19 Best Museums in Berlin

Choosing the best museums in Berlin is no easy task as there are so many in the city.

Berlin is home to some fantastic museums such as the Neues Museum, Jewish Museums and numerous intriguing art museums.

There are so many Berlin museums, it can be hard to know where to start. This was an issue for me, as I didn’t know which ones were must see and which ones I could visit if I had spare time.

I’ve put together this list of 19 museums to help you decide which of the top museums you want to see when you’re in the city. There’s a mix that reflects the history and culture of Berlin, as well as some niche interests.

Keep scrolling to discover the museums in Berlin you need to check out on your trip!

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Best Museums in Berlin

There are a lot of museums in Berlin so it wasn’t easy to narrow this list down. They make up some of the best things to do in Berlin, so you have to check them out while you’re there.

Many of them are located in one place on Museum Island, although the Pergamon Museum is closed for renovation so I’ve not included that one on the list.

I recommend getting a Berlin Welcome Card if you intend to see all the museums, as you’ll be able to visit all of them for free with it. It can add up if you buy individual tickets for these museums.

The card also gives you discount access to public transport and money off entry to some of the museums on this list.

As most of the museums charge a fee to get in, this is a great way to save money if you’re spending 3 days in Berlin or longer.

Bode Museum

• Price: €10
• Location: Museum Island, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm, closed on Mondays
• Website: Bode Museum

The Bode Museum is located on the UNESCO World Heritage Site Museum Island and is one of the cheaper museums on the island.

Inside this beautiful building, which I thought was as much an attraction as the exhibits, you’ll find lots of sculptures and paintings from a variety of periods.

It’s a big museum and there’s so much to see here. The Bode Museum is home to a large collection of Byzantine Art and one of the world’s biggest collections of coins.

I enjoyed walking around the museum and seeing the various artwork, not to mention admiring the building too. If you like art and history, you’ll enjoy visiting.

Neues Museum

• Price: €14
• Location: Museum Island, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm, closed on Mondays
• Website: Neues Museum

The Neues Museum is one of the most popular museums on Berlin’s Museum Island by the Spree River.

In this museum, you will find numerous permanent exhibitions and several temporary ones. The permanent exhibitions include artefacts from ancient Egypt, prehistory and early history and ancient artefacts from the Rhine.

This is one of the most interesting museums to visit if you’re interested in ancient history, with the museum mainly focusing on this. I learnt a lot from the various exhibits, as this area of history isn’t my speciality.

You can spend a good couple of hours here seeing all the exhibits and learning about this historical era. If you’re a history lover like me, it’s the perfect place to spend part of the day!

Altes Museum

• Price: €10
• Location: Museum Island, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm, closed on Mondays
• Website: Altes Museum

The Altes Museum is one of the most famous museums in Berlin and a fascinating place to visit thanks to its permanent collection of antiques.

The museum focuses on the ancient world and has a permanent exhibition that looks at the Greeks, Romans and Etruscans.

There are also temporary exhibitions that run in the museum, which mesh with the main theme of the ancient world.

This is a fun museum with lots of impressive Greek sculptures and an extensive Roman coin museum. It’s interesting to walk around and see this brilliant collection of art.

Deutsches Historiches Museum

• Price: €10
• Location: Unter den Linden 2, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm every day, till 8 pm Thursday
• Website: Deutsches History Museum

The Deutsches Historiches Museum (German Historical Museum) is an interesting museum that I enjoyed visiting while I was in Berlin.

When I visited, the main part of the museum, the Zeughaus was closed. So I was only able to visit the temporary exhibitions but they were still interesting.

One was about the potential futures that could have happened in German history had things gone differently. It was fun to consider these alternate possibilities and learn more about parts of history I wasn’t familiar with.

It’s a fun museum and when the Zeughaus has been renovated and the permanent exhibitions are back it will be even more interesting and worth visiting.

Jewish Museum

• Price: Free
• Location: Lindenstraße 9-14, Kreuzberg
• Opening hours: 10 am to 7 pm every day
• Website: Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum Berlin is one of the most poignant museums in Berlin and a must-visit in my opinion.

Entry is free; once inside, you’ll see some of the most interesting exhibits in the city. One of these is the Shalekhet – Fallen leaves by Daniel Libeskind, which is 10,000 faces punched into steel housed in the Memory Void.

You walk across the faces which make an eerie sound. The exhibit is dedicated to all the Jews killed during the Holocaust and victims of all wars. I felt sombre and reflective as I walked across the faces and felt similar in the Gardeon of Exile too.

Given what happened to the Jewish community in Berlin and Germany during the Second World War, this is an important place to visit to learn about German Jewish history.

Even as someone with a degree in history who’s studied this period, I was shocked and moved by the exhibits here. It’s an important place to visit and reflect on what can happen when a group of people is dehumanised.

Cold War Museum

• Price: €14
• Location: Unter den Linden 14, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 8 pm every day
• Website: Cold War Museum

As a history lover, the Cold War museum was one I enjoyed when I was in Berlin. I studied this period at university and have a keen interest in it, so it was nice to learn more about it.

The museum’s not far from the Brandenburg Gate, which is fitting given it’s not far from where the Berlin Wall separated East and West Berlin.

Inside the museum, you’ll find lots of exhibits about how the Cold War started, the proxy wars between the United States and the Soviet Union and the development of nuclear weapons.

I spent around two hours wandering around, reading all the notice boards and checking out the exhibits. The Cold War Museum is great for learning more about this crucial part of modern history, one that Berlin was right in the middle of!

Natural History Museum

• Price: €10
• Location: Invalidenstraße 43, Mitte
• Opening hours: 9 am to 6:30 pm, Tuesday to Friday, closed Monday; 10 am to 6 pm weekends
• Website: Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum (Museum für Naturkunde) is one of the best museums in Berlin for me, for one reason.

They have lots of dinosaur skeletons!

As you can probably tell from my site, I love dinosaurs. So when I learnt there was a museum in Berlin with the largest mounted dinosaur skeleton and a huge T-Rex skull I was straight there!

I loved this museum and spent ages looking at all the skeletons and exhibits. It’s fantastic if you’re travelling with kids, as they will love looking at all the dinosaurs and other exhibits such as animals in bottles.

The Museum für Naturkunde is brilliant and an excellent place to learn more about the natural world and be blown away by the exhibits!

DDR Museum

• Price: €13.50
• Location: Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1, Mitte
• Opening hours: 9 am to 9 pm every day
• Website: DDR Museum

The DDR Museum is located on the banks of the River Spree and looks at what life was like in East Germany.

It’s right next to Museum Island and is a fascinating place to learn more about the cultural history of East Germany and how ordinary people lived under the Communist regime.

There are lots of exhibits and I liked exploring the mockups of typical homes in East Germany. There’s a kitchen, living room and bedroom to check out.

There are also lots of displays about the history of East Germany and a Trabi you can sit in too! If you’re interested in history like me, the DDR Museum is a must-visit in Berlin!

German Museum of Technology

• Price: €8
• Location: Trebbiner Straße 9, Kreuzberg
• Opening hours: 9 am to 5:30 pm Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Closed Tuesdays; 10 am to 6 pm weekends
• Website: German Museum of Technology

The German Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin) is the place to go to learn more about the history of trains, aeroplanes and more in Germany and the wider world.

This was a fascinating museum that’s home to a vast range of exhibits and is located near the old Anhalter Bahnhof in the Kreuzberg District.

You’ll find lots of old trains here and detailed information about the railway’s past, which I thought was interesting. There are also lots of exhibits about aeroplanes and boats.

I was a little disappointed there wasn’t more information about cars, given how much influence the German car industry has.

But apart from that, it’s a fascinating museum that’s worth visiting if you to learn more about the role Germany has played in shaping the technology we use today.

Topography of Terror

• Price: Free
• Location: Niederkirchnerstrasse 8, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 8 pm every day
• Website: Topography of Terror

The Topography of Terror is a museum on the site of the former headquarters of the Gestapo and EinsatzGruppen.

The building that housed the two organisations was destroyed by Allied bombing during the war and the museum that’s here today was built after German Reunification.

It’s a museum dedicated to the history of the Nazi regime and specifically looks at the security apparatus of the regime and how they subjugated the German population as well as mistreated political prisoners.

The museum is free and a fascinating place to visit to learn more about the history of Nazi Germany and what life was like for ordinary citizens under Nazi rule.

Stasi Museum

• Price: €10
• Location: Normannenstraße 20, Lichtenberg
• Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday; 11 am to 6 pm weekends
• Website: Stasi Museum

The Stasi Museum is one of the most fascinating museums in Berlin and is housed in the old headquarters of the Secret Police in East Berlin.

The building is almost the same as it was when East Germany fell and features multiple exhibits about the history of the organisation and how they spied on the East German people.

I was blown away by some of the exhibits in the museum. You don’t realise how pervasive the Stasi was in East Germany until you visit and discover their nefarious espionage techniques.

Walking around the museum hammered home to me the absurdity of Communist rule in East Germany, as they were happy to spend thousands on surveillance which bankrupted the country and contributed to its downfall.

Visiting the Stasi Museum is an important window into the past and an example of what can happen when freedoms are trampled on.

German Spy Museum

• Price: €8-17, museum uses dynamic pricing
• Location: Leipziger Platz 9
• Opening hours: 10 am to 8 pm
• Website: German Spy Museum

The German Spy Museum is one that I enjoyed during my time in the city.

As Berlin was the epicentre of the Cold War, the city was home to a large number of spies. The Spy Museum tells the history of espionage in Berlin and its wider past.

There are a range of exhibits here that tell you about the history of famous spies such as Kim Philby, and there are several interactive exhibits too.

One of the best is a laser maze that you have to try and navigate. I was by myself when I went, so I didn’t try it. But judging by the noise and laughter, it’s a lot of fun!

Humboldt Forum

• Price: Free
• Location: Schlossplatz, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10:30 am to 6:30 pm, closed on Tuesdays
• Website: Humboldt Forum

The Humboldt Forum is on the site of the old Berlin Palace and Palace of the Republic from when the site was in the former East Germany.

The Forum is home to two former museums, the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and the Museum of Asian Art, both of which you can explore for free.

There are so many artefacts and exhibits that it will take you a few hours to see everything. I was wandering around for at least two hours looking at everything.

The museums contain a lot of artefacts from the German Empire which were looted and the museums do a good job of explaining this and the history of how they came to be in Berlin.

The Forum itself is a wider cultural centre and there are always temporary exhibitions to check out as well as a bistro and restaurant on site, which are fantastic!

Computer Games Museum

• Price: €17
• Location: Karl-Marx-Allee 93A, Friedrichshain
• Opening hours: 10 am to 8 pm every day
• Website: Computer Games Museum

The Computer Games Museum is one of the best museums in Berlin, especially if you like video games like me.

This was one of the first museums I visited in Berlin and it didn’t disappoint. You can learn about the history of video games, with lots of displays about the various consoles that have existed over the years.

What I enjoyed the most about the museum was the games you could play. There were a lot of arcade games such as Donkey Kong and Point Blank you could play, as well as a few consoles.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a popular museum, so it will likely be busy when you visit. It was for me. But it’s a lot of fun and the chance to play some great games is one you shouldn’t pass up!

Berlin Story Bunker

• Price: €12
• Location: Schöneberger Strasse, 23A
• Opening hours: 10 am to 7 pm every day
• Website: Berlin Story Bunker

If you want to learn about the rise and fall of the Nazis in Germany, Berlin Story Bunker is a museum you have to check out.

The museum is housed in a bunker that was used during the Nazi period. It’s not the bunker that Hitler committed suicide, as that one was destroyed after the war. But the site of that bunker is a short walk from this museum.

This was one of the most fascinating museums for me, as I studied the Nazis a lot at school and university. The exhibits in the museum start with the beginnings of the First World War, its aftermath and the Nazi’s slow rise to power.

Berlin Story Bunker is probably the best place in Berlin to learn about this crucial part of history. I liked that you got to experience the exhibits in an actual bunker from the Second World War.

This hammers home the disastrous path that Nazism in Germany led to and is a reminder of the dangers of falling prey to populist politics. As the exhibits detail only too well.

Bud Spencer Museum

• Price: €12
• Location: Unter den Linden 10, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 7 pm every day
• Website: Bud Spencer Museum

The Bud Spencer Museum is one of the quirkiest museums in Berlin and one I did a double take when I walked past.

It’s located on Unter den Linden not far from the Brandenburg Gate and pays homage to the actor, Bud Spencer, who appeared in numerous Spaghetti Western films.

I didn’t go to this museum, but you can walk around the gift shop at the front instead, which has a lot of memorabilia and items about Bud Spencer.

If you’re interested in Bud Spencer, this museum will be right up your street. It’s quirky and looks like it would be a lot of fun if you knew a little about Bud and the films he appeared in.

Hamburger Bahnhof

• Price: €12
• Location: Invalidenstrasse 50-51, Mitte
• Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm every day, closed Mondays
• Website: Hamburger Bahnhof

The Hamburger Bahnhof is a former railway terminus that’s now a contemporary art museum.

The building itself is beautiful and worth visiting alone. It used to house the Berlin to Hamburg railway line and was formerly a railway museum.

Today, it’s home to a wide variety of contemporary art, which is interesting to explore. If don’t like contemporary art, I’d give this place a wide berth.

I like contemporary art, so I enjoyed visiting and thought it was one of the best art museums in Berlin. But, it’s not the place for you if you prefer classical art.

There are some wacky pieces in the gallery, but if you like contemporary art, it’s a museum you have to check out while you’re in Berlin.

Berlinische Galerie

• Price: €12
• Location: Kreuzberg
• Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm every day, closed Mondays
• Website: Berlinische Galerie

The Berlinische Galerie is a fascinating museum that’s home to modern art, architecture and photography.

The museum is home to over 5000 pieces of fine art. This includes works by Max Beckmann, Georg Baselitz and Ursula Sax. There’s also a focus on periods of art history such as the Eastern European avant-garde of the 1920s and East Berlin before and after the fall of the war.

This is one of the most fascinating places to visit in Berlin and takes a long time to walk around and see everything. With over 73,000 photographs and 300,000 plans of architecture, it’s an impressive collection.

This means you’ll need a lot of time if you want to see as much as you can. That doesn’t include the special exhibitions that run too.

So, I’d visit the Berlinische Galerie on a day when you have a lot of time as you’ll need a good chunk of time to do justice to this museum.

Charlottenburg Palace

• Price: €19
• Location: Charlottenburg
• Opening hours: 8:30 am to 5:30 pm every day, closed Mondays
• Website: Charlottenburg Palace

Charlottenburg Palace isn’t a museum in the strictest sense but it’s one of the most interesting places to see in the city.

The Baroque palace was the home of the Prussian monarchy and is a fascinating place to visit. It’s in the district of the same name, which is slightly outside the centre of Berlin.

However, it’s worth making the journey as the palace is spectacular. You can book guided tours to take a look around inside, which is worth it to see how Prussian Kings and Queens lived.

It may not be a conventional museum, but it’s one of the most fascinating places to check out and offers a window into a bygone world.

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