Berlin, the city of music and art: the back story

About Berlin, the city of music and art: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Berlin Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Berlin keeps three opera houses, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Deutsche Oper and the Komische Oper, and the Berliner Philharmoniker play in Hans Scharoun’s Philharmonie at the Kulturforum. Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999, gathers five museums on the Spree, and the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Hamburger Bahnhof and the city’s private collections carry art into the present.

Opera

The Staatsoper Unter den Linden faces the Bebelplatz; the Deutsche Oper Berlin is on Bismarckstrasse in Charlottenburg; and the Komische Oper Berlin, while its own house is renovated, plays at the Schillertheater on Bismarckstrasse.

Concerts

The Berliner Philharmoniker play in the Philharmonie at Herbert-von-Karajan-Strasse 1. The Konzerthaus Berlin stands on the Gendarmenmarkt, and the Pierre Boulez Saal on Französische Strasse is a small oval hall for chamber music.

Book the Philharmonie and the opera houses on their own websites as soon as the season opens.

Museum Island

The Altes Museum, the Neues Museum with the bust of Nefertiti, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum and the Pergamonmuseum, which is closed for refurbishment. The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are now taking group-tour bookings at the Pergamonmuseum from June 2027.

Contemporary art

The Neue Nationalgalerie, Mies van der Rohe’s glass and steel hall, the Hamburger Bahnhof in a former railway station, the Berlinische Galerie, KW Institute for Contemporary Art and the Boros Collection in a wartime bunker.

Cinema

The Berlinale, the international film festival, fills the city every February. Through the year, the Babylon, the Kino International on Karl-Marx-Allee and the Delphi Filmpalast show films in grand old auditoriums.

Our advice: buy a Museum Island day ticket on smb.museum and go early; the Neues Museum gets busy by late morning.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Berlin, the city of music and art: the back story before you go.