The historic city wall and the gatehouse of Schorndorf border directly on the building of the Central Office. Since 2004, the Federal Archive shows there a permanent exhibition about legal prosecution of the national socialist crimes in Germany. Its four topics cope with the history of the building complex consisting of the gatehouse and the prison of the district authority from the middle of the 19th century on the one hand; on the other hand, records and pictures demonstrate the dimension of the Nazi crimes. The exhibition illustrates the phases of the legal prosecution of the Nazi crimes and shows the challenges, difficulties, but also good results of the prosecution of Nazi crimes. The focus of the exhibition is on the Central Office and on the related process of social enlightenment. Moreover, the exhibition deals with the transformation of the investigative files into archival documents.

Admission is free. The exhibition is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, or by appointment. A guided tour is also possible by appointment.

If you want to visit the permanent exhibition, please contact the branch office of the Federal Archive.

The investigative files of the Central Office contain essential and key findings about Nazi crimes as well as information about how to handle these crimes in accordance with the rule of law. The preparing of these files for learning purposes is the task of the out-of-school place of learning. The pupils deal with the preprocessed sources supported by direct and indirect learning assistance of an archival educator. The course is suitable for all kinds of schools from 8th grade on. An attendance at the out-of-school place of learning takes between 1 ½ and 5 ½ hours. The visiting day is Wednesday. Upon prior arrangement, classes visiting only the permanent exhibition at the Gate House (Schorndorfer Tor) can do that on another day of the week.

It is possible on request and if there is enough lead time that single pupils or groups prepare a so called equivalent evaluation of student performance (German: GFS) or an interdisciplinary competence test (German: FÜK) or write a research paper e.g. as a part of a skilled work.

To get to the single modules and for further information about the educational opportunities please click here.