Free things to do in Berlin

27 places in Berlin with free entry or no charge, based on guide listings and map data.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

SeeTreptow-Köpenick
Archenhold Observatory
The longest moving refracting telescope is 21 m long with a lens diameter of 68 cm. This giant telescope was built in 1896 by Dr. Friedrich Simon Archenhold but is now part of the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin. It was the place where Albert Einstein presented his Theory of Relativity to the public in 1915.
Museum: Wed-Sun 14:00-16:30. Guided tours: Thu 20:00; Sat Sun 15:00Free, guided tour €6
SeeMitte
Bendlerblock
The Bendlerblock building complex has long held ties to the German military, first serving as the offices of the Imperial German Navy and today housing the Berlin offices of the Ministry of Defense. It was here where, on 20 July 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and other officers led a coup that sought to remove Hitler and the Nazis from power. They failed and were summarily executed in the courtyard, where a memorial stands for these men who are considered German heroes by many. Inside the building you'll find the German Resistance Memorial Center, a permanent exhibit dedicated to the July 20 plot and other individuals in the German resistance.
Mon-Wed Fri O9:00-18:00, Thu 09:00-20:00, Sat Sun and holidays 10:00-18:00Admission and guided tours are free of charge
SeeMitte
Berlin Wall Memorial
Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer
The memorial site stretches along the full 1.5-km length of Bernauer Straße. The listing marker points to the visitor centre. Various monuments can be found along the entire length of the street, documenting nearby escape attempts and tunnels; captions are in German and English. The documentation centre across the street on Bernauer Straße/Ackerstraße is excellent (although most of the documentation is in German). The viewing platform next to the documentation centre gives you a tiny hint of the true scale of the Wall and how terrifying the "no man's land" between the two sections of walls must have been. The monument (that you can see from the platform) is a complete section of 4th generation wall - both inside and outside sections, and you can peer through from the east side to see the remains of the electric fence and anti-tank devices in the death strip. It really helps you understand what an incredible feat it was to get from one side to the other -- and why so many died doing it. The memorial site is often missed by tourists but an absolute must for anyone interested in this part of the city's history. It's a memorial to those who died crossing, so you won't, fortunately, get the tackiness of the Checkpoint Charlie area; instead you will be left with a haunting feeling of what life with the wall may have been really like. Bernauer Straße is a street with a great deal of Wall history: it came to tragic prominence on August 13, 1961 when East German authorities closed the border and the street (with houses in the East but the street in the West). Border guards walled the doors and windows shut to keep Easterners from escaping by jumping out the window while Westerners (including police and fire brigades who brought life nets to help catch refugees) looked on in horror. The first recorded Wall-related death - the notorious Peter Fechter case (he bled to death in the "no-man's-land" with both sides unwilling or unable to help him) - was here, as was one of the fam
Memorial grounds daily 08:00–22:00. Visitor Centre and Documentation Centre: Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, Mon closedFree; guided tour €3.50
SeeMitte
Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburger Tor
The only surviving Berlin city gate and a potent symbol of the city. This is the point where Straße des 17. Juni becomes Unter den Linden. The gate was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans in 1791 and was intended to resemble the Acropolis in Athens. The Brandenburg Gate now symbolizes reunification, after dividing East and West Berlin for decades. This is the site of Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev open this gate, Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall" speech.
Open now · open 24 hoursFree
SeeEast Central
East Side Gallery
The longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still in existence, painted by artists in 1991 and restored in 2009, after years of decay. At Mühlenstraße, next to the river Spree. The murals are painted on the east side of the wall after the fall of Communism; so they are not from the Cold War, during which murals could only be painted on the west side. Make sure not to miss the famous mural of a car seemingly crashing through the wall with Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker kissing above it. It is actually on the back side of the gallery (it is facing away from the street.) It is just inside the entrance of the Eastern Comfort Hostel, near the east end of the gallery.
Open now · open 24 hoursFree
DoEast Central
East Side Gallery
The Wall
The longest stretch of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. It has been painted by street artists and has several famous art pieces. (If you want to see the wall in its original condition, see the Gedenkstatte Berliner Mauer in Wedding.)
Free
SeeMitte
Friedrichswerdersche Kirche
Friedrichswerder Church
Nice church near Unter den Linden/Museum Island, finished in 1830 by Schinkel in English Neogothic style. Nice exhibition inside (neoclassical statues and an exhibition about Schinkel's life and work upstairs).
Free
SeeCity West
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart
Museum for the Present
Museum of Contemporary Art located in former Hamburger Bahnhof train station. Big halls filled with artworks made since 1960s. In 2004 Rieckhallen, former Lehrter Bahnhof, was opened and now provides exhibition space for the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection. Free public guided tours (in English): Sa and Su at 12:00.
Tue Wed Fri–Sun 10:00–18:00, Thu 10:00–20:00€10, concession €5, under 18 years free. Free entry for everyone every first Thursday of the month from 16:00-20:00
SeeSteglitz-Zehlendorf
House of the Wannsee Conference
This museum explains how this house was used for a meeting of senior Nazis to ensure that they all knew that the SS would industrialize the use of mass-murder in disposing of Jews and "undesirables" and to debate a little the logistics of the Holocaust, for which Hitler had already given the orders.
Daily 10:00-18:00; closed May 1, Good Fri, Jan 1, Dec 24-Dec 26, Dec 31Free
SeeMitte
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas
A vast Holocaust memorial designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman. Opened in the spring of 2005, this gigantic abstract artwork covering an entire block near the Brandenburg Gate, including an underground information centre with extensive details on the Holocaust and the people who died during it. The blocks start out at ground level on the outer edges of the memorial, and then grow taller towards the middle, where the ground also slopes downwards. Entry to the information centre is free although priority is given to prebooked groups so there may be a short queue.
Memorial open 24 hours, information centre Tue–Sun 10:00–19:00Free
SeeEast
Museum Karlshorst
German-Russian Museum
In this house the surrender of Germany was signed on May 9th, 1945, ending WWII in Europe. This museum describes the history of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945 and the GDR/German-Russian relationship ever since. Historic rooms, permanent exhibition and special exhibits.
Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00free
SeeEast Central
Museum in der Kulturbrauerei
Find out how it felt to live in East Germany in this modern and well-presented exhibition. The museum is a good starting point if you only have a few minutes to sneak a quick peek inside an East German family's living room, but you can spend hours diving further into the stories behind each exhibit by flicking through the documents on display or listening to contemporary witnesses' accounts (English translations available). The museum opened in November 2013 and is housed inside a beautifully restored former brewery; make sure to take a stroll through the courtyards!
Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, Thu until 20:00Free
SeeTreptow-Köpenick
Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center
The Schöneweide forced labor camp (GBI-Lager 75/76) on Britzer Straße is a complete ensemble, which makes it a rather unusual site in Berlin. Of the original thirteen housing barracks erected between 1943 and 1945, eleven are still standing today. Six barracks on the western part of the former camp grounds belong to the Documentation Center on Nazi Forced Labor.
Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00; closed Dec 24, 31free, guided tours are available on request
SeeMitte
Neue Kirche
Deutscher Dom
Berlin’s Deutscher Dom on the magnificent Gendarmenmarkt square is not to be confused with the Berliner Dom. It was built in 1708. Since 1992 a German Parliament exhibition can be seen here entitled “Paths, Loosing Track and Detours” or the development of parliamentary democracy in Germany – ways and roundabouts. No religious services are held here.
Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00Free
SeeMitte
Pariser Platz
The large square in front of the Brandenburg Gate contains the French and American embassies, the rebuilt Hotel Adlon, and the new building of the Academy of Arts.
Open now · open 24 hoursFree
SeeMitte
Pergamon Museum
There are three huge collections housed within this grand building: the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of Near Eastern Antiquities and the Museum of Islamic Art. The Pergamon Museum was the last museum built on Museumsinsel (Museum Island) and was intended to house the great acquisitions brought to Germany by archaeologists of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The museum's best-known attraction is the Pergamonsaal. The Pergamon Altar (165 BC), from the eponymous Asia Minor city-state, is three stories high and served as the entrance gate to an entire complex. It is astounding both because of its size and extremely precise detail, especially in a frieze which shows the gods battling giants. The entire room is the same colour as the building's stone, making the details on the frieze section stand out even more. Facing the stairs, on the left hand side of the room there is a small-scale model of the altar which allows the viewer to see where the frieze segments would have been mounted. A 1:300 scale model of Pergamon city is on the right side of the room. The monumental market door of Milet has just been restored. Every first Sunday of the month, many museums in Berlin are free of charge. Sometimes a reservation is necessary in advance. For more information, see Museums Sonntag Booking. Since 2018 there is also a huge 360° panorama of Pergamon in another museum building, which is included in the Pergamon-only ticket.
Fri–Wed 10:00–18:00, Thu 10:00–20:00Admission: €19, discounted: €9.50, children under age of 18 free
SeeCity West
Plötzensee Memorial Center
Gedenkstätte Plötzensee
An eerie memorial to victims of the Nazi regime built on the place of a former execution room, where nearly 2,900 people were put to death between 1933 and 1945.
Daily 09:00-16:00free
SeeMitte
Reichstagsgebäude
Reichstag building
This imposing building houses the Federal German Parliament or "Bundestag" and was completed in 1894 to meet the need of the newly-unified German Empire of the Kaisers for a larger parliamentary building. The Reichstag was intended to resemble a Renaissance palace, and its architect, Paul Wallot, dedicated the building to the German people. The massive inscription in front still reads: "Dem Deutschen Volke" - 'For the German people'. The Nazi leader Adolf Hitler exploited the fire which gutted the Reichstag building in 1933 by blaming the Communists for the arson and for attempted revolution. There is good evidence to suggest, however, that his followers were actually responsible and that this was a manufactured crisis. The iconic photo symbolizing the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany shows a Soviet soldier planting the Soviet flag on top of the building and there are to this day graffiti left by Soviet soldiers on some walls of the Reichstag which were deliberately preserved by the new Germany as a memento of the war. It's perhaps the only national parliament to have traces left by a foreign army deliberately preserved. When German reunification became a reality, the new republic was proclaimed here at midnight on 2 October 1990. The Reichstag building is well-known in the art world thanks to Paris-based Bulgarian artist Christo's mammoth 'Wrapped Reichstag' project in 1995. The entire building was swathed in silver cloth for two weeks that summer. The Reichstag has undergone considerable restoration and alteration, including the addition of a spectacular glass dome designed by the British architect Norman Foster completed in 1999. You can visit the Reichstag building proper and even listen to a parliamentary debate but you need to book on their website sometimes weeks or even months in advance. Fortunately its much easier to visit the glass dome. You can reserve a visiting time and date on their website or in the small building across Scheidmannstrasse, except dur
Open now · closes midnight tomorrowFree
SeeMitte
Schloss Bellevue
Bellevue Palace
Official residence of the (largely ceremonial) President of Germany since 1994. Only Roman Herzog (president 1994-1999) actually lived here, his successors have preferred a quiet apartment on the outskirts of Berlin, but this is where the president will usually host guests and do public events. Guided tours are possible, but plan to book up to nine months ahead and be prepared for having to reschedule if the president decides to hold an event on short notice which preempts tours.
Free
SeeTempelhof and Neukölln
Schwerbelastungskörper
heavy load body
From 1941, 12,000 tons of concrete in a 15-m-high and 20-m-diameter cylinder were built to test the load-bearing capacity of the Berlin soils (turns out glacial sands are no good basis for gargantuan architecture) for Albert Speer's Germania buildings. Too massive for later blasting, this is one of the more bizarre remains of the Third Reich.
Tue-Wed 14:00-18:00; Thu 10:00-18:00; Sun 13:00-16:00. Closed Nov-Mar and Good Frifree entry
SeeMitte
Soviet War Memorial
Sowjetisches Ehrenmal
One of three war memorials in Berlin erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945. Contrary to popular belief, it has not been granted extraterritoriality even though it was guarded by Soviet troops throughout Berlin partition despite being in the British, not the Soviet, sector. It is however subject to a bilateral treaty between Germany and Russia that mandates Germany take care of the monument and keep it in a good state of repair.
Open now · open 24 hoursFree
SeeEast Central
Topography of Terror
Topographie des Terrors
This outdoor and indoor history museum documents the terror applied by the Nazi regime. It is on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era.
Closed · opens 10 am tomorrowFree
SeeMitte
Tränenpalast
Palace of Tears
Millions of visitors leaving East Berlin by train said tearful goodbyes to their friends and relatives from the East at this former border checkpoint. Hardly a year after the wall came down, the building was turned into a nightclub until it was forced to close in 2006. It re-opened as a museum in September 2011 and now houses a permanent exhibition that brings the absurd normality of everyday life in the divided city back to life.
Tue–Fri 09:00–19:00, Sat Sun 10:00–18:00Free
SeeMitte Not mapped
Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
The Documentation Centre features exhibits, library and testimony archive about forced migration and expulsion of people in the 20th century. The main focus is on the fate of German refugees in the course of World War II, but that issue is presented in the context of the German attack on its neighbours in the war and the prior displacement and expulsion of other ethnic groups on the orders of the German government. The museum was controversial before it was even opened as it was championed by Erika Steinbach, a controversial right wing figure in the German expellee movement which is dominated by the political right. Steinbach and her idea of a "centre against expulsions" were particularly controversial in Poland, but the finished museum has seen no input from Steinbach and tries to strike a balance between portraying the suffering of expellees (German or otherwise) while also not ignoring the greater context and the fact that the expulsions were the direct result of German military aggression.
Tue-Sun 10:00-19:00Free (ticket needs to be booked in advance on website)
Do Not mapped
Doors Open Day of the Federal Government
Tag der offenen Tür der Bundesregierung
For one weekend, the federal government organises doors open days where most of the Federal Ministries and other governmental institutions can be accessed. Parts of the German Chancellery are also accessible, where the current chancellor will usually show up. Free transport between the locations is provided. There are security checks and they advise to avoid bringing larger objects (such as suitcases). Bring an official ID with you.
Last weekend in JuneFree
Do Not mapped
Festival of Lights
A 10-day-long festival when famous buildings in Berlin are illuminated in a special way.
In OctoberFree
SeeSteglitz-Zehlendorf
Allied Museum
A museum showing the Western side of the Cold War.
Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00Free

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Berlin (CC BY-SA 4.0).