Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Plötzensee Prison Memorial and around
Hüttigpfad • Daily: March-Oct 9am-5pm; Nov-Feb 9am-4pm • Free •
W
gedenkstaette-ploetzensee.de • Bus #123 from Hauptbahnhof
to “Gedenkstätte Plötzensee”; then walk back along the route and turn right on Hüttigpfad
One of Berlin's handful of hird Reich buildings, the
Plötzensee Prison Memorial
(Gedenkstätte Plötzensee), survives in the northwest of the city centre, on the border
of Charlottenburg and Wedding. Many of the former prison buildings where the Nazis
brought dissidents and political opponents have been refurbished to provide a juvenile
detention centre, so the memorial consists of only those buildings where executions took
place. Between 1933 and 1945 more than 2500 people were hanged or guillotined here
- hangings were carried out with piano wire, so that victims would slowly choke rather
than die from broken necks - and their relatives were sent a bill for the execution.
Today, the execution chamber has been restored to its wartime condition: on occasion,
victims were hanged eight at a time, and the hanging beam, complete with hooks, still
stands. hough decked with wreaths and flowers, the atmosphere in the chamber is
chilling, and in a further reminder of Nazi atrocities an urn in the courtyard contains
soil from each of the concentration camps. Perhaps more than at any other wartime site
in Berlin, Plötzensee conveys most palpably the horror of senseless, brutal murder.
10
Maria Regina Martyrum
Heckerdamm 230 • Four stops from the Plötzensee Prison Memorial on the #123 bus
Completed in 1963, the
Maria Regina Martyrum
is a purposefully sombre memorial
church dedicated to those who died under the Nazis. Its brutally plain exterior,
surrounded by a wide courtyard whose walls are flanked by abstract
Stations of the Cross
modelled in bronze, fronts a plain concrete shoebox, adorned only with an abstract
altarpiece that fills the entire eastern wall. It's a strikingly unusual design, and
successfully avoids looking dated.
The Westend
In the late nineteenth century, mansions belonging to Berlin's wealthy bourgeoisie
sprung up in northwestern Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, in an area that became
known, inspired by London's West End, as the
Westend
.
Georg-Kolbe-Museum
Sensburger Allee 25 • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • €5 •
W
georg-kolbe-museum.de • S-Heerstrasse or bus #M49 from Bahnhof Zoo
he
Georg-Kolbe-Museum
, occupying the artist's former villa, displays many of his
drawings and bronzes. hough Kolbe never quite achieved the eminence of his
contemporary Ernst Barlach, his vigorous, modern, simplified classical style had broad
appeal: it was particularly prized by the Nazis, who provided many major commissions,
as well as by Mies van der Rohe, who used a Kolbe sculpture for his Barcelona Pavilion.
Le Corbusier house
Flatowallee 16 • Free • S-Olympiastadion or bus #M49 from Bahnhof Zoo to stop “Flatowallee”
he blocky
Le Corbusier
house, built by the French architect for the 1957 International
Building exhibition, contains more than five hundred apartments and was heralded a
modernist ideal living environment. A German-language exhibition (always open) on
the ground floor tells its story and you can ride the lifts up to the shiny corridors on
the top floor for views from the fire escapes.
Funkturm
Messedamm 22 • Mon 10am-8pm, Tues-Sun 10am-11pm • €4.50 • S-Messe Nord/ICC or bus #M49 from Bahnhof Zoo
to stop
“Haus des Rundfunks”
he
Funkturm
was built in 1928 as a radio and, eventually, a TV transmitter. One of
Dr Goebbels' lesser-known achievements was to create the world's first regular TV
