House of the Wannsee Conference, Memorial Site

The Genocide of the European Jews was Planned at the Berlin Mansion

May 12, 2009

In this beautiful villa at the lake Grosser Wannsee, a district of Berlin, "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question" — "Endlösung" in German — was discussed by 15 high-ranking Nazi representatives of the ministries and of the party. The goal of the "Final Solution" was to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, about eleven million people. Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, chaired the Wannsee Conference.

The elegant house at "Am Grossen Wannsee 56-58" was built in 1914 by Paul A.O. Baumgarten for the industrialist Ernst Marlier and his wife Margarete. Baumgarten was a student of the famous architect Alfred Messel, who had designed Wertheim's Department Store and the offices of AEG (Allgemeine Elektrizitätsgesellschaft) in Berlin. In 1921 Marlier sold the villa to Friedrich Minoux, who had made his fortune as director-general of the Hugo Stinnes trust. Minoux belonged to the conservative opposition against the Weimar Republic.In 1940 the estate was purchased for the SS Security Service and it became a SS guesthouse, casino and conference center.

The historian Joseph Wulf, a Jewish resistance fighter and Auschwitz survivor, published the first documentations about the NS regime available in Germany. He strongly suggested to establish a documentation center/memorial at the Wannsee House as early as 1965. Despite prominent worldwide support for Wulf's idea, the Berlin Senate was not prepared to make the building available. Feeling dejected about the death of his wife and his seemingly futile initiative Wulf committed suicide in 1974. Joseph Wulf’s last letter is on display in Berlin’s Jewish Museum.

In the 1980s, Joseph Wulf's ideas were revisited. Gerhard Schoenberner, a pioneer in publishing on NS crimes in Germany, was commissioned by the Berlin Senate to prepare the memorial and the permanent exhibition. In 1992 the “Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference” was opened on the 50th anniversary of the conference on the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”.

The permanent exhibit draws from historical research since the opening of archives in Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Several rooms focus on perpetrator groups (Ordnungspolizei - uniformed police - and Wehrmacht), there is information on collaboration, and the process of deporting Jews to the ghettos and extermination camps is shown using three Länder (German states) as examples. The exhibit also addresses the frequently raised question as to how much the Germans knew about the genocide. The "House of the Wannsee Conference" offers an excellent online exhibit.

Pedagogical Work and Media Center at the "House of the Wannsee Conference"

The Joseph Wulf Bibliothek/Mediothek on the villa's second floor holds thousands of books on Nazism, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and original Nazi era documents. Highlights are a collection of children's books promoting the Nazi ideology and a collection of newspaper clippings documenting the discussion on the history of National Socialism (dating back to 1992). A considerable part of the holdings is in languages other than German. The Joseph Wulf Library supports seminar participants, but books and media are available to individual visitors as well.

Paul A.O. Baumgarten tried to to blend his buildings "into the characteristic atmosphere of a landscape". The garden of the villa is an example of the reform oriented architectonic garden style, embedded in a landscape garden. The contrast between the idyllic setting of the villa at the lake, reminding visitors of Northern Italy's lovely landscapes, and the horrific reality of the historic decisions implemented here is palpable. Visitors can stand in the very room where the plans were made for the murder of the Jews and look out over the Wannsee.

The copyright of the article House of the Wannsee Conference, Memorial Site in Germany Travel is owned by Christine Welter. Permission to republish House of the Wannsee Conference, Memorial Site in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Aug 1, 2009 2:27 PM

Guest :

From this villa, history's most horrific crime ever perpetrated was discussed. Here the participants dined on pheasant and agreed to facilitate a plan conceived by a madman and rushed to insane reality by an entire nation.. It took participants' rubber stamp to throw even more fuel onto Germany's blood lust, well underway by 1942. Cringe if you may but the whole affair still affects me here in this most secure of countries 60 years later. I often think about just what my mother witnessed. She was there, she saw but could never ever speak about it. That dark blue tattoo on her forearm betrays her silence. My father too was severely affected. Damaged parents raise damaged children. Even last week I received an unsolicited application from a firm that promised to look into availabe compensation from the German government. My mother would never go for any compensation nor would I. I wish all of you, peace and understanding.