Berlin WW2 ToursWW2 Museums in Berlin: Every Museum and Documentation Centre Compared
The WW2 museums in Berlin cover the dictatorship, the persecution, the resistance and the end of the war, and most of them cost nothing to enter. This page compares every museum and documentation centre in one table, with admission, opening hours, the nearest station and what each one is best for. Each museum then gets a short summary, with a full guide linked where one exists. If you want a guide walking the outdoor sites instead, the Berlin WW2 tours comparison covers the bookable options.
The baroque Zeughaus on Unter den Linden, home of the German Historical Museum. Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Quick answer The WW2 museums in Berlin at a glance
Berlin has several WW2 museums and documentation centres, and most of the main ones are free, including the Topography of Terror, open daily 10:00 to 20:00. The paid option among the big names is the Berlin Story Bunker, a real wartime air-raid shelter with an entry ticket at $20.
Key takeaways
- The Topography of Terror is free, open daily 10:00 to 20:00, and documents the Gestapo, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office on their original site.
- The Berlin Story Bunker entry ticket costs $20 with an audio guide and covers the exhibition Hitler, How Could It Happen in an air-raid shelter built in 1942-43.
- The House of the Wannsee Conference and Museum Berlin-Karlshorst cover the Wannsee Conference and the German surrender of 1945, and both are free.
- Short on time? The WW2 sites you can see on your own and the Berlin WW2 tours comparison help you combine museums with the outdoor sites.
WW2 Museums in Berlin Compared
The table gathers every WW2 museum and documentation centre in Berlin that this guide covers, with admission, hours, what each is best for and how to reach it. Figures come from the museums' own published information as listed in the sources for each entry below.
The Full Comparison
Most of the entries with a stated price are free. A single AB ticket is €4 (reduced €2.50), and audio guides cost extra where offered. The German Historical Museum's permanent exhibition is closed for renovation, so check what is actually open before you go.
Where a full guide page exists on this site, the museum name links to it.
| Museum | Admission | Hours | Best for | Station |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topography of Terror | Free | Daily 10:00-20:00, outdoor areas until dusk, 20:00 at the latest | The machinery of the Nazi state on its original site | S Anhalter Bahnhof or S+U Potsdamer Platz |
| Berlin Story Bunker | Entry ticket $20 with audio guide | Daily 10:00-19:00, last admission 17:30 | A real air-raid shelter and the Hitler, How Could It Happen exhibition | S1, S2, S25 Anhalter Bahnhof (about 3 min walk) or U2 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park |
| German Resistance Memorial Center | Free | Mon-Fri 9:00-18:00, Sat, Sun and holidays 10:00-18:00 | The 20 July 1944 plot and the Bendlerblock courtyard | Bus M29 stops at the memorial, U1, U2, S1, S2, S25 within walking distance |
| House of the Wannsee Conference | Free, public tours free on Saturdays and Sundays | Daily 10:00-18:00 | The Wannsee Conference and the planning of the Holocaust | S1 or S7 to Wannsee, then bus 114, fare zone B |
| Museum Berlin-Karlshorst | Free, audio guide €3 (reduced €1) | Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, closed Mondays | The German surrender of 8 May 1945 and the German-Soviet war | S3 to Karlshorst then bus 296, or U5 to Tierpark then bus 296 |
| Holocaust memorial Information Centre | Free | Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, last admission 45 minutes before closing, closed Mondays | Names and families of the murdered Jews of Europe | S+U Brandenburger Tor |
| Other museum | €7 single (reduced €3.50), combined €10, under 18 free | Daily 10:00-18:00, permanent exhibition closed for renovation | German Historical Museum: context for German history, check what is open | Unter den Linden 2 |
| Other museum | Core exhibition free, temporary exhibitions €10 (reduced €4) | Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, last admission 17:00 | Jewish Museum Berlin: German-Jewish history, in Libeskind's building | Lindenstraße 9-14 |
| Military History Museum at Gatow | not stated | not stated | Military aviation history in a walk-in bunker | Am Flugplatz 33, 14089 Berlin |
| Deutsches Technikmuseum | not stated | not stated | WW2 aircraft including a Ju 87 Stuka and a V-1 | Trebbiner Straße 9, on the former Anhalter Bahnhof freight yard |
Sources: Topography of Terror, visitberlin, German Resistance Memorial Center, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, Stiftung Denkmal, DHM, Jewish Museum Berlin, MHMBW Gatow
In the Centre: Topography of Terror, Story Bunker, Resistance Memorial
Three of the main WW2 museums in Berlin are in the centre.
Topography of Terror
The Topography of Terror stands at Niederkirchnerstraße 8 on the block that housed the Gestapo headquarters, the SS leadership, the SD and, from 1939, the Reich Security Main Office. Admission is free and the documentation centre is open daily 10:00 to 20:00, with the outdoor areas accessible until dusk, 20:00 at the latest. The indoor permanent exhibition covers more than 800 square metres and deals with the perpetrators.
A 15-station outdoor tour runs across the excavated grounds, a second exhibition called Berlin 1933-1945 covers propaganda and terror, and a 200 m section of the Berlin Wall stands beside the site. Audio guides and guided tours are offered. Reach it from S Anhalter Bahnhof or S+U Potsdamer Platz.
The full details are on the Topography of Terror page.
Berlin Story Bunker
The Berlin Story Bunker at Schöneberger Straße 23A is a WWII air-raid shelter near Anhalter Bahnhof, built in 1942-43 to protect rail passengers, with walls up to 4.5 m thick. It was designed for about 3,500 people and sheltered up to 12,000 during air raids. Today 6,500 square metres of floor space over three floors hold the exhibition Hitler, How Could It Happen, with 38 themed areas including a full-size Führerbunker replica and a 1:25 scale model.
Two further exhibitions cover Germany from 1945 to today and digital propaganda. It is open daily 10:00 to 19:00, last admission 17:30, and the visit is planned at about 3 hours. The Berlin Story Bunker entry ticket costs $20 with an audio guide in 10 languages, and free cancellation applies up to 24 hours before.
Group rates apply from 15 registered visitors. Parental discretion is advised for very young children. More on the Berlin Story Bunker page.
German Resistance Memorial Center
The German Resistance Memorial Center occupies the Bendlerblock at Stauffenbergstraße 13-14, where Stauffenberg and other plotters of 20 July 1944 were executed without trial in the courtyard. Admission is free. Hours are Monday to Friday 9:00 to 18:00 and Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10:00 to 18:00.
The exhibition spreads over three floors of the building, the collection holds more than 5,000 items, and audio guides are available in several languages. Free public tours run on the first Sunday of the month in German and on the third Sunday in German and English. Groups of more than 12 must pre-book.
Bus M29 stops directly at the memorial, with M48 and 200 also serving it and U1, U2, S1, S2 and S25 within walking distance. The Silent Heroes Memorial Center, also free, shares the building. Details on the German Resistance Memorial Center page.
To see the site with context, the private Third Reich walking tour includes the Resistance headquarters among its stops.
Further Out: Wannsee and Karlshorst
Two museums outside the centre cover the Wannsee Conference and the German surrender. Both are free.
House of the Wannsee Conference
At Am Großen Wannsee 56-58, fifteen senior officials chaired by Reinhard Heydrich met on 20 January 1942 for about 90 minutes, and the surviving protocol lists about 11 million European Jews for 'evacuation'. The villa became a Holocaust memorial museum in 1992 and the permanent exhibition on the ground floor was updated in 2020. It is open daily 10:00 to 18:00, admission is free, and public tours are free on Saturdays and Sundays.
Take S1 or S7 to Wannsee station and then bus 114 to the stop Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz. Wannsee lies in fare zone B. More on the House of the Wannsee Conference page.
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst at Zwieseler Straße 4 stands in the former officers' mess of a Wehrmacht pioneer school, where the German unconditional surrender was ratified on 8 May 1945. The original surrender room is preserved and shows a film of the signing. The permanent exhibition covers about 1,000 square metres and treats German-Soviet relations from 1917 to 1990.
Admission is free, audio guides cost €3 (reduced €1) in seven languages, and the building has lift and ramp access with wheelchair loans. Hours are Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, closed Mondays and on 24 December, 31 December and 1 January. Reach it by S3 to Karlshorst then bus 296, about 32 minutes from central Berlin, or by U5 to Tierpark then bus 296, about 28 minutes from Alexanderplatz.
Details on the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst page. If the end of the war is your theme, the Soviet War Memorial Berlin page pairs well with this visit.
The zinc-clad Libeskind building of the Jewish Museum Berlin, seen from the garden. Photo: Alraunenstern, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Other Museums with WWII Rooms
Several major Berlin museums hold WWII material without being WW2 museums in the strict sense. Check opening scope before travelling, because one permanent exhibition is closed and some facts are not published.
German Historical Museum
The German Historical Museum at Unter den Linden 2, with the Pei Building entrance at Hinter dem Gießhaus 3, is open daily 10:00 to 18:00, but the permanent exhibition on German history is temporarily closed for renovation of the Zeughaus. Tickets are €7 single (reduced €3.50), €10 combined (reduced €5) and under 18 free. The museum is closed on 24 December and on 15 October, with free admission on 3 October, 9 November and 3 December.
Quiet hours run Tuesday 16:00 to 18:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 12:00. Treat it as a supplementary stop rather than a WW2 destination until the permanent exhibition reopens.
Jewish Museum Berlin
The Jewish Museum Berlin at Lindenstraße 9-14, in Daniel Libeskind's building, documents German-Jewish history. The core exhibition is free, temporary exhibitions cost €10 (reduced €4) and public tours €6 (reduced €3). Hours are Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00 with last admission at 17:00, and listed extra closures include 24 December and 14 November.
The free JMB app works in nine languages. It pairs naturally with the Holocaust memorial Berlin page, whose underground Information Centre has a Room of Families presenting 15 families.
Military History Museum at Gatow
The Luftwaffe museum at Gatow is at Am Flugplatz 33. Its permanent exhibition Zwischenlandung covers 100 years of military aviation in eight eras and includes a walk-in bunker. Admission, hours and the nearest station are not stated in the material this guide draws on, so check the museum's own page before you travel.
Deutsches Technikmuseum
The Deutsches Technikmuseum at Trebbiner Straße 9 stands on the former Anhalter Bahnhof freight yard. Its aviation collection includes a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, a Messerschmitt Bf 110 and a V-1 built by concentration camp inmates, and a Douglas C-47B Raisin Bomber sits on the 2003 extension roof. Admission and hours are not stated in the material this guide draws on, so confirm on the museum's own site.
It suits visitors who want the technology of the war set in its wider context.
Which WW2 Museum for Which Visit
Five common situations and the museum that fits each one best.
If You have one hour in the city centre
Go to the free Topography of Terror, open daily 10:00 to 20:00, and walk the outdoor 15-station tour of the Gestapo and SS site.
If You have one morning
Do the Topography of Terror and walk about 625 m, roughly 8 minutes, to the Berlin Story Bunker, open from 10:00 with the $20 entry ticket.
If You have a full day
Start at the German Resistance Memorial Center when it opens at 9:00 on a weekday, continue to the Topography of Terror and the Berlin Story Bunker, and finish at the free Holocaust memorial Information Centre before it closes at 18:00.
If You only have a free day and no budget
Every key site is free: the Topography of Terror, the German Resistance Memorial Center, the House of the Wannsee Conference and the Holocaust memorial Information Centre all charge nothing for admission. Budget only the €4 AB single ticket.
If You have children with you
The Berlin Story Bunker advises parental discretion for very young children. The Holocaust memorial Information Centre is free but its subject demands preparation beforehand.
Tickets You Can Book Ahead
Most WW2 museums in Berlin are free and need no ticket. The Jewish Museum charges admission, and a dated ticket can be booked online.
Jewish Museum Berlin
The table gives the listing's price and rating for a dated entry ticket to the Jewish Museum Berlin, which includes the temporary exhibition. The price is set by the seller and confirmed at checkout.
| Ticket | Price on the listing | Rating | Book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jewish Museum Berlin: entry and temporary exhibition | from $11.24 | 4.7 from 349 reviews | Book the ticket |
Questions About WW2 Museums in Berlin
What is the best WW2 museum in Berlin?
The Topography of Terror is a strong first choice, because it stands on the original site of the Gestapo and SS headquarters, is free, and is open daily 10:00 to 20:00. For a single exhibition that explains how the dictatorship was possible, the Berlin Story Bunker in a real air-raid shelter is a strong complement. See the full Topography of Terror guide.
Are the WW2 museums in Berlin free?
Most are. The Topography of Terror, the German Resistance Memorial Center, the House of the Wannsee Conference, Museum Berlin-Karlshorst and the Holocaust memorial Information Centre all have free admission, though Karlshorst audio guides cost €3 and its opening days exclude Mondays. Details in the WW2 museums comparison above.
How do I get to the WW2 museums by public transport?
The central three cluster around Anhalter Bahnhof: the Story Bunker is about 3 minutes' walk from S1, S2 and S25 Anhalter Bahnhof, and the Topography of Terror sits between there and S+U Potsdamer Platz. Wannsee needs S1 or S7 plus bus 114 in zone B, covered by the €4 AB single, and Karlshorst needs S3 or U5 plus bus 296. The Berlin WW2 sites guide maps the outdoor stops too.
How much time should I plan for each WW2 museum?
The Berlin Story Bunker visit is planned at about 3 hours across its 6,500 square metres. The sources give no visit time for the other museums. The Berlin WW2 itinerary puts them in order.
Can I see the WW2 museums in Berlin with children?
Yes, with preparation. The Berlin Story Bunker advises parental discretion for very young children, and the core exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin is free. Read each museum's guidance before you go.
Should I visit the museums on my own or take a guided tour?
The museums work well on your own, since audio guides exist at the Topography of Terror, the Resistance Memorial Center and Karlshorst. A guide adds value at the outdoor sites, and the comparison of Berlin WW2 tours shows the options, from the $27 two-hour walk to the historian-led small-group tour.