Stolpersteine in Berlin: What They Are and How to Find Them

The Object Itself

Each stone is a 10 cm concrete cube with a brass plate on its top surface. The plate normally begins with the words 'Hier wohnte', here lived, followed by the person's name and further details. Unlike a plaque on a wall, the stone sits at street level, in front of the building where the person last lived by choice.

The project was started by the artist Gunter Demnig. He laid the first stone in Cologne on 16 December 1992. Fifty-five stones followed in Kreuzberg in Berlin in 1996, and the project has since passed 100,000 stones.

Who Is Remembered

Stolpersteine commemorate the individual victims of Nazi persecution named on each plate. Each stone carries one person's details. The design deliberately keeps the memory small and local: one name, one doorway, one life.

That is the opposite approach to a central monument, and the two work together. If you want the large national memorial after reading individual stones, the field of about 2,700 concrete stelae at the Holocaust memorial Berlin is a short walk from the Brandenburg Gate, open around the clock and free.

Cost and Production

A stone cost €120 as of 2012, and about 440 can be produced each month. More than 11,000 Stolpersteine lie in Berlin.

Look Down at the Doorways

The stones are set into the pavement directly in front of the building where the person last lived freely. That means the natural way to find them is to look at the sidewalk in front of older residential buildings. About 1,100 stones lie in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg alone, so a walk through Kreuzberg with your eyes down near the kerb is a good place to start.

The Coordination Office

Berlin has a central body for the project, the Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin, at Stauffenbergstraße 13-14. That is the address of the project's Berlin office. The office sits in the same building as the German Resistance Memorial Center, so a visit to the two fits naturally together.

The Center is free and open Monday to Friday 9:00 to 18:00 and Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10:00 to 18:00, and bus M29 stops directly at the building.

How to Read a Plate

Work through the lines in order. The first line reads 'Hier wohnte', here lived. The next line gives the person's name.

The following lines give further details about the person, and they differ from stone to stone. Read each line slowly.

• Line 1: 'Hier wohnte', here lived
• Line 2: the full name of the person
• Line 3: further details about the person
• Following lines: what happened to the person
• The stone always sits at the last freely chosen address

Conduct at the Stone

Pause and read the full plate. Keep your voice low, and keep companions and children close so the stone is not scuffed or stood on while you talk. Photographing a stone is common and accepted, but photograph people who live there only with their consent, since these stones sit at the entrances of ordinary homes.

Do not place anything on a stone that could damage the brass or block the sidewalk. If you want to do more than look, the project's Berlin coordination office is at Stauffenbergstraße 13-14.

Context for What You Are Reading

A single name on a plate becomes clearer with the history around it. The deportation of Berlin's Jewish residents, the machinery of the Gestapo and the SS, and the government quarter where the orders originated are all within a short walk of each other in central Berlin. A guided walk is the simplest way to connect the pieces. The historian-led walk by On the Front Tours costs $51, lasts 2.5 hours, takes a maximum of 10 guests and covers nine sites from the Reichstag to Hitler's Bunker site and the Topography of Terror.

A cheaper option is the 2-hour Third Reich and Cold War walk at $27, which starts at the Brandenburg Gate. Both are outdoor walks and do not include entry to museums.

Memorials That Name Victims as Groups

The central memorials commemorate categories of victims rather than individuals. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, covered in full on the Holocaust memorial Berlin page, holds about 2,700 concrete stelae on a field of 19,073 square metres. Its underground Information Centre keeps the names of about 3 million Jewish victims supplied by Yad Vashem. Admission is free and the field is open around the clock.

Two memorials for other victim groups stand nearby in the Tiergarten. The memorial to the Sinti and Roma victims of National Socialism opened on 24 October 2012 on Simsonweg. Dani Karavan designed it as a dark circular pool with a single triangular stone and a fresh flower placed daily. Estimates of the Porajmos victims range from 220,000 to 500,000. The memorial to homosexuals persecuted under Nazism was inaugurated on 27 May 2008, a concrete block by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset with a window showing a looped film.

A Stolperstein works differently. It does not represent a group, a number or a design concept. It names one person, with dates of birth, deportation and death, set into the pavement in front of the last address that person freely chose. The abstract scale of the stelae field and the biographical scale of the stone belong together, which is why many visitors see both on the same day.

Anhalter Bahnhof and Deportation History

Southwest of Potsdamer Platz, the surviving façade of Anhalter Bahnhof marks a site where group fate becomes individual loss. From this station, 9,600 Jews were deported to Theresienstadt in 116 transports. The station opened in 1841 and sits about 600 m southeast of Potsdamer Platz. Long-distance traffic ended on 17 May 1952, and the ruin was demolished in 1960, leaving the section of façade you see today.

The station also connects directly to the Stolpersteine story. The neighbouring Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district has about 1,100 stones laid, more than any other district named in the official figures. More than 11,000 Stolpersteine lie across Berlin in total. Walking from a deportation platform past apartment blocks with stones in front of them makes the sequence concrete, from home to collection point to transport.

Nearby, the Berlin Story Bunker at Schöneberger Straße 23A occupies a 1942-43 air-raid shelter built for rail passengers at Anhalter Bahnhof. Its exhibition 'Hitler - How could it happen' spans three floors. If you want a guided frame for the government quarter as well, the historian-led walk Hitler's Berlin covers nine sites including the Holocaust Memorial and the Topography of Terror in 2.5 hours for $51 with at most 10 guests.

A Walking Plan That Pairs Stones With the Memorial

A practical pairing starts in Kreuzberg, where about 1,100 of Berlin's stones lie. Pick a street, look down, read the plates, and note the addresses. The Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin, the city's coordination office at Stauffenbergstraße 13-14, maintains the map and database of stone locations, which is the reliable way to plan which streets to walk.

From there, take the S-Bahn or U-Bahn toward Brandenburg Gate. Walking route measurements from the Holocaust Memorial place the Brandenburg Gate about 348 m away, roughly 5 minutes on foot. The field of stelae is free and open 24 hours, and the Information Centre below it opens Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00 with last admission 45 minutes before closing.

The route contrasts two registers of memory. The stones record where people lived, the memorial records the scale of their murder. If you want the government quarter sites connected by a guide, the historian-led walk covers the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims, the Holocaust Memorial and Hitler's bunker site in one route, and its meeting point at Pariser Platz sits a few minutes from both memorials. Note that no tour includes Stolpersteine locations as a stated destination, so plan the stone hunt yourself using the coordination office's map.