Potsdam • Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum
Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum
While you could spend days in Berlin and not run out of things to do, a few worthwhile side-trips are within an hour of downtown. Frederick the Great’s opulent palace playground at Potsdam is a hit with those who enjoy ornate interiors and pretty parks; the town also has a fun-to-explore center and some interesting Cold War sights. On the opposite side of Berlin—and the sightseeing spectrum—the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum commemorates the tens of thousands of prisoners who died at this concentration camp during the Holocaust.
Other Berlin day-trip possibilities are covered elsewhere in this book: Wittenberg, with excellent Martin Luther-related sights (45 minutes by train), is covered in the Lutherland chapter. Dresden and Leipzig also work as day trips from Berlin; each has a separate chapter.
Squeezed between the Wannsee and a lush park strewn with the escapist whimsies of Frederick the Great, the sleepy town of Potsdam has long been Berlin’s holiday retreat. While Potsdam’s palaces are impressive, they don’t quite crack Europe’s top 10. But they are your best opportunity to get a taste of Prussia’s Hohenzollern royalty (though Charlottenburg Palace, in Berlin proper, is easier to reach—see here).
Beyond these royal retreats, Potsdam is simply enjoyable—a swanky bedroom community, where, thanks to its aristocratic heritage, everything seems bigger and better than it needs to be. Cold War buffs might skip Frederick’s palaces entirely, and focus on Cecilienhof (site of the famous post-WWII Potsdam Conference) and nearby KGB Prison Memorial. And anyone can enjoy prowling Potsdam’s well-manicured town center. Don’t come here just for the palaces—come here to escape the city, and to spend a sunny day exploring a stately burg and its picnic-friendly park.
Potsdam is about 15 miles southwest of Berlin, about an hour away by train. You have two easy train options for zipping from the city to Potsdam’s Hauptbahnhof, both covered by a Berlin transit day pass (€7.40, with zones ABC; if you have a pass for just zones AB, buy a €1.60 Anschlussfahrausweis/extension ticket to get here—valid for 2 hours).
Direct Regional Express/RE1 trains depart twice hourly from three different Berlin stations: Zoologischer Garten (20 minutes to Potsdam), Hauptbahnhof (30 minutes), and Friedrichstrasse (35 minutes; any train to Brandenburg or Magdeburg stops in Potsdam). Note: Some RE1 trains continue past the Potsdam Hauptbahnhof to a stop called Park Sanssouci, which is closer to the New Palace.
The S-Bahn is slightly slower (30-50 minutes depending on starting point), but more frequent (6/hour) and handier from some areas of Berlin. The S7 line goes directly to Potsdam from Alexanderplatz, Hackescher Markt, Friedrichstrasse, Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Zoologischer Garten, Savignyplatz, and other city-center stations. Additional stations—Oranienburger Strasse, Brandenburger Tor, and Potsdamer Platz—are served by the S1 line, which you can ride to the end of the line at Wannsee, cross the platform to an S7 train, and ride it three more stops to Potsdam.
Avid cyclists can rent a bike in Berlin, take it on the train (€1.90 extra), and combine a visit to Potsdam with an enjoyable ride along skinny lakes and through green parklands back into the city.
Potsdam’s main draw is its palaces—particularly Sanssouci, which takes about an hour to visit (plus a potential wait for your entry time). Try to arrive at the palace by 10:00 to avoid a long line. Regardless of when you get to Potsdam, make a beeline to Sanssouci to secure your entry time so you can plan the rest of your day. If you’d like to see more, you can add on the New Palace (another hour, usually little or no wait). The two palaces are connected by a huge park—it’s a pleasant 30-minute walk or a 10-minute bus ride between them. If you arrive early enough to get in right away, you can visit both palaces in as little as 3-4 hours.
For many, touring both Sanssouci and the New Palace is overkill. Consider doing only the better of the two (Sanssouci), and using the rest of your time for the park or other Potsdam sights.
Potsdam (pop. 160,000) sits just outside of Berlin’s city limits, on the southern edge of the lake called Wannsee. (During the Cold War, Potsdam was just outside West Berlin—the Wall ran right along the lakeshore.) The main train station (Potsdam Hauptbahnhof) is at the southeastern corner of the city center. Sights cluster in three areas, each a long walk or a short bus ride apart: the city center, just across the bridge from the train station; Park Sanssouci, a vast royal park at the western edge of town, peppered with grand Hohenzollern palaces (Sanssouci and New Palace are best); and, to the north, the park called Neuer Garten, where Cecilienhof Palace looks out over Wannsee.
A handy TI is inside Potsdam’s main train station (near track 7, Mon-Sat 9:30-18:00, closed Sun, tel. 0331/2755-8899, www.potsdamtourismus.de). The next handiest location faces the old main square, Alter Markt, just across the bridge from the station—below the giant church dome (Mon-Sat 9:30-19:00, Sun 10:00-16:00, Humboldtstrasse 1). The third location—at Luisenplatz, on the eastern end of Sanssouci Park—is less convenient (Mon-Sat 9:30-18:00, Sun 10:00-16:00, closed Sun Nov-March, Brandenburger Strasse 3).
At the Main Station (Potsdam Hauptbahnhof): This station has ample shops and services. On arrival, to take the bus or tram to the palaces (easiest) head out the exit past track 4, labeled Friedrich-Engels-Strasse; here you’ll find the tram stops, then the bus stops.
To walk into town—or rent a bike—use the opposite door, past track 7, labeled Babelsberger Strasse. Exiting, turn left to find the bike-rental office. To walk, just keep going, then turn right at the next traffic light. You’ll cross a bridge and head straight for Alter Markt (with the huge dome).
At Sanssouci Park Station: From this smaller station, simply walk straight out and head up the boulevard called Am Neuen Palais, with the big park on your right. In about 10 minutes, you’ll reach the New Palace.
By Bike: Flat Potsdam is ideal by bike, and from the station it’s a pleasant and well-signed 20-minute ride to Sanssouci Palace. There’s one caveat: Within Sanssouci Park you’re restricted to a bike path between the palaces; you can’t even walk with a bike anywhere else in the park. At the main train station, Radstation/Pedales rents bikes and provides a map showing recommended routes (Mon-Fri 7:00-19:00, Sat 9:30-18:00, closed Sun, out the Babelsberg Strasse exit and on the left, tel. 0331/7480-057). On Sundays in summer (April-Oct), they may have another location under tracks 6/7.
By Bus or Tram: Potsdam’s public transit is well-designed for connecting most points of interest. Remember that Potsdam is covered by a Berlin ticket with zones ABC, but not by one with just zones AB. You can either buy an Anschlussfahrausweis/extension ticket (€1.60, each one valid 2 hours), or buy individual tickets covering Potsdam transit: €2.10 per ride, €4.20 all day (buy tickets from machine on board). These are the buses you’re most likely to take and the lane from which they depart at the main train station:
Bus #695—essentially made for tourists (and therefore packed)—cruises through Potsdam’s appealing town center, stopping first at Sanssouci, then at the New Palace (3/hour, 15-20 minutes, leaves from lane 4).
Bus #X15, which runs only on summer weekends, makes a beeline to Sanssouci Palace (3/hour, mid-April-Oct Sat-Sun only, 10 minutes, leaves from lane 4).
Buses #606 and #605 work only if you’re going directly to the New Palace (3/hour, 10-15 minutes, from lane 4).
Bus #603 goes up to Cecilienhof Palace, then loops back down past the KGB Prison Memorial (Persiusstrasse stop) before returning to the station (3/hour, 15 minutes to Cecilienhof, from lane 6).
Tram #91 is worth considering if you’re up for a scenic walk through the terraced palace gardens: Get off at Luisenplatz, then walk 20 minutes through the park, which lets you enjoy a classic view of Sanssouci Palace (3/hour, 8 minutes, leaves from lane 1).
By Foot: It’s a long (but scenic) 45-minute walk from the station to Sanssouci Palace (get directions and pick up a map at the TI; exit the station on the opposite side from the bus/tram stops). Tram #91, described above, shaves off the least interesting part.
By Taxi: A taxi can help link up otherwise difficult-to-connect sights (for example, €15 between the New Palace and Cecilienhof—otherwise a complex bus connection).
Various bus tours (including hop-on, hop-off options) conveniently connect this town’s spread-out sights. Pick up brochures at the TI or check their website (www.potsdamtourismus.de).
Original Berlin Walks and Brewer’s Berlin Tours offer inexpensive all-day tours from Berlin to Potsdam—focusing on the park and the palace exteriors, but not actually going inside the palaces as a group (€15-17, admissions and public transportation not included; for contact info see here).
Potsdam’s sights cluster in three areas: Sanssouci Park; the city center; and Neuer Garten, with Cecilienhof.
The dynamic Frederick the Great put Prussia on the map in the 18th century with his merciless military prowess. Yet he also had tender affection for the finer things in life: art, architecture, gardens, literature, and other distinguished pursuits. During his reign, Frederick built an impressive ensemble of palaces and other grand buildings around Sanssouci Park, with the two top palaces located at either end. Frederick’s small, super-Rococo Sanssouci Palace is dazzling, and his massive New Palace was built to wow guests and disprove rumors that Prussia was running out of money after the costly Seven Years’ War.
Background: While the palaces are impressive, the included audioguides do a terrible job of bringing them to life (focusing more on the opulent furnishings of each room than on the dynamic rulers who lived in them). Read up on King Frederick the Great before your visit to better understand the historical context.
Getting Between the Palaces: It’s about a 30-minute walk between Sanssouci and the New Palace, and about 10 minutes by bike. Otherwise you can hop on bus #695, which takes you between the palaces in either direction (covered by a cheap €1.50 Kurzstrecke ticket, as well as by a Berlin transit pass with zones ABC). If you do walk, you’ll find the park wilder, more forested, and less carefully manicured than those in other big-league European palace complexes (such as Versailles or Vienna’s Schönbrunn). The park’s €2 suggested donation gets you a helpful map.
Combo-Ticket: The €19 combo-ticket covers nearly all the royal buildings in the park. It’s worthwhile only if you’re visiting Sanssouci, the New Palace, and at least one other sight (for most visitors, those two are more than enough). The combo-ticket is sold online and at the ticket offices at Sanssouci Palace and the New Palace. Buying online costs a few euros extra (€21 total), but allows you to reserve a coveted time slot for Sanssouci, saving you time and stress—since it’s the only way to book ahead.
Touring the Palaces: There are no English guided tours. You’ll visit both palaces with an (included but inferior) audioguide. During the summer season (April-Oct), visitors are allowed to see each palace at their own pace. Off-season, you’ll be accompanied either by an escort or by a German-speaking guide, who will herd your group from room to room.
Information: Tel. 0331/969-4200, www.spsg.de.
Sans souci means “without a care,” and this was the carefree summer home of Frederick the Great (built 1745-1747). Of all the palatial buildings scattered around Potsdam, this was his actual residence. While the palace is small and the audioguide does little to capture the personality of its former resident, it’s worth seeing for its opulence.
Cost and Hours: €12, €19 combo-ticket includes New Palace and other sights, Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, Nov-March until 17:00, closed Mon year-round.
Crowd-Beating Tips: Your ticket comes with an appointed entry time for the main living quarters. Tickets are sold for the same day only, and only in person; an electronic board above the ticket desk counts down the number of available tickets per time slot. (The only way to get a reserved entry time in advance is to buy a combo-ticket online, explained earlier). To get right in, arrive by 10:00, when the ticket office opens. After 11:00, plan to stand in line to buy your ticket. You’ll probably have to wait for your entry time, too—usually an hour or two later. Pass this time visiting the Ladies’ Wing (open only on weekends in summer) and the Palace Kitchen or by exploring the sprawling gardens. If you have a very long wait, zip over to visit the New Palace, then circle back to Sanssouci.
Visiting the Palace: Your ticket covers three parts—the Ladies’ Wing (to the left as you face the palace from the front/garden side); the Palace Kitchen (to the right); and the living quarters and festival halls (the main, central part). You can visit the first two sights anytime, but you must report to the main part of the palace at the time noted on your ticket (where you’ll receive your audioguide; tour takes about 40 minutes).
The Ladies’ Wing (Damenflügel), worth a visit only if you have time to kill (and maybe not even then), contains cluttered apartments with cutesy decor for ladies-in-waiting and servants. The servants’ quarters upstairs have been turned into a painting gallery.
At the Palace Kitchen (Schlossküche), see well-preserved mid-19th-century cooking equipment. Hike down the tight spiral staircase to the wine cellar, which features an exhibit about the grapes that were grown on the terraced vineyards out front.
The Main Palace was where Frederick the Great spent his summers. You’ll stroll through the classic Rococo interior, where golden grapevines climb the walls and frame the windows. First explore the Royal Apartments, containing one of Frederick’s three libraries (he found it easier to buy extra copies of books rather than move them around), the “study bedroom” where he lived and worked, and the chair where he died. The domed, central Marble Hall resembles the Pantheon in Rome (on a smaller scale), with an oblong oculus, inlaid marble floors, and Corinthian columns made of Carrara marble.
Finally, you’ll visit the guest rooms, most of which exit straight out onto the delightful terrace. Each room is decorated differently: Chinese, Italian, and so on; the niche at the back was for a bed. The happiest is the yellow Voltaire Room, where realistic animals and flowers dangle from the walls and ceiling. As you exit (through the servants’ quarters), keep an eye out for the giant portrait of Frederick by Andy Warhol.
This gigantic showpiece palace (with more than 200 rooms) is, in some ways, more impressive than the intimate Sanssouci. Frederick the Great built the New Palace (1763-1769), but he rarely stayed here—it was mostly used to host guests and dazzle visiting dignitaries. The palace has close to 1,000 rooms, but its big attractions are the recently restored, lavishly decorated Grotto Hall and Marble Hall—you’ll see these, and several other fine apartments, on the one-hour “Grand Tour.” Unlike at Sanssouci, there’s rarely a long wait to buy tickets or enter. The palace is putting the finishing touches on a long-term renovation, so you may find a few rooms closed when you visit.
Cost and Hours: €8, €19 combo-ticket includes Sanssouci and other sights; Wed-Mon 10:00-18:00, Nov-March until 17:00, closed Tue year-round. Buy your ticket at the visitors center/ticket office near the bus stop—where you can also use the WC (none at the palace itself) and watch an eight-minute introductory film (alternating in German and English)—then head to the palace at the appointed time to meet your escort and pick up your audioguide.
Visiting the Palace: The one-hour “Grand Tour” takes you through the palace’s ornate halls. On the main floor, the highlight is the Grotto Hall, whose marble walls are encrusted with a quarter of a million seashells, semiprecious stones, and fossils. From there, continue on through the eight suites of the Lower Princes’ Apartments, which accommodated guests and royal family members. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, German emperors Frederick III (different from the earlier Frederick II, who built the place) and Wilhelm II (the last kaiser) resided here. The Gentlemen’s Bedchamber holds the red-canopy bed where Kaiser Frederick III died in 1888. The Ladies’ Bedchamber is a reminder that noblemen and their wives slept separately.
Upstairs, the Upper Princes’ Quarters include a small blue-tiled bathroom that was installed for Kaiser Wilhelm II, and a bedchamber shared by a married couple—my, how times have changed. You’ll also find Wilhelm’s bedroom, as well as a small painting gallery with portraits of Frederick the Great and Russia’s Catherine the Great (who was actually a German princess). The grand finale is the sumptuous, 52-foot-high Marble Hall, with its dramatic ceiling painting (of the Greek myth of Ganymede) and floors inlaid with Silesian marble. Through the windows, enjoy views of the gardens.
The King’s Apartments: The “Grand Tour” described earlier is enough for most. But Frederick completists can ask about the King’s Apartments, which can be seen only on a guided tour in German (and may be closed for renovation).
The two main palaces (Sanssouci and the New Palace) are just the beginning. Sprawling Sanssouci Park contains a variety of other palaces and royal buildings, many of which you can enter. Popular options include the Italian-style Orangery (the last and largest palace in the park, may be closed for renovation; when open, its five royal rooms can be toured only with a German guide, plus a view tower); the New Chambers (a royal guesthouse); the Chinese House; and other viewpoints, such as the Klausberg Belvedere and the Norman Tower.
Cost and Hours: Each has its own entry fee (€2-4; all but Belvedere covered by €19 combo-ticket) and hours, some open weekends only (get a complete list from Potsdam TI or palace ticket office).
Designed to look like an Italian village, this warehouse-like complex once provided the royal palaces with food and other supplies. Today the estate houses the Hof Brauerei (brewery and distillery), which delivers fine brews and (sometimes) schnapps, as it has since 1689. The brewpub’s $$ restaurant is a good place for lunch, serving local specialties. The kid-friendly grounds also house a wood-fired bakery with fresh bread and pastries. You can watch hatmakers, candlemakers, coopers, potters, and glassmakers produce (and sell) their wares using traditional techniques.
Cost and Hours: Free to enter except during special events, Mon-Fri 12:00-18:00, Sat-Sun from 11:00, restaurant serves food until 22:00, Ribbeckstrasse 6, tel. 0331/550-650, www.krongut-bornstedt.de.
Getting There: From Sanssouci, walk toward the windmill, then follow the street to the right (An der Orangerie) about 500 yards.
The easy-to-stroll town center has pedestrianized shopping streets lined with boutiques and eateries. For a small town, this was once a cosmopolitan place: Frederick the Great imported some very talented people.
Potsdam’s “Old Market Square” is marked by the massive dome of the Nikolaikirche—visible from all over town. This square, always pleasant, has been further rejuvenated by the opening of the new Museum Barberini. It’s worth a quick stroll through here to ogle the striking Hohenzollern architecture and consider your sightseeing options.
Stand in the middle of the square, facing the giant church (and the obelisk in front of it). Do a clockwise spin-tour to get oriented:
The oversized Nikolaikirche, designed by Frederick the Great’s favorite architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, is an icon of Potsdam. Step inside to see its austere, very Protestant, Neoclassical interior—a world of perfectly formed domes and Corinthian columns.
To the right sits the Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus), with its frilly cupola. Immediately next door is the Potsdam Museum, showcasing local history.
Farther to the right, the Museum Barberini opened to acclaim in early 2017. This state-of-the-art museum, filling a beautifully restored old building, shows off temporary exhibits of world-class artists. Now Berlin art snobs have even more reason to zip out to Potsdam. Check what’s on—for art lovers, a good exhibit here could be worth ▲▲ (€14, Wed-Mon 11:00-19:00, first Thu until 21:00, closed Tue, audioguide-€2, www.museum-barberini.com).
Farther to the right is Humboldtstrasse, with the TI (and the quickest route to the train station).
Next is the Stadtschloss/Ladtag. You’re just barely outside of “Land Berlin,” a city-state that constitutes one of Germany’s 16 states (Länder). Potsdam is the capital of Brandenburg, the Land that completely surrounds Berlin—and this fine courtyard is Brandenburg’s “state capitol.”
And finally, spinning back toward the church, you see...ugh. Eyesore communist concrete. Remember, Potsdam was part of East Germany. And, like all DDR cities, it mingles its historic beauty with communist-era blight. This unfortunate complex is slated to be redeveloped—and may already be torn down by the time you read this.
At the north end of town, another (more modest but still pleasant) park, called Neuer Garten, faces Wannsee. This is where you’ll find two stirring sights for those interested in Cold War history, and a fine brewery.
Getting There: This area is connected to the center by bus #603, which departs from the main train station and stops at several points downtown on its way up to the park. For the palace, use the Schloss Cecilienhof stop; for the KGB sites, use Glumestrasse (on northbound buses) or Periusstrasse (on southbound buses—returning from the palace to the center). Bus line #603 comes closest to bus line #695 (serving Sanssouci Park) at the Reiterweg stop. The stops are a long block apart, across the bottom of the long park, making the transfer between these lines a little tricky (consider a taxi instead).
This early-20th-century villa was the site of the historic Potsdam Conference for two weeks in the summer of 1945. For Cold War buffs, it’s worth ▲▲. Touring the rooms with an audioguide, you’ll hear how, during those meetings, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin negotiated how best to punish Germany for dragging Europe through another devastating war. It was here that the postwar map of Europe was officially drawn, setting the stage for a protracted Cold War that would drag on for more than four decades. There’s rarely a wait, and it pairs well with a drink or meal at the fine Meierei brewery and a visit to the KGB Prison Memorial—each less than a 10-minute walk away.
Cost and Hours: €6, includes audioguide, Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, Nov-March until 17:00, closed Mon year-round, tel. 0331/969-4200, www.spsg.de.
Visiting the Palace: This Tudor-style villa—designed to appear smaller and more modest than it actually is—was built in 1912 to house Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Cecilie, who would have ruled Germany, had Kaiser Wilhelm II not lost World War I. For those into palace architecture, it’s certainly less striking than Potsdam’s other palaces. The real draw here is the 1945 history. You’ll tour the palace using an excellent, 45-minute audioguide, which (unlike the other palace audioguides) does a marvelous job of re-animating history. You’ll hear all about those tense days in July 1945, including sound bites from meeting participants. You’ll see the private offices of Stalin, Churchill, and Truman, as well as the grand meeting hall with the round table where they faced off to negotiate. It’s both chilling and fitting to think that, just 20 years later, the Berlin Wall would run through the park right in front of the palace—cutting off idyllic views of the Wannsee. This was also where Truman issued the “Potsdam Declaration”—demanding that Japan surrender to end the war once and for all. Japan refused—and the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Eating: The $$ Meierei (“Creamery”) brewery, in the park near Cecilienhof, is an ideal spot for good beer and tasty food in an idyllic setting. Choose between its crowded interior or its fine beer garden, filling a terrace with tranquil views over the lake (Tue-Sun 12:00-22:00, closed Mon, less than a 10-minute stroll north of Cecilienhof—follow Meierei signs to Im Neuen Garten 10, tel. 0331/704-3211). The big open field to the right of the restaurant used to be part of the Berlin Wall.
Standing in stark contrast to all of Potsdam’s pretty palaces and Hohenzollern bombast, this crumbling concrete prison has been turned into a memorial and documentation center to the Cold War victims of USSR “counterintelligence.”
Cost and Hours: Free, Tue-Sun 14:00-18:00, Nov-March 13:00-17:00, closed Mon year-round, Leistikowstrasse 1, tel. 0331/201-1540, www.gedenkstaette-leistikowstrasse.de.
Visiting the Memorial: On the nondescript Leistikowstrasse, a few steps from the lakeside park, the KGB established a base in August 1945 (mere days after the Potsdam Conference), which remained active until the fall of the USSR in 1991. The centerpiece of their “secret city” was this transit-and-remand prison, in which enemies of the Soviet regime were held and punished in horrible conditions before entering the USSR “justice” system—to be tried, executed, or shipped off to the notorious gulag labor camps. While most prisoners were Russian citizens, until 1955 the prison also held Germans who were essentially kidnapped by the USSR in retribution for their wartime activities.
From the blocky modern building at the corner, you’ll enter the complex and head inside the prison, where today the hallways and cells are an eerie world of peeling paint, faded linoleum, and rusted hinges. The top floor hosts a well-presented permanent exhibit in English, explaining the history of the building (which was a vicarage before being seized by the Soviets) and profiling several of the individuals who were held here. Out in the yard, look for the bronze model that illustrates how this prison was just one part of an entire neighborhood of KGB-operated facilities—a “secret city” in the heart of one of East Germany’s proudest cities.
About 20 miles north of downtown Berlin, the small town of Oranienburg was the site of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps. Sachsenhausen’s proximity to the capital gave it special status as the place to train camp guards and test new procedures. It was also the site of the Third Reich’s massive counterfeiting operation to destabilize Great Britain by flooding the monetary system with forged pound notes. Today the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum (Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen), worth ▲▲, honors the camp’s victims and survivors, and teaches visitors about the atrocities that took place here.
Take a train to the town of Oranienburg (20-50 minutes, covered by zone ABC ticket); from there, it’s a quick trip by bus or taxi to the camp, or a 20-minute walk. The whole journey takes just over an hour each way.
From Berlin Hauptbahnhof, a regional train speeds to Oranienburg (hourly, 25 minutes). Or you can take the S-Bahn (S1) line from various stops in downtown Berlin, including Potsdamer Platz, Brandenburger Tor, Friedrichstrasse, and Oranienburger Strasse (4/hour, 45-50 minutes).
At Oranienburg, the bus to the memorial departs from lane 4, right in front of the train station (on weekdays, hourly bus #804 is timed to meet most regional trains; on weekends it runs only every 2 hours, and doesn’t sync with S-Bahn arrivals; direction: Malz; bus #821 also possible, runs 5/day, direction: Tiergarten; €1.70, covered by Berlin transit day pass for zones ABC, get off at Gedenkstätte stop). You can also take a taxi (€8, ask for the Gedenkstätte—geh-DENK-shteh-teh).
To walk 20 minutes to the memorial, turn right from the train station and head up Stralsunder Strasse for about two blocks. Turn right under the railroad trestle onto Bernauer Strasse, following signs for Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen. At the traffic light, turn left onto André-Pican-Strasse, which becomes Strasse der Einheit. After two blocks, turn right on Strasse der Nationen, which leads right to the camp.
Make your pilgrimage to Sachsenhausen any day during the summer. From mid-October to mid-March, the museums are closed on Monday (the grounds are open daily year-round). You’ll need at least three hours to appreciate the many worthwhile exhibits here. Factoring in transit time, leave yourself at least five hours round-trip from central Berlin.
Cost and Hours: Free, daily 8:30-18:00, mid-Oct-mid-March until 16:30, on Mon off-season only the grounds and visitors center are open, Strasse der Nationen 22.
Information: Tel. 03301/2000, www.gedenkstaette-sachsenhausen.de.
Visitor Information: The map in this book is sufficient, but the €0.50 map sold at the visitors center is worthwhile for the extra background information it includes. Skip the overlong €3 audioguide and instead make use of this chapter’s self-guided tour and the ample English information posted within the camp.
Services: The visitors center has WCs, a bookshop, and a helpful information desk.
Tours from Berlin: A tour helps you understand the camp’s complicated and important story. Virtually all walking-tour companies in Berlin offer side-trips to Sachsenhausen (meet in the city, then ride together by train to Oranienburg). The round-trip takes about six hours, much of which is spent in transit—but your time at the camp is made very meaningful by your guide’s commentary.
Check walking-tour companies’ websites or compare brochures to find an itinerary that fits your schedule (typically €14, April-Oct daily at 10:00, less frequent off-season). Options include Original Berlin Walks (www.berlinwalks.de) and Insider Tour (www.insidertour.com). Don’t book a tour on an off-season Monday, when the grounds are open, but not the museum exhibits.
Eating: Pack a lunch or buy one en route, as dining choices at the camp are minimal. The little “Info Café” inside the camp offers small snacks, and Bistro To Go, just outside the visitors center, serves basic fare (wurst, soup).
Completed in July 1936, Sachsenhausen was the first concentration camp built under SS chief Heinrich Himmler. The triangle-shaped grounds, contained by three walls, enabled observation of the entire camp from a single point, the main guard tower. The design was intended to be a model for other camps, but it had a critical flaw that prevented its widespread adoption: It was very difficult to expand without interfering with sight lines.
Sachsenhausen was not, strictly speaking, a “death camp” for mass murder (like Auschwitz); it was a labor camp, intended to wring hard work out of the prisoners. Many toiled in a brickworks, producing materials to be used in architect Albert Speer’s grandiose plans for erecting new buildings all over Berlin.
Between 1936 and 1945, about 200,000 prisoners did time at Sachsenhausen; about 50,000 died here, while numerous others were transported elsewhere to be killed (in 1942, many of Sachsenhausen’s Jews were taken to Auschwitz). Though it was designed to hold 10,000 prisoners, by the end of its functional life the camp had up to 38,000 people. In the spring of 1945, knowing that the Red Army was approaching, guards took 35,000 able-bodied prisoners on a death march, leading them into the forest for seven days and nights with no rations. Rather than “wasting” bullets to kill them, SS troops hoped that the prisoners would expire from exhaustion. On the eighth day, after 6,000 had died, the guards abandoned the group in the wilderness. When Soviet troops liberated Sachsenhausen on April 22, 1945, they discovered an additional 3,000 prisoners who had been too weak to walk and were left there to die (all but 300 survived).
Just three months after the war, Sachsenhausen was converted into Soviet Special Camp No. 7 for the USSR’s own prisoners. It was a notorious “silent camp,” where prisoners would disappear—allowed no contact with the outside world and their imprisonment officially unacknowledged. The prisoners were Nazis as well as anti-Stalin Russians. By the time the camp closed in 1950, 12,000 more people had died here.
In 1961, Sachsenhausen became the first former concentration camp to be turned into a memorial. The East German government created the memorial mostly for propaganda purposes, to deflect attention from the controversial construction of the Berlin Wall and to exalt the USSR as the valiant antifascist liberators of the camp and all of Germany.
Since the end of the DDR, Sachsenhausen has been redeveloped into a true memorial, with updated museum exhibits and an emphasis on preservation—documenting and sharing the story of what happened here. While difficult to take in, as with all concentration camp memorials, the intention of Sachsenhausen is to share its story and lessons—and prevent this type of brutality from ever happening again.
SELF-GUIDED TOURThe camp’s exhibits are scattered throughout the grounds in various buildings, and offer more information than you probably have time to absorb. This outline covers the key parts of your visit.
In the courtyard next to the visitors center, a model of the camp illustrates its unique triangular layout. Guards stationed in tower A (at the main gate) could see everything going on inside those three walls. Along the left (west) side of the triangle is the crematorium, called Station Z. Outside the main triangle are the workshops, factories, and extra barracks that were added when the camp ran out of room.
Walk up the dusty lane called Camp Street. On the right is the SS officers’ R&R building, nicknamed the “Green Monster,” where prisoners dressed in nice clothes were forced to wait on their keepers. Officials mostly chose Jehovah’s Witnesses for this duty, because they had a strong pacifist code and could be trusted not to attempt to harm their captors.
A left turn through the fence takes you into the courtyard in front of guard tower A. The clock on the tower is frozen at 11:07—the exact time that the Red Army liberated the camp. The building on the right—the New Museum—has an interesting DDR-era stained-glass window inside, as well as temporary exhibits and a small café.
Go through the gate cruelly marked Arbeit Macht Frei—“Work will set you free.”
Entering the triangular field, you can see that almost none of the original buildings still stand. Following the war, locals salvaged the barracks here for much-needed building materials. Tracing the perimeter, notice the electric fence and barbed wire. A few feet in front of the wall is a gravel track called the neutral zone—any prisoner setting foot here would be shot. This became a common way for prisoners to attempt suicide. Guards quickly caught on: If they sensed a suicide attempt, they’d shoot to maim instead of kill. It was typical upside-down Nazi logic: Those who wanted to live would die, and those who wanted to die would live.
Every morning, after a 4:15 wake-up call, prisoners would scramble to eat, bathe, and dress in time to assemble in the roll-call grounds in front of the guard tower by 5:00. Dressed in their thin, striped pajama-like uniforms and wooden clogs, prisoners would line up while guards, in long coats and accompanied by angry dogs, barked orders and accounted for each person, including those who had died in the barracks overnight. It could take hours, in any weather. A single misbehaving prisoner would bring about punishment for all others. One day, after a prisoner escaped, SS officer Rudolf Höss (who later went on to run Auschwitz-Birkenau) forced the entire population of the camp to stand here for 15 hours in a foot of snow and subzero temperatures. A thousand people died.
To the far right from the entrance, the wooden barracks (with good museum displays) are reconstructed from original timbers. Barrack 38 focuses on the Jewish experience at Sachsenhausen, as well as the general mistreatment of German Jews under the Nazis (including anti-Semitic propaganda). Barrack 39 explains everyday life, with stories following 20 individual internees. You’ll see how prisoners lived: long rows of bunks, benches for taking paltry meals, latrines crammed wall-to-wall with toilets, and communal fountains for washing. Inmates would jockey for access to these facilities. The strongest, meanest, most aggressive prisoners—often here because they had been convicted of a violent crime—would be named Kapo, the head of the barrack (to discourage camaraderie, the worst prisoners, rather than the best, were “promoted”). Like at many other camps, the camp leaders at Sachsenhausen ran a system of organized rape, whereby they brought in inmates from the women’s-only Ravensbrück concentration camp and forced them to “reward good prisoners” at Sachsenhausen.
Next to the barracks is the camp prison, where political prisoners or out-of-line inmates were sent. It was run not by the SS, but by the Gestapo (secret police), who would torture captives to extract information. Other prisoners didn’t know exactly what went on here, but they could hear screams from inside and knew it was no place they wanted to be. This was also where the Nazis held special hostages, including three Allied airmen who had participated in a bold escape from a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp (the basis for The Great Escape; they later managed to escape from Sachsenhausen as well, before being recaptured) and Joseph Stalin’s son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, who had been captured during the fighting at Stalingrad. (The Nazis offered to exchange the young man for five German officers. Stalin refused, and soon after, Yakov died here under mysterious circumstances.) The cells contain exhibits about the prisoners and the methods used by their captors.
Just outside the back of the building stand three posts (out of an original 15) with iron pegs near the top. Guards cruelly executed people by tying their hands behind their backs, then hanging them on these pegs by their wrists until they died—a medieval method called strappado.
Walk around the inner semicircle toward the buildings in the middle of the camp. On this “boot-testing track,” prisoners were forced to put on boots two sizes too small and walk in a circle on uneven ground all day, supposedly to “test” the shoes for fighting at Stalingrad.
The rectangles of stones show where each of the original barrack buildings once stood. At the center, a marker represents the location of the gallows, where prisoners would be publicly executed as a deterrent to others.
In the middle of the triangle, on the right, is the kitchen building, with exhibits that trace the chronological history of the camp. You’ll learn how Sachsenhausen was built by prisoners and see original artifacts, including the gallows, a bunk from the barracks, uniforms, and so on. There are also photos, quotes, and a 22-minute film.
Head back to the far end of the camp, which is dominated by the towering, 130-foot-tall, 1961 communist DDR memorial to the victims of Sachsenhausen. The 18 triangles at the top are red, the color designated for political prisoners (to the communists, they were more worthy of honor than the other Nazi victims who died here). At the base of the monument, two prisoners are being liberated by a noble Soviet soldier. The prisoners are unrealistically robust, healthy, and optimistic (they will survive and become part of the proud Soviet proletariat!). The podium in front was used by the East German army for speeches and rallies—exploiting Sachsenhausen as a backdrop for their propaganda.
From here, head left and go through the gap in the fence to find the execution trench, used for mass shootings. When this system proved too inefficient, the Nazis built “Station Z,” the nearby crematorium, where they could execute and dispose of prisoners more systematically. Its ruins are inside the white building (prior to the camp’s liberation by Soviet troops, Nazi guards destroyed the crematorium to remove evidence of their crimes).
The crematorium’s ramp took prisoners down into the “infirmary,” while the three steps led up to the dressing room. This is where, on five occasions, the Nazis tested Zyklon-B (the chemical later responsible for killing hundreds of thousands at Auschwitz). Most of the building’s victims died in the room with the double row of bricks (for soundproofing; the Nazis also blasted classical music to mask noise). Victims would report here for a “dental check,” to find out if they had gold or silver teeth that could be taken. They would then stand against the wall to have their height measured—and a guard would shoot them through a small hole in the wall with a single bullet to the back of the skull. (The Nazis found it was easier for guards to carry out their duties if they didn’t have to see their victims face-to-face.)
Bodies were taken to be incinerated in the ovens (which still stand). Notice the statue of the emaciated prisoner—a much more accurate depiction than the one at the DDR monument. Outside, a burial ground is filled with ashes from the crematorium.
Back inside the main part of the camp you can head left, up to the tip of the triangle (behind the big monument) to find a museum about the postwar era, when Sachsenhausen served as a Soviet Special Camp. Nearby is a burial ground for victims of that camp. At this corner of the triangle, the gate in the fence—called tower E—holds a small exhibit about the relationship between the camp and the town of Oranienburg.
Heading back toward the main guard tower, along the wall toward the front corner, are the long, green barracks of the infirmary, used for medical experiments on inmates (as explained by the exhibits inside). This was also where Soviet soldiers found the 3,000 remaining survivors when they liberated the camp. The small building in back was the morgue—Nazis used the long ramp to bring in the day’s bodies via wheelbarrows. Behind that is a field with six stones, each marking 50 bodies for the 300 prisoners who died after the camp was freed.