The Hamburger Bahnhof is Berlin's national museum for contemporary art, and it still looks like what it was built as: a railway terminus. The station opened in 1847 as the Berlin end of the line to Hamburg, lost its trains in 1884 and later became a transport museum. In 1996 it reopened as an art museum, and in 2026 it celebrates thirty years with eight special exhibitions and an anniversary weekend that keeps the doors open for 30 hours.
Part of the Nationalgalerie, the museum shows art from the 1960s to today: Joseph Beuys, a long-running collection display called A Thousand Times Berlin, and large commissions in the historic hall, where the old platforms used to be. The long Rieckhallen, former freight sheds behind the main building, hold the bigger installations. Since 2022 Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath have run the house and added "Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart" to its name. How the museum nearly lost the Rieckhallen, and much more of the Hamburger Bahnhof's history, is in our anniversary piece.
From 13 November 2026 the museum shows Sophie Calle. Is It Better?, her first solo show in Berlin in more than twenty years. It opens with a free evening on 12 November.
Visiting
- Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10am–6pm, Thursday 10am–8pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am–6pm, closed Monday. Last entry 5.30pm. From 1 December 2026 the museum opens Tuesday to Sunday 10am–6pm.
- Tickets: buy online or at the desk. Prices and free-entry rules are on the official ticket page.
- Food: Restaurant Konstantin is inside the building, and there is a bookshop.
- How long: two to three hours if you want the Rieckhallen as well as the main building.
Getting there
The museum is a five-minute walk north of Hauptbahnhof along Invalidenstraße. Trams M5, M8 and M10 stop at Invalidenpark, almost at the door. U6 Naturkundemuseum is about ten minutes away on foot.
Nearby
The Museum für Naturkunde with its dinosaur hall is a ten-minute walk east. Carry on into Mitte and you reach the galleries on Auguststraße, among them EIGEN + ART.