Berlin, 18 December 2014 2015 will be a year for sport and culture in Berlin. The city will host many international sporting events, with the highlight being the men's UEFA Champions League football final at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Culture lovers will be treated to quality exhibitions exploring different periods of cultural history from the Renaissance to the 20th century.

Berlin, the City of Sport

Football fans can look forward to three major football finals being held in Berlin this year. The best European men's football clubs will face off for the UEFA Champions League title on 6 June at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Ladies first, however, when the women play for the same title at Berlin's Jahn-Sportpark. And, as usual, the Olympic Stadium will host the DFB Cup Final, this year on 30 May. On 23 May, Tempelhof Field will be hosting one of the electric car races for championship points in the FIA International Formula E series. Berlin will also be hosting this summer for the first time the European Maccabi Games, a sports festival for Jewish athletes. Other sports events include classic Berlin events such as Six-Day Races, the ISTAF international athletics festival and the BMW Berlin Marathon and newcomers such as the world championships in modern pentathlon and cheerleading.

A variety of exhibitions

The first major art exhibition of the year opens on 21 March the Martin-Gropius-Bau featuring works of the international post-war art movement ZERO. It is the most comprehensive show on the movement's impact to date. ZERO caused quite a sensation in the 1950s and 60s. The retrospective "ImEx. Impressionism – Expressionism "opens on 22 May in the Alte Nationalgalerie, featuring 170 works, including works on loan from Paris, New York and Madrid. Also of great interest will be the Max Beckmann show at the Berlinische Galerie and the masterworks of Modernism from the Tel Aviv Museum coming later in the year to Martin-Gropius-Bau.

Exciting insights into the Renaissance will be offered in an exhibition of works by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) being held in Gemäldegalerie, with an emphasis on the Florentine painter's continuing influence over the centuries. His works still inspire fashion and lifestyle to this day. The show opens 29 September and closes 24 January 2016.

A list of all of Berlin's event highlights for 2015 can be found at: visitberlin.de/en/experience/events/this-years-highlights and at sport.visitBerlin.de