📜 80 Museums Are Free Once A Month (8 more are free always)
See nearly all Berlin museums for free on Museumssonntag. If you missed it, 8 more are always open without admission.
Museums Free Once a Month
On Museumssonntag (Museum Sunday), 80 Berlin museums are free to enter, including some of the city's most popular attractions:
- Humboldt Forum
- Natural History Museum
- Futurium
- Jewish Museum Berlin
- Pergamon Museum
- Neues Museum
- Neue Nationalgalerie
For most museums, you can simply show up and enter for free. However, some require you to obtain a free online ticket in advance. Check the full list to see the specific requirements for each museum.
Museumssonntag takes place on the first Sunday of every month. You can find the upcoming dates on the official website.
Museum Sunday official website
Always Free Museums
Urban Nation
One of the youngest museums in Berlin (barely one year old), the Urban Nation is a museum for street and modern art. You can see work by well-known artists like Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and Invader: thought-provoking paintings, graffiti, and even a garden with sculptures – all for free! And definitely check out the bathroom. 😉
Located near Nollendorfplatz and Winterfeldplatz (in the western center of the city), you can combine your visit with a stroll or dinner afterward in the area full of nice restaurants.
3 Free Museums about the Cold War
Interested in the history of Berlin during the Cold War, when it was divided by the Berlin Wall? Here are three museums you can visit – all for free.
The Allied Museum
The Allied Museum, located on the site of the former US administration of West Berlin, consists of two buildings: one for permanent exhibitions and one for temporary exhibitions.
You can also see an airplane from the famous Berlin Air Bridge, a wagon from the former Duty Train (a shuttle between West Berlin and West Germany), and a part of the Berlin Wall, including a watchtower.
German-Russian Museum
The “other side” of the history can be explored at the German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst. It’s in the original buildings where the unconditional surrender was signed on May 8, 1945.
You’ll see information about the history of World War II, everyday items from that time, and photos, maps, and Soviet uniforms. Outside, there is a collection of a Russian tank, artillery, and other military vehicles.
Berlin Wall Memorial
Finally, the Berlin Wall Memorial offers a vivid understanding of how the Berlin Wall looked. You can see a 1-to-1 model of the Berlin inner city border fortification:
- The first smaller concrete wall, facing East Berlin
- The “death strip” (Todesstreifen) in between
- A watchtower
- The outer concrete wall, facing West Berlin – the one often painted with graffiti that you usually see in photographs
Across the street, there is also a building providing information to read and watch in films – all free to visit.
Bonus: East Side Gallery
Not actually a museum but still a very famous place among tourists: The East Side Gallery is an original part of the Berlin Wall that was painted only after 1990 – because it faced East Berlin, and the East German authorities did not allow it to be painted.
In 1990, famous artists painted well-known pictures on these blank walls, and around 20 years later, some of them returned to renew them.
An East German Flat
Travel back to the 1980s and see an originally furnished and equipped apartment of East Berlin. Located in the East Berlin district of Hellersdorf, you enter a typical Plattenbau apartment from those times, including furniture, kitchen utensils, a TV set, etc.
The visit is usually guided, so you can ask all your questions about the items you see.
Opening times are quite limited: Only Sundays between 2 and 4 pm.
Museum in der Kulturbrauerei: How East Germans Lived
The Museum in der Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg shows the daily life of East Germans with many original items like clothing, cars, camping gear, prints, and flags. It also covers a long time span, from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Historic Gas Lamps
Not actually a museum in the conventional sense: Positioned right at the S-Bahn station Tiergarten, the Gaslaternen Freilichtmuseum displays a collection of old gas lamps – not only from Berlin but from all across Europe. They are even illuminated every day at dusk.
Local Museums: The History of Your District
Berlin, as it exists today, only came into being in 1920. Before that, many of the current districts were independent cities with their own histories. If you’re curious about the area you're living in, definitely check out your district’s museums. You can see old photographs and maps, and many original items, like a historic classroom at Mitte Museum.
- Mitte
- Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
- Neukölln
- Prenzlauer Berg
- Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
- Schöneberg
- Tempelhof
- Lichtenberg
- Reinickendorf
- Marzahn-Hellersdorf
- Köpenick
Map
Even More
The city of Berlin lists all of their free museums on their website. So just follow that link if you need more inspiration. And besides these listed, you get free entry to all Berlin museums run by the city if you’re receiving social welfare like ALG II, Sozialhilfe, Grundsicherung.
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