Overview

Not much is left of the Gestapo's former headquarters in Wilhelmstrabe. Severely damaged by wartime bombing raids, the remaining buildings were torn down shortly after the end of the War. The Allied authorities wanted all traces of Germany's evil past to be destroyed as swiftly as possible. Excavations in the early 1980's brought the foundations to light-a long wall covered with pale white tiles-and a makeshift museum was immediately established on the wasteland close to Hitler's bunker. The Topography of Terror stands beside the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial (still in the planning phase) as one of Berlin's most important memorials to the darkest chapter of German history. Admission is free.