The Best Museums in Berlin
Whether or not you consider yourself a museum goer, Berlin's 170 (or so) museums are sure to serve up at least one or two collections that pull you in. History, culture, art, food, and more: it's all inside (or, at the East Side Gallery, painted directly on) the walls of Berlin's museums. Art lovers should head directly to the Hamburger Banhof Museum or the Bauhaus Archive. Want to look at the wall that once divided the city you're exploring? It's the open air East Side Gallery for you. For those who want to explore the history of WWII, the Holocaust, and of the history of the Jewish people in Germany, Berlin offers several incredible institutions, including the Jewish Museum and the German Resistance Memorial Center.
Knesebeckstraße 1-2, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Bauhaus—the German design, crafts, and architecture school founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius—is one of the most famous design movements of the 20th century, and this Berlin museum shows its impressive breadth and influence. Designed by Gropius...
Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin, Germany
The architecturally striking Jewish Museum is the best place in Berlin to get an overview of German-Jewish relations and to understand the nature of the integration ofthe two cultures before the Holocaust’s horrors. Designed by Daniel Libeskind,...
Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Cora-Berliner-Straße 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Occupying a prominent space between Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, this memorial (also known as the Holocaust-Mahnmal, or Holocaust Memorial) has almost 3,000 gray oblong pillars (stelae), arranged at varying heights, that form a kind of...
Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin, Germany
Bombed to smithereens during World War II, the Neues Museum—inaugurated in 1855—reopened in 2009 following a slow and sensitive reconstruction by the office of British architect David Chipperfield; both the building and its inspiring...
Mühlenstraße 3-100, 10243 Berlin, Germany
The most famous remaining stretch of the BerlinWall gets its name from its location on the east side of the Spree River, as well as from its collection of political and satirical murals. Originally painted just after the wall fell, the murals were...
Invalidenstraße 50-51, 10557 Berlin, Germany
The contemporary and modern art museum Hamburger Bahnhof is named for the building's previous incarnation: a train station. The current museum opened in the mid-1990s after being a museum of transport & trains. Museum exhibitions change regularly,...
Leipziger Pl. 9, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Spy Museum Berlin traces the global history of espionage, with insights into "intelligence gathering" in ancient times and throughout the Middle Ages, up to the 20th century, with advancements in technology and the tensions of the world wars and...
Stauffenbergstraße 13, 10785 Berlin, Germany
Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center, close to Potsdamer Platz, recounts the city’s tales of resistance against the Nazis. The center is in the Bendlerblock, a historic military building where the expansion of the German navy was...
Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin, Germany
One of the biggest stars of the five museums on Museum Island, the Pergamon was the last to open, in 1930. Built to resemble a Babylonian temple, it houses a trove of ancient treasures from the Middle East, with highlights that include the...
Museum Island, Berlin, Germany
Visiting at least one of the five museums that make up Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a must for any serious culture-seeker in Berlin. A pioneering concept, this ensemble of public institutions brimming with exquisite artworks and...
Bülowstraße 7, 10783 Berlin, Germany
Urban Nation was founded back in 2013 by Yasha Young, originally as an official strategy to use Berlin’s facades as canvasses for creative and unique street art projects. Her work garnered plenty of attention and led to the opening, in 2017, of...
Opened in 2018, this contemporary museum showcases the notorious decade that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall in the city: one that saw the joy of an unexpectedly sudden German reunion merged with a rush of young artists and techno ravers...
