Ten of the Top Museums in Berlin

You’ve arrived at one of Berlin's best hotels. What’s next? Start your city museum explorations at a palace. An opulent baroque fantasia topped by a golden weathervane on its bronze dome, the 17th-century Charlottenburg Palace is both an architectural gem and a treasure trove of priceless decorative arts. Take the self-guided audio tour through gilded and frescoed rococo-style staterooms to admire magnificent silverware and table settings, and don’t miss the exquisite blue-and-white porcelain services. Do save some time to wander among vivid flower beds in fountain-filled formal gardens.

Spandauer Damm 10–22, 14059 Berlin. U7 to Richard-Wagner-Platz. Open Apr–Oct Tue–Sun 10am–6pm; Nov–Mar Tue–Sun 10am–5pm. Admission from €10.

One of the best modern art museums in Berlin, the Neue Nationalgalerie is run under the auspices of the Berlin State Museums, comprising 17 major museums – if you are going to visit more than one, it’s well worth investing in the Berlin Museum Pass. The collection encompasses stellar works by 20th-century greats including Picasso, Kirchner and Beckmann. What’s more, it’s all beautifully presented in a glass-and-steel 1960s masterpiece by the legendary Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, father of minimalism. 

Potsdamer Strasse 50, 10785 Berlin. U-Bahn and S-Bahn to Potsdamer Platz. Open Tue–Sun 10am–6pm. Admission €12. 

The cool Urban Nation presents street art at its most anarchic, reflecting Berlin’s reputation as ‘graffiti capital’ of Europe. Inside, the museum’s two light and airy floors are adorned with the work of some of the world’s biggest street-art names, including Shepard Fairey and Berlin-based 1UP. Even the facade is an ever-changing canvas for some of the city’s best urban art. Looking to stay nearby? The contemporary Pullman Berlin Schweizerhof is also close to Kurfürstendamm shops and Berlin Zoological Garden.

Bülowstrasse 7, 10783 Berlin. U1, U2 and U3 to Nollendorfplatz. Open Tue–Wed 10am–6pm; Thur–Sun 12pm–8pm. Admission free.

Marking the 1961 divide between East and West Germany, the Berlin Wall Memorial is part sad condemnation of the Cold War years and part celebration of the sheer tenacity of the human spirit. This unadorned 1.4km stretch of former border fortifications centres on a simple memorial swathed in photos of East Berliners who died attempting to cross the infamous Berlin Wall. For more historical context, visit the WWII observation tower at the adjoining Documentation Center. 

Bernauer Strasse 111, 13355 Berlin. S1 and S2 to Nordbahnhof. Open daily 8am–10pm. Admission free.

Living proof that history never needs to be boring, the DDR Museum’s interactive exhibits provide an educational – and entertaining – insight into life in 20th-century East Berlin. Watch TV in a reconstructed furnished apartment with hidden microphones for spying on the neighbours, or take a simulated Trabant car ride through dismal streets lined with tower blocks. On a sombre note, the interrogation rooms give a taste of life on the wrong side of the law in the DDR, so breathe a sigh of relief when you return to your microphone-free room at the Novotel Berlin Mitte nearby. 

Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 1, 10178 Berlin. S-Bahn and U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz. Open daily 9am–9pm. Admission €13.50.

Berlin’s world-famous holocaust museum is an artwork in itself. Starchitect Daniel Libeskind’s iconic zinc-clad design is a startling city landmark, with evocative exhibits diving into two millennia of German-Jewish culture. You’ll get the most from a visit by taking a guided tour; be sure to see the angular columns of the stark Garden of Exile and the heart-rending installation ‘Fallen Leaves’ by Menashe Kadishman, with more than 10,000 haunted and terrified iron faces scattering the floor to represent the fallen Jews. For more WWII history, head for the Berlin Story Bunker.

Lindenstrasse 9–14, 10969 Berlin. U1, U3 and U6 to Hallesches Tor; U6 to Kochstrasse. Open daily 10am–7pm. Admission free.

For a sinister glimpse into a tragic era of 20th-century German history, the Stasi Museum is hidden behind forbidding doors at the rundown former headquarters of the brutal East German secret police. Nerve centre of state surveillance between 1957 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the museum’s displays focus on the former offices of Erich Mielke, the GDR’s last Minister of State Security, which are kitted out with his red briefcase, period-style telephones and typewriters.

Normannenstrasse 20, Haus 1, 10365 Berlin. U5 to Magdalenenstrasse. Open Mon–Fri 10am–6pm; Sat–Sun 11am–6pm. Admission €10. 

Should you be searching for a spare part to fit your vintage car, you’ll probably find it at Classic Remise Berlin, acting as it does as a car-repair shop, showroom and museum. Sited under the vaulted glass roof of an atmospheric tram depot dating from 1899, it is the repository of hundreds of vehicles, from classic bikes to gleaming Ferrari supercars, revamped 4WDs and humble Eastern European Trabants. A must for petrol heads!

Wiebestrasse 36–37, 10553 Berlin. U7 to Mierendorffplatz, then bus M27 to Wiebestrasse/Huttenstrasse. Open Mon–Sat 8am–8pm; Sun 10am–8pm. Admission free. 

Beloved of scientists and ecologists for the details that its mammoth holdings reveal on the workings of nature, Berlin’s massive Natural History Museum also beguiles visitors of all ages with two of the world’s largest dinosaur skeletons, a massive beetle collection and the fossilised remains of a prehistoric Archaeopteryx bird. Permanent exhibitions on the health of the planet, the solar system and evolution are all housed in a stately, much-extended 19th-century palazzo. 

Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin. S5 and S7 to Hauptbahnhof. Open Tue–Fri 9:30am–6pm; Sat–Sun 10am–6pm; Admission €8.

While the monolithic Pergamon – Berlin’s most visited museum – on Museum Island in Mitte is closed until 2027, a tour of the neighbouring Neues Museum more than compensates. Berlin’s foremost Egyptian and early-archaeology museum is housed in a spectacular Neoclassical building painstakingly renovated by British architect David Chipperfield, with standout pieces in its soaring exhibition halls including the exquisite, world-famous bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, a Neanderthal skull and the intricate 4th-century gold Crown of Kerch, inlaid with garnets. 

James-Simon-Galerie, Bodestrasse, 10178 Berlin. U-Bahn and S-Bahn to Friedrichstrasse. Open Tue–Fri 9:30am–6pm. Admission €14. 

So now we’ve convinced you that Berlin’s museums are among the best in the world, which exhibition will be your favourite?