Berlin-Charlottenburg, Gedenkstätte Plötzensee

Berlin's first memorial to the victims of National Socialism was erected in 1952 on the site of the former execution site of Plötzensee Prison. The large state prison at Plötzensee was considered an impressive brick building when it was built in 1879. After 1933, the penal system developed into an instrument of oppression and exclusion of so-called "enemies of the people". Almost 3,000 people were murdered here between 1933 and 1945. They died by the guillotine or by hanging. Most of them were political opponents of the Nazi regime, sentenced to death by the People's Court and other courts. Many of them were opposition members of various political persuasions, from conservative and military to communist resistance; however, many were executed for the most minor offenses or denunciations. Many foreign prisoners from the occupied countries also met their deaths here. A quarter of the death sentences, which rose sharply during the Nazi era, were carried out in Plötzensee, in a brick shed on the northern edge of the prison complex. This shed and the surrounding area were separated from the prison in 1952 and transformed into a quiet place of remembrance. The memorial is artistically designed in the front area. The entrance leads into a courtyard with a memorial wall designed by Bruno Grimmek, which bears the inscription: "To the victims of Hitler's dictatorship in the years 1933-1945". To the side is a symbolic urn containing earth from German concentration camps, created by Karl Wenke and Joachim Ihle. Behind the memorial wall is the brick shed, the authentic execution site. The actual execution room, then as now divided by a black curtain, is empty and not decorated. Five of the hooks that were used for simultaneous executions by hanging still hang from an iron girder. In the adjoining room, where the condemned had to wait for their death, a small documentary exhibition on Nazi justice is on display today. These rooms are reserved for individual commemoration.