Interesting things to do for one day in Berlin - WW2 related

If you are into WW2, try to Topography of Terror - it's a place where some leftists did a fake "archaeological dig" to dramatise uncovering the Nazi past and were as shocked as anyone when they genuinely found the basements of the Gestapo headquarters. It now has a very good free exhibit.

If you really want to depress yourself go to the free exhibit beneath the Holocaust Memorial.

And if you really want to delve into Nazi depravity there's the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg in the northern suburbs of the city.

In addition to the sites mentioned previously, you could also take one of the excellent tours by Original Berlin Walks. Those could take the better part of a day. Some of the tours visit the site of the former Führerbunker, although it's a car park now so not much to see (but there is a large placard showing the design of the structure). You could also explore some of the Soviet era, with tours of the Stasi Museum, Checkpoint Charlie (very touristy), or you could take a Trabi Safari in one the dreadful mechanical contraptions of the Soviet era.

Sachsenhausen Camp is definitely worth seeing (assuming the subject matter wouldn't unduly upset your son), but that's going to take the better part of a day. You can travel there on your own or take a guided tour with Berlin Walks which I mentioned above. One very unusual aspect of Sachsenhausen is that was the site of one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history, designed to flood the world with fake British and American notes. Another interesting point is that several of the prisoners from the famous Great Escape were incarcerated there when they were recaptured, and they eventually escaped from Sachsenhausen too!

For a fun way to see the sights, you might consider a Segway Tour. There are several available. There may be height or weight restrictions but check the website.

You'll have to prioritize as with only one very short day, you won't have time to see much.

Do join a WW2 walking tour. There are many available, most of them comparable in quality except for the "free" ones which can be inconsistent and at the end they expect you to tip well.

My favorite company is Insider Tours as have used them for 5 different Berlin tours. Or if you prefer a private tour, check out "Jeremy, the Berlin Expert".

http://www.insidertour.com/tours.php/cat/27/id/44/title/Third_Reich_Berlin

A site you might want to visit before you go is thirdreichruins.com. It has photos of the aftermath of the war and what the same location looks like today.

My suggestion is related to everyday life in East Germany that I think might be fascinating to your son. Visit the DDR Museum. It's a full sensory experience.

As a Cold War junkie, I loved the DDR Museum and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (Haus am Checkpoint Charlie). The latter focuses on escape attempts. However, both can be very, very crowded. As commercial operations, they are open long hours, and a visit first thing in the morning or in the late-afternoon/evening is recommended. To really take in either one will require well over an hour, so if your time is limited, choose just one rather than trying to do both.

I did the DDR Museum later one evening--I think it's open until 10pm? It was really interesting and had lots of hands-on displays that pretty vividly portray what life was like for kids there. (Not all bad!) I wonder if it's more meaningful to adults who were teens in the West at that time, because there's a certain amount of culture shock for any young person looking at the 80s! I'm not sure the differences between Western and Eastern Bloc life look that stark to someone who can't fathom not having Youtube... would be true for my kids, anyway.

A number of things have been mentioned, but as you can see, most sights focus on either the Holocaust or on the post war era and cold war. Berlin was all but flattened in the war, so not many fortifications or structures remain, and the Germans are less fascinated with WW 2 than Americans are, so there is less there than one would think.. In addition to the items mentioned, the German History Museum has a section on the war and in general gives a great overview of German history. There is also a remaining Flak tower in Humboldthain Park, though it is damaged, they do give tours of parts of it.

Do make a reservation for an English language tour of the Reichstag, now the seat of the Bundestag, the German parliament. When it was refurbished for the united Germany, they found all kinds of graffiti left by Russian occupying troops. Rather than cover it in paint, they decided that it was an historical document, so they left it exposed.

You need to reserve on-line.
https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/tours/tours-inhalt/245682

Astorienne, you may well be right about the meaningfulness of the DDR museum to younger people (especially non-Soviet-Bloc younger people). Most of the other visitors to the museum when I was there were German, many being families with (not-super-young) children in tow.

One day in Berlin to see WW2 related sights: if it is military sites, then I recommend three or four. See the military cemetery at Invalidenfriedhof, which includes Prussian history from 1813 to 1945, the war history, Or, the Flaktürme at Berlin Gesundbrunnen. The 88mm ack ack guns sites were used in Vienna, Berlin and Hamburg. If you want to see the 88mm gun itself in Berlin, go the Ger Hist Museum (DHM).

Another site on WW2...the Resistance Museum (Gedenkstätte deutscher Widerstand). This last suggestion is if you want to get out of Berlin by taking the regional train and S-Bahn to Seelow, where the big battle for Berlin started, as the Russian tried to break across the Oderbruch. The museum is now much expanded, called Gedenkstätte Seelow Höhen. Be prepared to spend the afternoon.

head to the house of the Wansee conference , relatively easy to do and a facinating exhibition there. then on the way back go via Gleis 17 , a small railway station on the S Bahn where the Jews were sent of to the concentration camps, very moving memorial there.

Gleis 17 means "track 17". It's the name of the memorial itself but the station you want is Grunewald.