East Berlin WWII tour (self-guided tour)

East Berlin WWII tour: ruin of the Franciscan monastery church 

• adress: Klosterstrasse 73
• opening time:
• May to September, Monday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm.

One of the last witness of the ancien history of Berlin is located next to Alexander Platz, in Berlin town centre; the ruin of the former Franciscan Monastery Church. During the Battle of Berlin in April 1945 the church was hit by the Allied bombing and destroyed. At the end of the war instead of destroying it it was transformed in a memorial against fascism and war disasters.

Self-guided tour of WWII Berlin: Former Gestapo Offices

• Adress: Burgstrasse 28
• Opening time: Always open

In the town centre of Berlin, not so far away from the Berlin Cathedral a modern building is now replacing the former Office of the Gestapo. It was the office that organised the deportation of Berlin’s Jews. A plaque on a new building commemorates the past.

East Berlin WWII tour: Ernst Thalmann Denkmal

• adress: greifswalder Strasse 52
• opening time: always open

Ernst Thälmann was a German polititian, leader of the Communist Party. He became an oppositor to Hitler, when the National Socialists rised to power. After the Reichtag fine on 27 February 1933, many opponents were arrested and between them Ernst Thälmann and his personal secretery. He was transported to Buchenwald Concentration Camp where he was executed about ten years later. The sculture dedicated to him, is a work of the Russian artist Lev Kerbel and it was placed in the Pankow area in 1986, 40 years after Ernst Thälmann’s death.

Self-guided tour of WWII Berlin: Air-Raid-Shelter

• Adress: Albrechtstrasse 24
• opening time: Always open

The Friedrichstraße Railway Bunker was built in 1942 under the direction of Albert Speer to protect railway passengers. Hitler wanted to built as many shelter as possible for the civilians, and so at the beginning it was used for the Railway passengers, but then all the civilians living in the surrounding area started to join it when the Allied bombing in spring 1945 became daily.

Albrechtstrasse Air-Raid-Shelter

The bunker had room for 1.500 people. After the war the Soviet forces used it as a prison. In the mid-1950s, the bunker was used as a warehouse, and at the end of East German regime in 1989/90, it experienced several kinds of uses, untill Christian Boros bought the bunker in 2003. He reconstructed it s an exhibit space contemporary art.

Battle of Berlin: First house conquered by the Russians called “House of April 21, 1945”

• Adress: Landsberger Allee 563
• opening time: always open (now in restoration)

The Red Army crossed the limits of Berlin in the night of April 21, 1945 coming from the east side of German. The first house they liberated is still there, along the road and has been transformed after the war, by the East German Goverment in a memorial. It was painted red to remember the Red Army thet liberated it, and on the right side of the house was painted a bir star, the date of liberation 21 April 1945, and the reason of this celebration “Victory over Berlin”. Now the house is under renovation.

Battle of Berlin: Berlin-Karlshorst Museum

• Adress: Zwieseler Straße 4
• opening time:Tue-Sun 10-18 closed on Monday
• S3 Karlshorst +bus 296

After the successful battle of Berlin, Germany signed a ducument of surrender in Rheims on 7 May 1945. The paper was ratificated ib Berlin in Karlshorst district in a still existing building The building was the Wehrmacht school and after that became then the headquarters of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany. Then later it was transformed in the museum about the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces. The heartof the exibitionis the surrender room, which is in its original state, with furnitures and flags and where an original video shows the signing the Act of Surrender in 1945.

East Berlin WWII tour: MAP

East Berlin WWII tour: OTHER WWII TOURS IN BERLIN

North Berlin and Oranienburg WWII tour (self-guided tour)

South Berlin WWII Tour (self-guided tour)

West Berlin WWII tour (self-guided tour)

Central Berlin WWII tour (self-guided tour)

Soviet WWII memorials in Berlin (self-guided tour)

Berlin Cold War tour (self-guided tour)