Topography of Terror, Nazi Berlin

This three-hour walking seminar explores the twelve years that still gape like an open wound at the center of Germany’s 20th century history: the years between 1933 and 1945 when Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party (the Nazis) steered Germany into war and terror. In the company of a 20th century historian, we will explore the rise of the Nazis to power, the horrors and tragedies of their regime, and the events and circumstances that led to their fall. We will pay special attention to the monuments designed and envisioned by Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer that bear active witness to the reign of the Third Reich, trying as we do so to come to terms with this traumatic “past that will not pass away,” and in so doing will link Nazi history to the geography of their capital city, Berlin.

We are attempting not merely to “historicize” the Third Reich by separating it completely from the present, but rather are trying to grapple with Berlin’s Nazi legacy—and especially with the sites that remain linked to it—in order to understand how this legacy shapes Berlin today.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Reich Main Security Office
Reichstag