NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln

Current exhibitions

About the museum

The EL-DE-Haus on Appellhofplatz, named after its builder Leopold Dahmen, served as the seat of the Cologne Gestapo from 1935 to 1945. Surveillance, persecution, and the deportation of the Jewish population were organized from here; in the basement prison, inmates were interrogated and tortured, and in 1944/45 at least 400 people were executed in the courtyard. Around 1,800 inscriptions and drawings by prisoners from 1943 to 1945 survive on the cell walls, many of them by forced laborers.

The building survived the war almost undamaged and was afterward used by municipal offices, with the cells serving as file storage. Only civic protests in the 1970s brought the site back into public awareness. In 1979 the city council decided to establish a memorial, and in 1987 the NS-Dokumentationszentrum (Nazi Documentation Center) was founded.

In 1997 the permanent exhibition "Köln im Nationalsozialismus" opened; it was revised in 2009/10. Since 2019 the NS-DOK has used the entire building. Besides the memorial and exhibition, its tasks include research, a collection, a public library, educational work with its own learning spaces, and counseling on right-wing extremism and antisemitism. A new permanent exhibition is in preparation; until then, an intervention comments on the existing presentation.

Highlights

• Memorial in the former Gestapo prison with around 1,800 wall inscriptions by prisoners
• Permanent exhibition "Köln im Nationalsozialismus" on two floors
• Inner courtyard, site of the executions in 1944/45
• Intervention "Wie erzählen wir NS-Geschichte heute?" (How do we tell Nazi history today?)
• Public reference library and online databases, including the memorial book and Stolpersteine

Permanent exhibitions

• Köln im Nationalsozialismus – Two floors on the Nazi seizure of power, urban society, terror and persecution, and the destruction of Cologne in the war, told through documents, photos, and individual stories.
• Gedenkstätte Gestapogefängnis – The surviving cells in the basement with the prisoners' wall inscriptions, and the inner courtyard as a place of execution.

Founded

1987

Operated by

Stadt Köln

Director

Henning Borggräfe

Visitors per year

approx. 97,041 (2019)

Admission & discounts

Free admission: KölnTag on the first Thursday of the month (except on public holidays): free admission for Cologne residents

Free admission also for KölnPass holders, members of ICOM and the Museumsbund, and members of the EL-DE-Haus friends' association. Tickets only at the ticket desk (no online sales), card payment possible. Audio guide €2.

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits
• Sign language tours
• Easy-to-read materials: not available
• Audio description: no information

Listed historic building, not fully accessible. The main entrance is not at ground level; step-free access via the courtyard entrance at Elisenstraße 1a with an elevator to the raised first floor (please call the ticket desk in advance: 0221 221-24340). The elevator to the exhibition floors is only 80 cm wide and unsuitable for large electric wheelchairs; the memorial in the basement can be reached at ground level from the courtyard. Loan wheelchair, accessible restroom on the first floor, audio guides with hearing aids. Tactile tours for blind and visually impaired people as well as tours in sign language; exhibition texts not in Leichte Sprache (Easy Read German), no guidance system. Accessible parking spaces nearby, e.g. on Elisenstraße; Appellhofplatz stop for lines 3, 4, 16, and 18 with elevator.

Kids & families

Only partly suitable for kids

• Family tours & workshops

Documentation center and memorial on the Nazi era with former Gestapo cells. Tours of the building are aimed at school classes from grade 7 (themed tour from grade 9); some events for children aged 8 or 10 and up. Learning spaces "Junges Museum" and "Remote Island" for educational programs.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Museum shop
• Coat check

Small bookshop in the ticket area. Coat check in the ticket area.

Events & venue rental

No information on venue rental found.

Plan your visit