The execution courtyard
Where Stauffenberg and his group were shot.
Adam Carr at English Wikipedia — Public domain · Ziko van Dijk — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ziko van Dijk — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ziko van Dijk — CC BY-SA 4.0
The German Resistance Memorial Center occupies the Bendlerblock — formerly the German army's command headquarters, and the place where the most famous attempt to assassinate Hitler was planned and launched: the operation of 20 July 1944 led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. The site is not merely a museum about the event but its actual stage: in the building's own courtyard Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators were shot that same night, hours after the attempt failed. The courtyard today holds a memorial plaque and a statue, and Stauffenberg's office upstairs forms part of the exhibition. But the exhibition is broader than one story: it documents German resistance to Nazism in all its forms — the White Rose students in Munich, communist workers, clergy, those who hid Jews, and those who refused military service. The implicit message is that resistance existed even as a minority, and entry is free.
Where Stauffenberg and his group were shot.
The White Rose, workers and clergy.
Stauffenbergstrasse 13-14, 10785 Berlin
Neue NationalgalerieThe Neue Nationalgalerie was the last building Ludwig Mies van der Rohe complete5 minutes walk4.7
Potsdamer PlatzPotsdamer Platz is the whole story of Berlin in one place. Before the war it was12 minutes walk4.3
TiergartenThe Tiergarten is Berlin's great lung: a 210-hectare urban forest at the capital13 minutes walk4.7
DeutschlandmuseumA recent museum near Potsdamer Platz presenting two thousand years of German his14 minutes walk4.7
Urban Nation MuseumUrban Nation is a museum devoted to street art and contemporary urban art, opene14 minutes walk4.6Stauffenberg placed a briefcase of explosives under Hitler's conference table at his eastern headquarters and left, then returned to Berlin believing the attempt had succeeded, to lead a military coup. But the briefcase had been moved behind a heavy wooden support that absorbed the blast, and Hitler survived with injuries. The coup collapsed within hours, and Stauffenberg was shot in this building's courtyard before midnight.