The Rise & Fall of Nazi Germany

Fly from London to Munich airport and transfer to our hotel or if making your own travel arrangements meet us at the hotel. Check-in to our Munich hotel for two nights. Enjoy pre-dinner drinks and an introductory talk from our expert historian followed by dinner. Hotel in Munich – 2 nights. (D).

A full day on foot and public transport exploring the sites associated with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power: we start at the National Socialist documentation centre at the site of the NSDAP party HQ, known to the Nazis as the ‘Brown House’, before viewing from the outside where the 1938 Munich conference took place, today the city's Music college. The tour continues at the former Sternecker beerhall, where Hitler first encountered the Nazi party before following on foot the route of the 1923 Beerhall putsch to the Odeonsplatz, where the first Nazi bid for power came to bloody grief. During the day we will enjoy a well-earned beer at the historic Hofbrauhaus, site of the first meeting of the National Socialist party in 1920, and where Hitler spoke on numerous occasions. (B,D).

This morning we visit Dachau, one of Germany's first concentration camps opened within weeks of Hitler's accession to power in 1933, where we visit the parade ground, barracks, prisoner baths, crematorium and a highly moving memorial room with more than 130 commemorative plaques and stones. We drive to Surberg, where 'death-marched' Jews were massacred a week after Hitler's suicide before driving through mountain scenery to Berchtesgaden, the town where Hitler, Goering and Speer had their rural retreats. Hotel in Berchtesgaden - 2 nights. (B, D).

We ascend the spectacular 6,000 ft. Kehlstein to enjoy the amazing mountain views and cool air at the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's mountain top eyrie. We then visit the nearby documentation centre recording the Nazi links with the area and its newly opened bunkers. Our day is capped by a short walking tour of the Obersalzberg complex including the remains of the Berghof, Hitler's mountain home, where he received foreign guests including Chamberlain, Lloyd George and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and enjoyed the ‘finest hours’ of his life. (B,D).

In the morning we drive to Nuremberg to see the Nazi party rally grounds where thousands gathered annually to hear Hitler speak in massive, choreographed shows of strength and military muscle. We then visit the documentation centre in the vast, half built, Congress Hall which showcases megalomaniac Nazi building plans. Hotel in Nuremburg - 1 night. (B,D).

We take a tour of the Nuremberg courtroom where the surviving top Nazis were tried by the international tribunal in 1946. This afternoon we drive to Weimar to explore the House of the Weimar Republic where Hitler first came to power. There will be some free time or an optional guided walk to explore this beautiful city. Hotel in Weimar - 1 night. (B,D).

This morning we drive to Berlin's leafy western suburbs to visit Wannsee where, in a grand lakeside villa, the Holocaust was planned at a meeting chaired by Reinhard Heydrich. We tour the permanent exhibition on the history of German anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. We then visit the Platform 17 memorial at Grunewald, from where thousands of Berlin’s Jews were transported to their deaths. Our route to the hotel passes by the Olympic Stadium, a powerful propaganda tool in the hands of the Nazis, and site of the 1936 Games. Hotel in Berlin – 2 nights. (B, D).

A full day on foot and U-Bahn visiting the Brandenburg Gate, the Führer bunker where Hitler and his bride Eva Braun committed suicide in April 1945, the Holocaust memorial, and the Topography of Terror Museum. Built on the site of the SS/ Gestapo HQ, this records the network of terror that the Nazis built and the fate of its victims. Our day ends at the German Resistance Memorial Centre in whose courtyard, Claus von Stauffenberg, the most famous of resistance figures to the regime, was executed. (B, D).

On our final day we visit the Reichstag, a key site in the development of Nazism, where a fire in 1933 gave momentum to the entrenchment of the Nazi regime. We stop at Tempelhof Airport to examine iconic Nazi architecture before proceeding to the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst where the Wehrmacht surrendered to the Allied powers of on 8 May 1945. Continue to Berlin Brandenburg airport for the return flight to London unless you have made your own travel arrangements. (B).