Memorium Nuremberg Trials: Travel Guide (4.6★)

A courtroom that changed international law

The building still works as a court complex. Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice is a long sandstone block on Fürther Straße, built in the early twentieth century. It looks like any other provincial seat of justice. In its east wing, though, is Courtroom 600, where the International Military Tribunal tried the leading surviving figures of the Nazi regime from November 1945 to October 1946.

The Memorium sits on the floor above that courtroom, as you would expect from the name. You come in through a side entrance on Bärenschanzstraße and climb to an exhibition about the trials. You also get to step into the room itself, which is the part most visitors remember.

Inside Courtroom 600

Expect dark wood panelling, rows of benches and tall windows. The room feels smaller than the black-and-white newsreels suggest. In 1945 the Allies rebuilt it for the trial, taking out the back wall to make space for press and observers and fitting lighting for the film cameras. After the trials it went back to something close to its earlier layout. That means it looks different from the famous photographs, and the exhibition explains exactly how.

For decades the room was used for ordinary criminal trials, so visitors often found it locked. Those hearings moved to a new building in 2020, and the courtroom is now part of the memorial. Find the spot where the dock stood. Twenty-one defendants sat there, Hermann Göring among them, and twelve men were sentenced to death in this room.

What the exhibition covers

The upper floor goes well beyond the main tribunal. It is organised as a narrative, and these are the threads worth following:

• The road to the tribunal: how the Allies agreed on a court at all, and why they chose Nuremberg, the city of the Nazi party rallies.
• The defendants and the charges: crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the conspiracy count.
• The twelve follow-up trials: held in the same courtroom by the US military, they covered doctors, judges, industrialists and SS units.
• The legacy: a direct line from the “Nuremberg Principles” to modern international criminal courts.

There is a lot of text, original film and photographs. Plan for roughly one and a half to two hours if you read properly. The audio guide helps you pace it, and it lets you listen in your own language.

Getting to Bärenschanze

The U1 is the simplest route. From Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof, take the U1 towards Fürth and ride a few stops west to Bärenschanze. From the station it is a short walk to the Bärenschanzstraße entrance. Follow the Palace of Justice’s long frontage on Fürther Straße and turn onto the side street.

From the Old Town you can also walk west out past Plärrer, which takes about half an hour. It is an ordinary residential and commercial stretch, not a scenic one, so most people take the train.

If you want a full day on this period of history, pair the Memorium with the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds in the southeast of the city. Check its current status before you go, because it has been undergoing major renovation.

Timing your visit around the crowds

This is one of Nuremberg’s most visited historic sites, so plan around the crowds. Weekends from 11am to 5pm are the measured busy period. That is when the courtroom fills with groups and the exhibition panels have people three deep in front of them.

• Weekdays: doors open at 9am on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
• Weekends: doors open at 10am, so arriving at opening gets you in ahead of the busy window.
• Tuesday: closed all day. This is the mistake that catches people, because many travellers assume a Monday closure instead.

Every day the doors shut at 6pm. For the full exhibition and the courtroom, aim to arrive by mid-afternoon at the latest.

Visiting a working justice building

Remember that you are entering part of a functioning court complex. Some sensible habits help:

• Travel light. Large bags slow you down in any public building in Germany, and the exhibition floors are compact.
• Keep your voice down in Courtroom 600. People often stand quietly in front of the dock, and the room has hard surfaces that carry sound.
• Check the current ticket price and any courtroom closures on the Museen der Stadt Nürnberg website before you go. The rare short closures for official events are announced there.
• Read the photography signs in each room rather than assuming the same rule applies everywhere.

Germans treat this period with seriousness rather than spectacle, and the tone of the place matches. If you pick up a little vocabulary, the courtroom is Schwurgerichtssaal 600. The trials are die Nürnberger Prozesse.