All over the German capital, there are places you can go for free. We have some tips for you for things to do – from city tours to concerts, to vantage points and places to visit in Berlin for free of charge.
Free Museums and Memorials
Berlin looks back on an eventful history. This is processed in many great museums and memorials. The best thing about it: there are also some free offers here that are worth seeing. Some free walking tour Berlin tour guides even guide visitors and interested parties through the city free of charge. Especially history fans who are interested in the time of divided Germany will get their money’s worth here.
The best known are the Berlin Wall Memorial and the East Side Gallery. Somewhat less well-known, but worth seeing (and for free!) are the permanent exhibition “Everyday Life in the GDR” in the Kulturbrauerei and the guided tour “Insights into Secrets” in the Stasi Records Archive.
There are also free museums beyond nostalgia and the Wall era. The Urban Nation in Schöneberg is worth a visit. The Street Art Museum opened in 2017 with two permanent exhibitions and various changing exhibitions, as well as projects with artists from all over the world.
If that’s not enough for you, you can count yourself lucky: the Berlin Museum Sunday has been around since July 4th, 2021. Every first Sunday of the month, admission to countless Berlin museums is completely free.
In the Footsteps of the Stars in Berlin
Berlin is a city of stars and starlets. Many celebrities from the music industry, but also film and television live or lived in the cosmopolitan city. As a nice alternative to the classic city tour, there is also the opportunity to visit the former residences of the great idols.
When David Bowie left in early 2016, the path in front of his Berlin apartment at Hauptstraße 155 in Schöneberg turned into a sea of flowers. Today there is a commemorative plaque on the front door in honor of the Berliner.
The house in which Marlene Dietrich grew up is also in Schöneberg. Here too, at Leberstrasse 65, there is a commemorative plaque commemorating the style icon.
The world-famous bestsellers “Emil and the Detectives” and “The Flying Classroom” by writer Erich Kästner were created in Berlin. In the early years, he lived at Prager Strasse 17 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, and later at Roscherstrasse 1 in Charlottenburg.
Visit Locations of Well-Known Films and Series
There are also plenty of spots in and around Berlin that have already served as locations for well-known films and series:
- as a cinematic all-rounder, Tempelhof Airport became a rebel camp in the dystopian science fiction world of the Hunger Games;
- the Humana second-hand shop at Frankfurter Tor served as Ben Snyder’s clothing store and thus as one of the filming locations for the Netflix hit series “The Queens’ Gambit”;
- and the film sets of Babylon Berlin, the most expensive German television production to date, stretching from the Stadtbad Steglitz to the Rotes Rathaus and the underground station Hermannplatz.
You may check these spots to see some of the best movies.
Free City Tours
You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money on a guided tour of Berlin. Some free-walking tour Berlin tour guides even guide visitors and interested parties through the city free of charge.
Two to three-hour walks take you past some of Berlin’s top sights. The city guides are paid on a tip basis – everyone gives what they can give, but tourists should keep in mind that the guides also want to live.
Final Words
You can experience culture in Berlin for free or at a low price. If you want to see a particularly large number of sights in the shortest possible time, take bus line 100 or bus line 200 and get sightseeing with a single ticket.
