The Ringbahn as a Stage for 27 Forgotten Visions of the Future
To mark its 75th anniversary, the Berliner Festspiele, in collaboration with Japanese artist Akira Takayama, invites you on a journey through a Berlin that could have been. Over four weekends, the 27 stations of the Ringbahn will become sites of forgotten artistic visions of the future, which will be retold by experienced city guides on six different themed tours.
Image gallery
What if Berlin2026, key visual -Ringbahn mit Stationen
The tours will explore unrealized project ideas from the archives of the Berliner Festspiele, other Berlin cultural institutions, and architects and artists.
Each guide leads one of the six thematically distinct tours, each of which offers a different perspective on Berlin—ranging from urban planning visions and cultural designs to alternative concepts of social coexistence.
The tours on and along Berlin’s Ringbahn offer different thematic approaches: How can the forgotten artistic heritage of the GDR be revived? Which infrastructures and urban systems foster participation and diversity? How does Berlin’s city center open up to its periphery? Where do the new boundaries and invisible walls lie in the once-divided city, and how can we overcome them?
The audience is invited to imagine a different city—a “New Berlin”—and will have the opportunity to get involved themselves at the end: Starting August 28, visitors can vote on the website to decide which project Berlin needs most.
The tours begin at one of the following three Ringbahn stations: Gesundbrunnen S-Bahn station, Hohenzollerndamm S-Bahn station, or Sonnenallee S-Bahn station. From there, the tour guides will accompany the audience on the S41 and S42 Ringbahn lines. The tours end at a different Ringbahn station than the starting point.
All tours are conducted in German or English.
- Tour A, “Are Communists Allowed to Dream?”, explores visions of the future that were conceived in the socialist part of the city but were later abandoned.
- Tour B, “What Do You Build on Ruins?”, highlights several unrealized projects for the (re)construction of Berlin.
- Tour C “The City’s Dreamed-of Apparatus” explores once-envisioned urban facilities that continue to haunt Berlin like ghosts.
- Tour D: “Can Culture Change the City?” explores participation and the rights of all city residents and examines processes of change driven by actors in the cultural scene.
- Tour E: “The Periphery as Center” traces bold visions that emerged along branch lines of the Ringbahn, on highways, on an artificial hill, and at a war ruin.
- Tour F: “Toward the Ring City” attempts to reassemble Berlin along the Ringbahn by relocating forgotten visions by artists and architects along the S-Bahn route.
About Akira Takayama
Akira Takayama is a Japanese theater maker and director. In 2002, he founded the interdisciplinary theater collective Port B in Tokyo, with which he continues to develop internationally acclaimed projects to this day. His works, which often activate urban space as a place for participation and reflection, are regularly featured at major festivals such as Festival/Tokyo, the Vienna Festival, and Kunstenfestivaldesarts, as well as at international art exhibitions. Through projects such as *Compartment City*, *The Referendum Project*, and *McDonald’s Radio University*, Takayama explores the social possibilities of a radically expanded concept of theater.
As part of 75 Years of Berliner Festspiele | Anniversary Program
August 28 – September 20, 2026
