Preview 2023: What awaits Berlin guests next year
Berlin, 2. December 2022 The year is slowly coming to an end, a year with light and shadow. While Berlin tourism has recovered significantly, global crises and the Ukraine war are unsettling. For many, the 70 Christmas markets and the Christmas lights in the city, although in energy-saving mode, represent a welcome time-out. For others, it is a time of reflection, which they experience, for example, at small festive concerts and events.
What will the new year bring? In any case, there will be many new things to discover in Berlin in 2023. The new cultural centre around the Humboldt Forum will be enriched by further museums and attractions. Art exhibitions, new openings and events will inspire people to visit the capital. And new places to work, live and experience are being created in very different parts of the city.
News from Berlin's cultural centre
Just a few days ago, the Cold War Museum opened at Unter den Linden. Virtual and interactive elements combine here with real exhibits from the Cold War era. Culture and everyday life of this era are also shown. For example, the legendary "Red Telephone", which directly connected the leaders of the USA and the USSR, is on display, as is the torch used to light the Olympic flame in Munich in 1972.
The Kunsthaus Tacheles at Oranienburger Straße has been empty since 2012. In the coming year, a dependence of the Stockholm photo museum Fotografiska will open there. In the future, this place with a moving history will become a venue for exhibitions and events and a world-class creative meeting place.
The Monument to Freedom and Unity in Mitte is expected to be inaugurated in autumn 2023. The 50-metre-long and 18-metre-wide walkable shell bears the subtitle "Citizens on the Move". Depending on which side more people are on, it will slowly tilt from side to side. In this way, the structure at the historic site impressively symbolises what people can achieve when they act together.
The reopening of the Berlin Medical History Museum at the Charité is planned for summer 2023. Exhibits from 300 years of medical history will be on display there. One focus will be the permanent exhibition on the physician and pathologist Rudolph Virchow. Around 750 organs prepared by him will be on display, as well as historical medical instruments and ten exemplary cases of illness from the 18th century to the present day.
Event and exhibition highlights
The Picture Gallery on Matthäikirchplatz is showing works by the Dutch artist Hugo van der Goes from 31 March to 16 July 2023. Even far after his death at the end of the 15th century, van der Goes was still regarded as a style-setter. Now, for the first time, his monumental panel paintings and smaller works are united in one exhibition.
The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch will be on show twice next year. The Berlinische Galerie will present "Edvard Munch. Magic of the North" from 15 September 2023 to 22 January 2024, focusing on Munch's time in Berlin, where he lived on multiple occasions between 1892 and 1907. The Museum Barberini in Potsdam focuses on "Edvard Munch: Transforming Nature" from 18 November 2023 to 1 April 2024 focuses on Munch's landscapes and his engagement with nature.
The Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023 are the largest inclusive sporting event in the world and will be held in Berlin for the first time from 17 to 25 June 2023. Thousands of athletes with intellectual or multiple disabilities will compete in 26 disciplines and once again put the city in the focus of the sports world. The Special Olympics movement is committed to the recognition and participation of people with disabilities and organises health, education and qualification programmes worldwide.
As every summer, numerous open-air events will take place in 2023. Events such as the Carnival of Cultures from 26 to 29 May or Christopher Street Day on 22 July 2023 have become famous. Berlin also shows its playful side with the Fête de la Musique on 21 June.
Future city Berlin: Fascinating urban development projects
The Tower THF in the western head building of the former Tempelhof Airport is expected to open in spring 2023. In addition to exhibition spaces and gastronomy, the tower is a highlight with an impressive 360-degree view of Tempelhofer Feld and the surrounding city. The spacious roof terrace is likely to become a hip venue next summer. And in the neighbouring Hangar 7, the Allied Museum will soon be the next attraction.
The 174-metre-high Estrel Tower is being built directly on the waterfront of the Neukölln canal. It will house a hotel and flats, restaurants and bars. In addition, there will be offices, co-working spaces and event rooms. With the highest standards of sustainability, Berlin will have a new centre of attraction for living, working, meeting and culture here at the end of 2024.
Since its closure in 2001, the former amusement park "Spreepark" is probably one of Berlin's best-known "lost places". Now, however, the site is to be revitalised. The legendary Ferris wheel has already been dismantled, is being renovated and will rotate again in its old place in 2024. In the same year, parts of the park are to be reopened. And the complete relaunch as an art, culture and nature park is planned for 2026.
On the 500-hectare site of the former Tegel Airport, Berlin TXL - The Urban Tech Republic is being built as a research and industrial park for up to 1,000 companies. 20,000 employees will work on future technologies here. The former terminal building will also become the new home for more than 2,500 students of the Berlin University of Applied Sciences. And in the neighbouring Schumacher Quartier, a completely new quarter is being built in parallel. What is developed in the Urban Tech Republic will be directly applied here, including a climate-neutral energy supply and new mobility concepts.