Dark History: 9 Third Reich Buildings You Can Still Visit Today

Before WWII, when the Nazis assumed power, Hitler agreed to host the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, at the insistence of his propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, who saw it as a prime publicity opportunity for Germany. Among other major projects initiated to make the Third Reich look good, the Olympiastadion was constructed. This massive stadium could hold up to 110,000 people, and during the Olympics, it indeed did. One of the most notable aspects of these games was when Jesse Owens, and African American athlete, totally dominated the event, winning several gold medals and embarrassing Hitler who placed so much faith in his racist ideologies of eugenics. Today, the Olympiastadion is the home field for Hertha BSC.

The massive Nazi Ministry of Aviation is a sound example of fascist architecture from this time. Its aesthetics are stark, uniform, and somewhat Romanesque. While at first it might seem peculiar, considering the 90% of the city was destroyed by the end of WWII, the Ministry of Aviation in Berlin still stands today, having incurred minimal damage during the many air raids. Many theorize that this is because the building contained many important documents to the governing and functioning of the Third Reich and the Nazi military, and the Allied forces wanted to preserve these records to use in trials against the regime’s important figures. Now, the building is used as the German Federal Ministry of Finance.

This stately looking building located on the Wannsee was where the final solution, or the mass deportation and extermination of Europe’s Jews, was devised. It is said that 15 members of the SS and the Nazi government met here on January 20, 1942. In true testament to the banality of evil, historians say that the planning was highly shrewd and technical, with accountants and other bookkeepers playing an integral role in its conception. Now, the building is a museum and memorial. Educational seminars about the European genocide and the sociology behind the rise of the Third Reich are also available here.

The Nazis occupied and constructed many buildings where horrid human experiments and euthanasia took place on some of society’s most vulnerable members including children, the mentally ill, and people with disabilities. Multiple psychiatric hospitals were the sites of these despicable murders including the Hadamar Euthanasia Center in Hesse. Today, tourists can visit this eerie basement where 15,000 people lost their lives at the hands of despicable ideologies. These rooms have been turned into a memorial, along with a garden that was cultivated over the site of the victims’ mass grave.

Sachsenhausen, is a concentration camp located near Oranienburg, a town located northwest of Berlin. While it was certainly a death camp by anyone’s standards, Sachsenhausen tells a different story than most of the most well-known concentration camps throughout Europe. Specifically, it was primarily used to detain political prisoners beginning as early as 1936. Many Soviets, in particular, were executed at this camp. Because of its proximity to Berlin, Sachsenhausen also functioned as a training centre for the SS. Around 30,000 people died as victims of Nazism at Sachsenhausen. Rather ironically, after WWII ended, the Soviets used the facility as an internment camp for Nazis and those suspected of Nazism.

Dachau, which is located outside of Munich, was one of the first concentration camps built in Germany. Initially, it was intended as a place for political prisoners and other opponents of the Nazi Regime, ultimately being converted into a death camp. Dachau was used as a prototype for creating the other concentration camps throughout Europe. In addition to Jews, other enemies of Nazism, including various kinds of criminals as well as people from Nazi-occupied countries, were sent to Dachau, with each group demarcated with different coloured tags and symbols. Untold numbers of deaths took place here, with 32,000 recorded and many more not.