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A Berlin WW2 Itinerary for One, Two or Three Days

This Berlin WW2 itinerary puts the city's Third Reich and war sites into a plan you can actually walk. Day one covers the centre on foot, from the Brandenburg Gate to the Topography of Terror. Day two goes north to the Sachsenhausen Memorial by S1 train. Day three offers Wannsee, Karlshorst or the west of the city. If you would rather have a guide, the comparison of Berlin WW2 tours shows what each bookable option covers.

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on a WW2 itinerary — The Brandenburg Gate seen from Pariser Platz. Photo: L-BBE, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Quick answer Plan your days

A workable Berlin WW2 itinerary needs one day for the centre on foot, one day for Sachsenhausen by S1 train and, with three days, either Wannsee, Karlshorst or the western sites. The centre is walkable in a single day because Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust memorial, the bunker site and the Topography of Terror sit within about 20 minutes' walk of each other. Sachsenhausen needs most of a day, about 4.5 to 6 hours door to door, with an ABC ticket (€5 single, €12.90 for 24 hours). Days in the centre work on an AB 24-hour ticket at €11.20, and the memorials on the main route are free to enter.

Key takeaways

Start with the 2-hour walk if you want the centre explained by a guide at $27.
For day two, compare the Sachsenhausen tours from Berlin on the homepage before booking.
Check the opening hours for the Topography of Terror and the Holocaust memorial Berlin before you fix your day one order.
Read what you can and cannot see at Hitler's bunker so the car park site does not disappoint you.

One Day: The Centre on Foot

The core Third Reich sites lie close together in Mitte. This order runs north to south so the walking stays short. Every stop except the Berlin Story Bunker is free.

Morning

Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag
Start at Pariser Platz. The Reichstag sits about 291 m away, a walk of roughly 4 minutes. The building was damaged by the arson attack of 27 February 1933, after which parliament moved to the Kroll Opera House. Soviet soldiers left graffiti in 1945, part of which was preserved in the restoration. The dome is free but needs prior registration on the Bundestag website with names and dates of birth, and you must bring the confirmation plus a passport or ID. If you have not registered, view the building from outside and move on.
Morning

Soviet War Memorial in the Tiergarten
Walk to the Soviet War Memorial on Straße des 17. Juni. It was unveiled on 11 November 1945 and stands on the north side of the street with sight of both the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. More than 2,000 soldiers are buried there per the memorial's sign, and it displays two ML-20 howitzer-guns and two T-34 tanks. It was built from stone salvaged from the Reich Chancellery.
Midday

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The field of stelae lies about 348 m from the Brandenburg Gate, roughly 5 minutes on foot, and is accessible 24 hours a day. The memorial has about 2,700 concrete stelae by Peter Eisenman on about 1.9 hectares. The underground Information Centre is open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00 with last admission 45 minutes before closing, and it is closed Mondays. Admission is free. The full page on the Holocaust memorial Berlin covers the four rooms of the centre, including the Room of Families.
Early afternoon

The Führerbunker site
From the Holocaust memorial walk about 451 m, roughly 6 minutes, to Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße at the corner of In den Ministergärten. Nothing of the bunker is visible. The site is a residential car park, marked since 8 June 2006 by a single German and English information board with a schematic of the bunker. The bunker itself lay about 8.5 m below the garden of the old Reich Chancellery, and Hitler moved into it on 16 January 1945. Read the board, then continue. The page on Hitler's bunker explains the full history of the site.
Afternoon

Topography of Terror
Walk about 843 m from the bunker site, roughly 11 minutes, to Niederkirchnerstraße 8. From 1933 to 1945 this block housed the Gestapo headquarters, the SS leadership, the SD and, from 1939, the Reich Security Main Office. The documentation centre is open daily 10:00 to 20:00, admission is free, and the outdoor 15-station tour stays accessible until dusk. A 200 m section of the Berlin Wall stands beside the site. The page on the Topography of Terror details the exhibitions.
Late afternoon

Anhalter Bahnhof and the Berlin Story Bunker
The Topography of Terror is about 625 m from the Berlin Story Bunker, a walk of roughly 8 minutes. Anhalter Bahnhof, close to the bunker, is where 9,600 Jews were deported to Theresienstadt in 116 trains. The bunker museum is open daily 10:00 to 19:00 with last admission at 17:30, and the ticket with audio guide is bookable here for $20. Plan about 3 hours, or drop it if your feet are done.
Guided alternative

Do the whole route with a guide
If you would rather hear the history as you walk, the 2-hour walk covers the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Soviet War Memorial, the Holocaust memorial, Hitler's Bunker site and the Topography of Terror on foot for $27, meeting at the Brandenburg Gate. It does not include entry tickets or transport, but all stops except the Berlin Story Bunker are free anyway.

Day Two: Sachsenhausen

Day two leaves the city. The Sachsenhausen Memorial, a former concentration camp about 35 km north of Berlin, needs most of a day and deserves it.

Getting There

Take the S1 from Friedrichstraße to Oranienburg, which takes about 45 minutes. Oranienburg lies outside fare zone AB, so you need an ABC ticket, €5 for a single or €12.90 for 24 hours. From Oranienburg station the walk to the memorial at Straße der Nationen 22 takes about 20 minutes, or bus 804 takes about 5 minutes and runs about every 30 minutes.

Buses 804 and 821 both serve the memorial. Allow 4.5 to 6 hours door to door from central Berlin, so set out in the morning.

At the Memorial

Admission to the memorial is free. The visitor information centre is open daily 8:30 to 17:00, and the outdoor area is open 8:30 to 18:00 in summer and 8:30 to 16:30 in winter. More than 200,000 people were imprisoned here between 1936 and 1945, and at least 30,000 wartime victims died, including roughly 10,000 Soviet POWs shot in late 1941.

Tower A was the camp's central control point, and Station Z was completed in May 1942 with killing rooms and four crematoria. The page on the Sachsenhausen concentration camp covers the site in depth.

Guided Options

Three of the bookable Sachsenhausen tours start in Berlin and use the train. Insider Tour Berlin's 5.5-hour tour costs $27.39 for groups of up to 28 and leaves from Friedrichstraße, with memorial entry included and an ABC train ticket as a mandatory extra you buy yourself. The buendía tour costs $28, runs 5 hours from Alexanderplatz and includes the €3 memorial fee, again with the ABC ticket bought separately. The small-group option from Original Berlin Walks costs $37.79, lasts 6 hours, caps the group at 15 and starts at Hackescher Markt. All three donate or include the memorial fee and all require you to buy your own ABC train ticket. None includes hotel pickup.

The Evening After

The S1 ride back gives you time to let the visit settle before you do anything else. If you want a low-key history fix in the centre instead, the Neue Wache on Unter den Linden, the Central Memorial for the Victims of War and Tyranny since 1993, is an option. Take it slowly.

A day at Sachsenhausen is enough.

Day Three: Wannsee, Karlshorst or the West

With a third day you can go deeper in one direction. Pick one of these three options rather than trying to combine them.

Option 1: Wannsee

Take the S1 or S7 to Wannsee station, then bus 114 to the stop Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz. Wannsee lies in fare zone B, so a day's AB ticket at €11.20 covers the trip. The House of the Wannsee Conference at Am Großen Wannsee 56-58 is open daily 10:00 to 18:00 and the permanent exhibition is free.

Public tours are free on Saturdays and Sundays. This is the villa where, on 20 January 1942, fifteen senior officials chaired by Reinhard Heydrich met for about 90 minutes, and the protocol listed about 11 million European Jews for 'evacuation'. The full story is on the House of the Wannsee Conference page.

Option 2: Karlshorst and Treptower Park

Museum Berlin-Karlshorst at Zwieseler Straße 4 marks the room where the German unconditional surrender was ratified on 8 May 1945. Take the S3 to Karlshorst then bus 296, about 32 minutes from central Berlin, or the U5 to Tierpark and bus 296, about 28 minutes from Alexanderplatz. Admission is free, opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, and the museum is closed Mondays, also on 24 December, 31 December and 1 January.

Audio guides cost €3 in seven languages. After the museum, you can continue to Treptower Park, where the Soviet War Memorial with its 12 m bronze soldier and 16 stone sarcophagi opened on 8 May 1949. Plan Karlshorst for a day other than Monday or you will find the doors shut.

Option 3: The West

The west holds the 1936 Olympic Stadium, where the Games opened on 1 August 1936 and Jesse Owens won four gold medals. Visits are booked at tickets.olympiastadion.berlin, and the stadium closes to visitors on match and event days. The Olympic Stadium Berlin 1936 page has the background.

In the same direction, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Breitscheidplatz preserves its ruined spire at about 71 m, bombed on 22 November 1943, open daily 10:00 to 18:00 with free admission. The Breitscheidplatz stop is served by S3, S5, S7, S9, U1, U2, U9 and buses 100, 200 and M46. For the air war underground, the Berlin underground tours run by Berliner Unterwelten include the flak tower in Humboldthain.

Off-the-Beaten-Path Berlin WW2 Attractions

WW2 sites in Berlin away from the usual walking routes. Third-party video by Experience Berlin Tours. This site did not shoot it and has no relationship with the creator.

Transport for Each Day

Berlin's fare zones decide your ticket. The centre sits in zone AB, Wannsee in zone B and Oranienburg in zone C, so day two is the only day that needs the full ABC ticket. Fares come from the published BVG fare table, which rose on 1 January.

Which Ticket for Which Day

A 24-hour ticket runs 24 hours from validation. Buy at any station machine or in the BVG app. Day one can even be done on foot with no ticket at all, since the Topography of Terror is about 20 minutes' walk from the Brandenburg Gate, but the 24-hour AB ticket saves your legs for the memorials themselves.

Day	Ticket	Price
Day 1, the centre	24-hour AB (optional, the route is walkable)	€11.20 (reduced €7.40)
Day 2, Sachsenhausen	ABC ticket, single or 24-hour	€5 single, €12.90 for 24 hours (reduced €8)
Day 3, Wannsee	24-hour AB	€11.20 (reduced €7.40)
Day 3, Karlshorst or the west	24-hour AB	€11.20 (reduced €7.40)
Groups of up to 5	24-hour group ticket AB / ABC	€35.30 / €37.70

Sources: Berlin.de transport fares

Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin on a WW2 and Cold War itinerary — The sandbag replica and sign at Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse. Photo: Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Planning Tips and Mistakes to Avoid

A few simple checks make the difference between a smooth three days and a wasted morning outside a closed door.

Do

Do check which day of the week it is before you fix the order, because the Holocaust memorial Information Centre and Museum Berlin-Karlshorst both close Mondays.
Do register for the Reichstag dome on the Bundestag website in advance, because the dome needs registration with names and dates of birth and entry requires the confirmation plus a passport or ID.
Do book Berliner Unterwelten tickets up to 30 days ahead in the online shop, since there are no ticket sales at the meeting point and a secondary source says the English Dark Worlds tour often books out 2-6 weeks ahead in peak season.
Do keep a rain layer with you, because day one and the Sachsenhausen grounds are almost entirely outdoors, and the 15-station outdoor tour at the Topography of Terror closes at dusk.
Do pace yourself with the heavy subject, one memorial-heavy half day at a time, and build in a quiet evening after Sachsenhausen rather than stacking it against another site.

Don't

Don't plan Karlshorst or the Holocaust memorial Information Centre for a Monday, because you will find them shut.
Don't arrive at the Reichstag dome without registration, because there is no walk-up entry and the free visit depends on the booked slot.
Don't just show up for a Berliner Unterwelten tour in sandals or with big luggage, since sturdy footwear is obligatory, photography is forbidden and there is no storage.
Don't book a tour assuming it includes hotel pickup, a transport ticket or entry tickets, because most tours here are on foot, start at a fixed meeting point and leave the train ticket to you.

Where to Stay for a WW2 Trip to Berlin

The central WW2 sites sit within walking distance of each other between the Brandenburg Gate and Anhalter Bahnhof, and Sachsenhausen is reached on the S1. These three bases keep the walking short.

Potsdamer Platz

Suits: The Führerbunker site, the Topography of Terror and the Story Bunker on foot

The bunker site board is about 3 minutes' walk from Potsdamer Platz.

See stays in Potsdamer Platz

Friedrichstraße

Suits: The S1 to Oranienburg for Sachsenhausen and the walks that meet at the Tränenpalast

The S1 to Oranienburg takes about 45 minutes from Friedrichstraße.

See stays in Friedrichstraße

Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden

Suits: The Holocaust memorial, the Reichstag and the start of the 2-hour walk

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is about 5 minutes on foot from S+U Brandenburger Tor.

See stays in Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden

Berlin WW2 Itinerary Questions

How many days do I need for a WW2 trip to Berlin?

Two days cover the essentials: one for the centre on foot and one for Sachsenhausen, which takes 4.5 to 6 hours door to door. A third day lets you add Wannsee, Karlshorst or the west. The routes above in this Berlin WW2 itinerary give the full breakdown.

Can I see all the central WW2 sites in one day?

Yes. The Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust memorial, the bunker site and the Topography of Terror lie within about 20 minutes' walk of each other and are all free. The Topography of Terror documentation centre is open 10:00 to 20:00. The 2-hour walk covers the same ground with a guide for $27.

Which ticket do I need for Sachsenhausen?

An ABC ticket (€5 single, €12.90 for 24 hours), because Oranienburg is outside zone AB. The S1 from Friedrichstraße takes about 45 minutes. The same requirement applies to the Sachsenhausen small-group tour, which asks you to buy the ticket yourself.

Are the WW2 memorials in Berlin free to visit?

The main ones on this route are: the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Topography of Terror, the Sachsenhausen Memorial, the House of the Wannsee Conference exhibition and Museum Berlin-Karlshorst all charge nothing for entry. Costs are limited to transport (an AB single is €4, a 24-hour AB ticket €11.20) and extras such as the €3 audio guide at Karlshorst. For paid guided options see WW2 tours in Berlin.

What should I avoid planning on a Monday?

Museum Berlin-Karlshorst and the Holocaust memorial Information Centre both close Mondays. The field of stelae stays accessible 24 hours a day, so swap in the open-air sites instead. Details are on the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst page.

Can I visit Hitler's bunker on this itinerary?

You can visit the site, at Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße about 6 minutes' walk from the Holocaust memorial, but it is a car park marked only by an information board and nothing of the bunker is visible or open. The Hitler's bunker page explains what remains, and the Berlin Story Bunker ticket shows a full-size replica of Hitler's bunker office for $20.