Long Night of Museums Berlin: How to see the best museums in one night
Imagine staying up all night, visiting any number of Berlin museums. When the annual Long Night of Museums in Berlin rolled around, we joined in the fun — wandering through museums until 2 a.m. It is a great way to explore some of the best Berlin museums.
For those who have wondered what it would be like in a museum late at night, try the original Long Night of Museums in Berlin. Twice now, we’ve enjoyed wandering museum exhibits until 2 a.m. in Berlin – once in 2017 and again in 2022. It is a great way to explore and sample a selection of some of the best Berlin museums, all for one moderate price. Go ahead, gorge on museums until your feet give out and your eyes close.
There is something truly fun about wandering the Berlin streets and museum floors with thousands of other museum lovers until the early morning hours at Long Night of Museums in Berlin (“Lange Nacht der Museen”).
Organizers say Berlin is where the popular global trend of annual museum days and nights started. With dozens of the best Berlin museums from big to small taking part, we wouldn’t be surprised. In 2017, for the 20th annual event in Berlin, there were approximately 70 participating museums and 800 special events spread far and wide throughout the city. During our second time touring museums at night in 2022 (after a two-year hiatus due to COVID), there were again 70 museums open and many special workshops, concerts, and performances.
Some museums have long lines — some ridiculously long — so be sure to plan and choose wisely. We arrived at the Futurium early in the evening, and as you can see here, the line is not long. Within an hour of our arrival, the line had formed around the red sign and stretched down the street.
The concept is simple: you buy one ticket and gain access to as many museums and as much fun as you can enjoy from approximately 6 p.m. on Saturday until 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Although the selection varies slightly from year to year, about six dozen of the approximately 170 Berlin museums will open their doors for the long night, and the list includes both the most traditional and Berlin's “musts” as well as the truly exotic and tiny boutique museums. What a great way to taste a number of museums as a traveler in a city, too, so don’t forget to look for those events when traveling: More than 100 cities have offered Museum Nights or Days, including Amsterdam and Paris.
HITT Tip: Pick up the brochure and map before the evening in Berlin — or anywhere — and study them a bit to plot your route and plan what you want to do. Or download it online and get an idea beforehand where you may want to head. With so many to see, organization is a must!
Each year, Long Night of Museums in Berlin kicks off in the sprawling park in front of the Cathedral of Berlin (“Berliner Dom”) at the so-called “Lustgarten”) with a party atmosphere – food trucks, music, entertainers, and people, people, people of all nationalities and ages. Rain or shine, everyone is smiling, laughing, and eager to get the museum party started.
The Berlin Long Night of Museums party headquarters, located in front of the Berlin Cathedral, always has a festive atmosphere, as it did in 2017.
Shuttles and transportation options link the museums
With one ticket, you can use special shuttle routes connecting many of the Berlin museums citywide, enjoy special entertainment at some sites, and get access to additional transportation options. In 2017, in Berlin, free public transport on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn was offered as part of the ticket. In 2022, a € 10 voucher was offered at "Jelbi" pop-ups that could be exchanged for renting scooters, bikes, or taking a taxi ride. Or buy a day pass for public transit.
Getting lost is hard, but it isn’t impossible. (Okay, so after midnight during our first experience of the Long Night of Museums, we walked the wrong way once, but hey, it was late, and we were tired.) There are staff members at many stops, as well as in several key areas, handing out information, additional maps, and brochures that describe what you can do and where to go. Even the digital public transit signage at bus stops includes the Long Night of Museums shuttles, so you know exactly when the next bus is.
Signage for the Long Night of Museums shuttles appears alongside regular bus signs.
HITT Tip: To avoid our late-night wrong-way mistake, make sure you have a street map or pull up an online map so you go the right way from the start after disembarking a shuttle, especially if in an unfamiliar city.
It is impossible, in fact, to see and do it all (although some certainly try). In our first year, 2017, we managed six Berlin museums, while also spending time enjoying the events and activities at both Potsdamer Platz (“Potsdam Square”) and the Kulturforum. In 2022, we managed only four Berlin museums since the lines at many were soooooo long we’d have spent much of our night just standing and waiting (At one museum, we were told it would take us at least two hours to get in from where we were standing). Sadly, we just skipped those.
Playing musical light cubes at the Kulturforum in Berlin in 2017.
The Long Night of Museums is not the time to go to just one or two museums and dutifully read through all the exhibits. Instead, it is a great time to explore many, including smaller or off-the-beaten-path museums. Numerous state museums are normally free in Berlin, as are most sights related to the Berlin Wall and divided Berlin, or the Holocaust and WWII resistance. Take the opportunity to visit ones that normally charge a fee. In any city with a Museum Day or Night, take the opportunity to taste-test a few you may want to revisit and spend more time in, or pop into ones you don’t want to pay for.
While there is a consistent number of larger museums that participate in the Long Night of the Museums each year, for example, on Berlin’s Museum Island, the list of museums open for a visit varies from year to year. There are so many amazing museums in Berlin that it is just not possible to say which are “the best” Berlin museums. With that in mind, what follows is a selection of museums we recommend that usually participate in a Long Night of the Museums event and are worth a visit whenever you do get to Berlin:
German Spy Museum. Similar in many ways to the original International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., the German Spy Museum in Berlin is also modern, interactive, and very popular. Opened in 2015, this exhibit explains the development of spying, the history of espionage, and the various methods employed by spies, including exhibits of tools of the trade and hands-on demonstrations. It showcases a strong emphasis on espionage in the formerly divided city.
German Cinematic Museum for Film and Television. Located next to a movie theater, the museum requires you to spend a considerable amount of time in dark rooms watching clips, TV shows, and movies. Great for true buffs and filled with archives where historians can do research.
Music Instruments Museum. Relatively staid and proper, but with a wide array of antique instruments as well as a large area about the development of today’s synthesizers and electronic music. Concerts too. Superb stop for music enthusiasts.
Wall Museum. Right near famous Checkpoint Charlie in tourist central, the so-called Wall Museum (“Mauer Museum”) used to be a quaint old museum at Checkpoint Charlie. Today it is a maze of rooms jammed with posters and old signage and some memorabilia from the Berlin Wall. Shows escapes and talks about tunnels and those who tried and failed. Interesting, of course, but not a modern or very well-done museum compared to most we have visited. Be ready to spend time in stuff-filled rooms reading huge placards with surprisingly poor English translations. Nevertheless, pretty fascinating for any traveler interested in the former divided city’s history.
Humboldt Forum. The Humboldt Forum is a partial reconstruction of the former Berlin Palace, an 18th-century neoclassical building that once housed Prussian kings and other German royalty. Inside, it houses several exhibitions, including a history of Berlin and of the building itself. It features exhibits that pull back the curtain on the connections between democracy and climate change, as well as the history of the illicit ivory trade. And not to be missed is the view from the top of the Humboldt Forum at the restaurant and open-air terrace. Also worthy of a visit is the inner courtyard, known as Schlüterhof, which features a café and occasionally hosts special events.
DDR Museum. Wonderful museum with numerous interactive displays that discuss the assumptions and stereotypes surrounding everyday life in the DDR, also known as the former East Germany (GDR). Get behind the wheel and drive in an original Trabant P601 car – the car is very real, but the driving is simulated, of course. Take the elevator (real, but not really—it just shakes you around and then you exit through a back door) to enter a fully furnished reconstruction of a high-rise tower block flat, featuring hundreds of original objects. There is so much more that time will fly.
Gas Street Lights. Who would have thought that maintaining gas street lamps was a deal? We stopped at a special table on Light Night of the Museums to sign up for a short bus tour in the Charlottenburg area. And we discovered that of the approximately 50,000 gas streetlights left in the world from the 1800s and 1900s, about half of those are in Berlin. The non-profit Gaslicht Kultur association offers information and history about these historic lights (five basic types) and also offers regular tours by bus, on foot, or by bike.
Schloss Charlottenburg. Charlottenburg Palace was built as a summer palace for Sophie Charlotte (the first Queen consort to Prussia) in 1699. It was modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France. The palace, with its elegant suites of rooms, is also ranked as the largest and most attractive former royal palace in Berlin.
Futurium. Hands down, this was one of our favorite Berlin museums to discover during a Long Night of Museums event! The interactive displays and way the museum engages with visitors, offering a glimpse into the world of tomorrow, is top-notch. The big question, "How do we want to live?" is asked repeatedly in the exhibit, prompting you to think a bit. Also great for kids, featuring an interactive lab and workshop. Don’t miss the Skywalk upstairs, which, in good weather, gives you a great view of the government quarter and allows you to walk through a “forest” of solar panels powering the Berlin museum.
HITT Tip: Bring a snack and a bottle of water to the Long Night of Museums, since you may not want to spend time looking for food or drink while visiting all the great Berlin museums with the clock ticking. Plus, you may be in transit when hunger or thirst strikes. Oh, and don't forget your super-comfy walking shoes!
Visiting the best museums in Berlin doesn't stop with Long Night
Not to miss of course are many of the other best Berlin Museums, many also a part of Long Night in Berlin, including Urban Nation for street art, the Stasi Archives from East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi Hohenschoenhausen prison (with tours often lead by former prisoners), and the fascinating Stasi Museum telling the story of the former East’s secret police. Many of these former Stasi police sites are on a so-called “campus” where their offices used to be.
Time to get packing now for next year’s long night, or plot your own visit to all those best Berlin museums. Got caffeine? Whether on an all-nighter or just traveling through Berlin, 170 museums are a lot to get to!
