Opposition to Nazi rule, beyond the plot of July 1944
Explore the Bendler Block courtyard and the German Resistance Memorial Center, connecting the failed coup of July 1944 with the wider people, networks and choices behind opposition to Nazi rule.
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Berlin, Germany
INTRODUCTION
A courtyard off Stauffenbergstraße marks the place where four officers were shot after the failed attempt to overthrow Hitler on 20 July 1944. Upstairs, the German Resistance Memorial Center widens that story. Photographs, documents and biographies introduce people who opposed Nazi rule from different social backgrounds and political traditions.
The setting matters: this was a military headquarters, not a building created as a museum. Yet the exhibition reaches far beyond the officers associated with its address, examining workers, religious opponents, young people and persecuted groups, alongside plans for a coup.
This guide connects the historic courtyard with the exhibition’s broader account of opposition. For the wider city, explore our Berlin history and travel guide.
KEY HISTORICAL MOMENT
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg placed a bomb at Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia, then returned to Berlin to help direct a coup. Hitler survived. Orders issued from the Bendler Block failed to secure control, and the conspiracy collapsed. During the night of 20–21 July, Stauffenberg, Friedrich Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim and Werner von Haeften were shot in the courtyard.
ORIGINS
The Bendler Block began as a substantial complex for the Reich Navy Office, constructed between 1911 and 1914. Its main frontage faced the Landwehr Canal, while an eastern wing occupied Bendlerstraße, today Stauffenbergstraße. The buildings provided offices and official residences for an expanding naval administration.
After Germany’s defeat in 1918, the complex housed the leadership of the reduced armed forces of the Weimar Republic. Its history therefore began well before the Nazi dictatorship and included difficult questions about the military’s relationship with civilian government.
On 3 February 1933, Hitler addressed military leaders here about his aims, including expansion to the east. Later, the same complex became a centre of military opposition. That sequence prevents a simple reading of the building as always standing against Nazism. Its offices served institutions involved in the regime before some officers used them to organise its overthrow.
OPPOSITION AND COUP
The conspirators adapted the army’s existing Valkyrie emergency plans, originally intended to suppress internal unrest. They hoped to use these orders after Hitler’s assassination to take control of military districts and prevent forces loyal to the regime from responding. Killing Hitler and replacing his government were connected but separate tasks.
On the afternoon of 20 July, Olbricht and Mertz von Quirnheim initiated Valkyrie. Stauffenberg returned to Berlin and tried to win support from other officers. Delays, contradictory commands and confirmation that Hitler was alive undermined the operation. The conspirators also failed to gain the radio access needed to address the population.
Stauffenberg had recognised the regime’s criminal character only gradually during the war. His biography is a reminder that participation in resistance did not necessarily follow lifelong opposition. Other opponents had resisted much earlier, and the exhibition makes those different starting points visible.
Those planning a new government also had to negotiate differing political ideas. Ending Nazi crimes and restoring the rule of law were central aims, but agreement against Hitler did not remove disagreements over Germany’s future. Reading their proposals matters alongside following the attempted assassination.
ACROSS CENTURIES
The heavily damaged complex was reconstructed after the war and used by public authorities. The courtyard became a place of organised remembrance in the 1950s, with annual ceremonies and a bronze memorial figure. In 1955, Bendlerstraße was renamed Stauffenbergstraße, connecting the street itself with the failed coup.
The courtyard’s present design dates from 1980, when Erich Reusch rearranged the commemorative setting. What visitors see is therefore both a historical execution site and a carefully shaped postwar memorial. Its monument and plaques should not be mistaken for objects left in position from July 1944.
A small exhibition on military resistance opened in 1968. The expanded permanent exhibition became established in 1989, and a renewed presentation opened in 2014. Its scope includes the social breadth and ideological diversity of opposition to National Socialism. This development explains why a memorial rooted in the officers’ fate now tells many other histories.
INTERESTING FACTS
Carpenter Georg Elser attempted to kill Hitler at Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller on 8 November 1939. Hitler left before the explosion and escaped. Elser had prepared the attack independently, hoping to prevent war, rather than acting on instructions from the later military conspiracy. The exhibition gives his effort its own place, challenging the idea that assassination attempts began only when Germany faced defeat.
Hans and Sophie Scholl belonged to the White Rose, whose members circulated leaflets calling for resistance. They were arrested at Munich University on 18 February 1943 while distributing the sixth leaflet. Four days later, they and Christoph Probst were sentenced to death and executed. The group’s wider network and other members matter alongside the siblings’ familiar names.
From 1940, the Kreisau Circle brought together men and women with differing religious and political views. Helmuth James von Moltke and Peter Yorck von Wartenburg were driving figures. Their discussions examined government, education, economic life and Germany’s place in Europe after Nazism. Preparing an alternative order was itself an important strand of opposition, beyond the immediate question of an assassination.
Richard Scheibe created the courtyard’s bronze figure, but his own career complicates the memorial’s history. His work had been exhibited under National Socialism, and Hitler bought one of his sculptures. The memorial centre openly discusses this background. Looking at the figure can therefore prompt questions about postwar choices in commemoration as well as the people it was intended to honour.
WHAT TO SEE & DO
Enter through the commemorative courtyard from Stauffenbergstraße. Pause at the memorial figure and the plaque naming the officers killed here. The contained space connects the failed coup with its immediate consequences before the exhibition introduces a wider range of experiences.
Read the inscriptions as part of the history of remembrance, noting that the courtyard was redesigned after the war. Treat it as a place for reflection, then follow the public entrance to the exhibition rather than exploring other parts of the complex.
On the second floor, use the sections on Stauffenberg, the coup’s aims and its attempted implementation to separate the stages of the conspiracy. The bombing happened in East Prussia; much of the effort to seize control was directed from Berlin.
Compare the biographies with the documents describing plans and orders. This helps explain why the survival of Hitler mattered, while also showing the organisational obstacles facing those trying to replace the regime. Allow time for the intended political outcome, not only the attack.
Continue with sections on workers’ organisations, Christian opposition, young people and persecuted groups. The presentation includes Jewish resistance and resistance by Sinti and Roma, widening the frame beyond people with access to military offices.
The Jewish resistance section, for example, examines self-assertion, solidarity, hiding and organised action under escalating persecution. Comparing these experiences with the coup material highlights differences in opportunities and risks. Avoid assuming that every opponent could use the same methods or belonged to a shared organisation.
Choose one person whose story is unfamiliar and follow their biography alongside the associated documents. Ask when their opposition began, what they actually did, whom they worked with and how the authorities responded. This gives a practical way through a substantial exhibition.
Use the audio guide or media stations where helpful. The memorial’s online materials also allow you to continue reading afterwards, so there is no need to absorb every theme in one session. Leave enough time to return briefly to the courtyard.
WHY VISIT?
This memorial rewards travellers who want to move beyond a general account of Nazi power and examine particular decisions made against it. The exhibition’s strength is its range: a military conspiracy, an independent assassination attempt, clandestine writing and responses to persecution can be studied within one historical framework.
The visit also resists an uncomplicated collection of heroes. Biographies have different starting points, networks formed under pressure and opponents did not share every political aim. Reading those differences makes the courtyard more meaningful. It connects remembrance of the dead with careful attention to what people attempted, why they acted and what possibilities they had.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The address is Stauffenbergstraße 13–14, 10785 Berlin. Enter through the commemorative courtyard. The M29 bus stops at Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand; Potsdamer Platz provides rail and underground connections within walking distance. Consult the official visitor page and your transport planner for the approach.
Allow around two hours for the courtyard and selected exhibition sections, an editorial estimate. Regular opening is Monday–Friday, 09:00–18:00, and weekends and public holidays, 10:00–18:00. The centre closes on 24–26 December, 31 December and 1 January. Check official notices before travelling.
Admission is free. Groups of more than twelve visitors may attend only as part of a free event booked in advance. Contact the centre to arrange a guided tour or seminar. Individual visitors can check the current public-tour schedule; do not assume a guided visit is available whenever the exhibition is open.
Free audio guides include English and can be borrowed at reception; a smartphone tour is also available. The permanent exhibition is on the second floor, reached by lift. A ramp and automatic doors serve the main entrance, although courtyard cobbles may be difficult for some wheelchair users.
Consult the accessibility guidance for lift dimensions and assistance. Temporary exhibitions have their own programmes. Focus on a few themes if time is limited, and use the online exhibition material to prepare or continue your reading afterwards.
Location
Berlin, Germany
Site type
Historical site, memorial & exhibition
Historic setting
Bendler Block
Original construction
1911–1914: naval headquarters
Key moment
Attempted coup, 20 July 1944
Highlights
Commemorative courtyard & resistance biographies
Suggested visit
Around 2 hours (editorial estimate)
Official resources for visiting the memorial and exploring Berlin
EXPLORE MORE
Continue exploring Berlin’s history of resistance to Nazism, the institutions behind Nazi persecution and the places that preserve the memory of war and its victims.
Discover the former Gestapo and SS headquarters site, where an exhibition examines the machinery of Nazi persecution and terror.
Visit the villa where Nazi officials met in January 1942 to coordinate the deportation and murder of Europe’s Jews.
Reflect at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, which commemorates the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution and genocide.
See the war-damaged church tower preserved as a memorial to the devastation of the Second World War and a symbol of peace and reconciliation.
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