterpiece, home to perhaps the most beautiful statue from the Middle Ages
One Day In Nuremberg – 24 Hours In The Imperial City
Bacharach Germany – one of the most enchanting villages in the Rhine Valley
21 Best Berlin Landmarks – the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall and many more
15 Best Berlin Cold War Sites To Visit – where to find remnants of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War
26 Best Things to Do In Trier – a detailed guide to the oldest city in Germany, including another great Toy Museum
20 Best Rhine River Castles – the best castles in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site
One Day In Hamburg – 24 hours in Germany’s great port city