Topography of Terror

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Part of the Topography of Terror museum. The preserved section of the Berlin Wall can be seen at the top of the picture

The Topography of Terror (German: Topographie des Terrors) is an outdoor museum in Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is located in Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era.

The buildings that housed the Gestapo and SS headquarters were largely destroyed by Allied bombing during early 1945 and the ruins demolished after the war. The boundary between the American and Soviet zones of occupation in Berlin ran along the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, so the street soon became a fortified boundary, and the Berlin Wall ran along the south side of the street, renamed Niederkirchnerstrasse, from 1961 to 1989. The wall itself was never removed from the site, and the section adjacent to the Topography of Terror site is the second-longest segment still in place (after the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain).

The first exhibitions of the site took place in 1987, as part of Berlin's 750th anniversary. The cellars of the Gestapo headquarters, where many political prisoners were tortured and executed, were found and excavated. The site was then turned into a memorial and museum, in the open air but protected from the elements by a canopy, detailing the history of repression under the Nazis. The excavation took place in cooperation with East German researchers, and a joint exhibition was shown both at the site and in East Germany in 1989.

In 1992, two years after German reunification, a foundation was established to take care of the site, and the following year, it initiated an architectural competition to design a permanent museum. A design by architect Peter Zumthor was chosen. However, construction was stopped due to funding problems after the concrete core of the structure had been built. This stood on the site for nearly a decade until it was finally demolished in 2004. A new design is expected to be completed by late 2007.

Another section of the museum details the Nuremberg Trials, at which the leading surviving Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity, with eleven being executed. By pressing buttons, visitors are able to hear recordings of sections of the trial, including the voices of the leading defendants and the Allied prosecutors.