One of Berlin’s most profound memorials is hidden in plain sight.
Just across the River Spree from Museum Island and the Berlin Palace is Bebelplatz.
Formerly known as Opera Square, this public space features the Berlin State Opera, as well as some other architectural beauties, including St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, Berlin’s Catholic Cathedral.
Another standout is the Law Library of Humboldt University, whose main campus is just across Unter den Linden.
With all these eye-catching buildings, you could be forgiven for not noticing a small window in the ground in the center of the square.
Peek inside, and you will find a vast space of empty shelves painted bleach-white.
It’s called the Sunken Library, and it’s a memorial to the Nazi book burnings in May of 1933, on the spot of one of the burnings.
A plaque beside the memorial carries words by the German poet Heinrich Heine. In English, the passage can be translated as:
“Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well”.
The Sunken Library is an outdoor memorial viewed from the square, with no admission ticket required.
Allow around 10–15 minutes as a planning estimate to find the window, read the plaque, and take in the surrounding buildings.
Leave extra time if you’re listening to the audio tour.
To include it in your exploration of Nazi-era Berlin, download my Experience Berlin travel app and look for the WW2 and Third Reich Sites or search for Sunken Library.
An estimated 20,000 books from writers, academics, poets, journalists, and anyone the Nazis considered dangerous or un-German.
And in this memorial, there’s space for each book.
There is a plaque with a quote taken from a Henrich Heins novel that predates the book burnings.
It’s also the starting point for my audio tour of the same name, also found inside of the app.
Bebelplatz is one of its stops, so you can hear the story while standing in the place where it happened.
Whichever way you explore, don’t let the buildings around Bebelplatz distract you from what lies beneath your feet.