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HU Berlin - Law Library

Address: 1 Bebelplatz, Mitte
Hours: Open now · closes 9:30 pm
Weekly hours
Mon 9 am–9:30 pm
Tue 9 am–9:30 pm
Wed 9 am–9:30 pm
Thu 9 am–9:30 pm
Fri 9 am–9:30 pm
Sat 9 am–6 pm
Sun 1 pm–6 pm
Phone: +49 30 209 33374
Website: info.ub.hu-berlin.de (opens in a new tab)

Place data from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Updated 29 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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SeeMonument
Denkmal zur Erinnerung an die Bücherverbrennung
DrinkCafé
Lorch & Söhne Kommode
1 Bebelplatz, Mitte
Open now · closes 6 pmOutdoor seating · Wheelchair accessible
SeeHistoric siteMitte
The Bebelplatz
formerly Opernplatz
Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels made Bebelplatz (then called Opernplatz) infamous on 10 May 1933, when he used the square across from Humboldt University to burn 20,000 books by "immoral" authors of whom the Nazis did not approve. Their list included Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Arnold Zweig, Kurt Tucholsky and Sigmund Freud. Today a monument is the reminder, though it blames Nazi students for the episode. When entering the square it's easy to miss the monument. It is in that part of Bebelplatz bounded on one side by the Opera House and on the other side by Humboldt University. Look dead centre: the monument is underground. A piece of plexiglass allows the viewer to look underground into a large, white room, filled with entirely empty, blank white bookcases. The room is large enough to hold the 20,000 books that were burnt. The absence of books reminds the viewer just what was lost here: ideas. But the event did reveal things to come, as ethnically Jewish author and philosopher Heinrich Heine, whose books were burned, let one of his characters say in an 1821 play: "This was only the foreplay. Where they burn books, they will also burn people." He was correct.
SeeMonument
Memorial to May 10, 1933 Nazi Book Burning
Bebelpl. 1