What does it mean to be on the run? What does it mean to have to leave behind what you know and love and set off for an unknown land? For as long as there have been people, there has been fleeing, the forced departure into new worlds. As a personal or collective experience - and always existential. Berlin is a city that has seen so many forms of flight over the centuries - and is currently experiencing them. Accordingly, there are historical sites in Berlin as well as a variety of offers to approach the topic of "flight" from different perspectives. And perhaps to realise that it is always about the same basic human emotional experiences.
Tip 1: Talk. About what has been lost and found
Perhaps it still rings a bell: the "Balkan wars" in the 1990s, which meant a deep break for thousands of people: They were forced to leave their homeland and make a new start in Germany - accompanied by loss, uncertainty and numerous hurdles.
At the event evening"Speaking. Talking about what was lost and what was found" will focus on precisely these people from Bosnia-Herzegovina: contemporary witnesses will give personal accounts of how they experienced arriving in Germany, the worries and hopes that accompanied them and how it later felt to return to their old homeland for the first time in years.
The starting point of the evening is the contemporary witness project "From Bosnia to Berlin". The documentary film Distilled will be shown, in which Asmir visits his hometown in Bosnia-Herzegovina after almost three decades.
Storytelling cafés invite you to listen to the memories of the refugees - and at the same time talk about your own memories and thoughts about the 1990s.
When: Tuesday, 25 November 2025, 6 - 8 pm
Where: Documentation Centre Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation, Stresemannstraße 90, Kreuzberg
Tip 2: Listen to Florian Illies "When the sun goes down"
There are few people who are more enjoyable to listen to, whose literary forays through history are more fascinating: When Florian Illies reads the painful and conflict-ridden story of Thomas Mann's family's escape on 21 October, let yourself be drawn into the spell of the events in the scorching summer of 1933.
In June, Thomas and Katia Mann and their six children land in the small harbour town of Sanary on the French Mediterranean coast after an adventurous escape from Germany. And they don't know what to do next. In three very hot, restless summer months, the family is put to an unbearable ordeal, which gives you a deep personal insight into the situation of refugee families. Florian Illies presents his new book "When the sun goes down. The Mann family in Sanary".
When: Tuesday, 21 October 2025, 7:30 pm
Where: Renaissance Theatre Berlin, Knesebeckstraße 100, Charlottenburg
Tip 3: Approach the topic in a playful way - in the Berlin Underworlds
Berlin at the time of divided Germany: A friend of yours, the art dealer Kath, wants to attempt an escape from East Berlin to the West through an underground tunnel that still needs to be found using coded clues. However, the Stasi has also received clues about the escape tunnel and is also searching for it at full speed. At great personal risk, you decide to support your friend Kath and a race against time begins...
Sign up for this digital scavenger hunt Escape & Espionage in the Berlin Underworlds and immerse yourself in a dramatic escape project together. The experience is suitable for all pupils in years 8-13 . It is rounded off with a guided tour of Tunnel 57, the last authentic escape tunnel in the Berlin Underworlds, where you will also learn a lot about the dangers of escaping the Wall! What you need to bring: your charged smartphone.
When: Wednesdays 4 pm and 4.30 pm, the puzzle tour lasts about 2 hours, the tunnel tour 1 hour
Where: Meeting point and start in Weinbergpark at the "Mother and Child" statue on Rosenthaler Platz, Mitte
Tip 4: Visit the memorial site for Günter Litfin
Günter Litfin was 24 years old and grew up in East Berlin. He worked happily in West Berlin until 1961 - when the border suddenly closed on 13 August 1961 and the Wall was erected. Suddenly being cut off from his job seriously frustrates Günter, and his anger at the political system of the GDR has been growing for some time. And so, on 24 August, he decides to jump into the water of the Spree at "Kieler Eck" to swim through Humboldthafen to the western bank. The GDR's deadly border control system was immediately activated : after a few warning shots, to which the swimming Günter could barely visibly react, East Berlin police fired at the young fugitive and fatally wounded him.
Günter has a younger brother, Jürgen, who - deeply shaken - will never forget his brother's escape attempt and his senseless death. in 2003, he finally succeeded in turning the watchtower on Kieler Straße into a memorial site, with photos, documents and the interesting press reports of the time in the local and western press. When you stand up here in the watchtower, you can feel both the fate of the fugitives and the perspective of the border police who had orders to shoot from here.
When: this year 3 May to 5 October, Sat + Sun, 11 am - 5 pm
Where: Günter Litfin Memorial, Kieler Straße 2, Mitte
Tip 5: Get to know even more personal stories
Günter Litfin was one of many people who lost their lives in a violent escape. If you are ready to meet more individual fates, then book one of the three-hour seminars offered at the Berlin Wall Memorial - directly at the authentic site on Bernauer Strasse. A dramatic and intense search for clues that is only recommended for participants aged 16 and over: First, you will go outside with cameras and document the respective places of death of the various people who died here while fleeing. You will then work on the individual biographies based on sources. In this way, you really get to know the victims - there is probably no more intense way to "get closer" to them. You are also invited to take part in a memorial service in the Chapel of Reconciliation before the seminar begins.
When: please send a booking enquiry with your preferred date
Where: Berlin Wall Memorial, Bernauer Straße 111, Mitte
Tip 6: Feel flight and uprootedness in a former Berlin emergency reception centre
Can you imagine that at the time of the division of Germany and the Cold War, around 4 million people came to West Berlin? Some embarked on a life-threatening escape, others simply stayed "over there" on an authorised visit, others persistently applied to leave the country for years and were finally able to move - after much hardship and harassment. How did the German government on the western side manage the situation, how was it able to support, care for, document and distribute?
In Berlin, the Marienfelde emergency reception centre is an exciting place that actually housed and cared for 1.35 million refugees and resettlers from Eastern Europe and East Berlin to West Berlin . But Marienfelde only offered limited real security: the GDR's State Security fought against the emergency reception centre as an "enemy object" and successfully smuggled in unofficial collaborators (IM).
At the authentic site of the events, you can experience the great significance of this facility for so many refugees, feel the atmosphere of the time using the original furniture, photos and documentation and recognise the strong connection to the present: the memorial site is located in the immediate vicinity of a current temporary home for refugees. Around 700 people from more than ten countries who have left their homeland due to violence, persecution, war and poverty currently live here.
When: Tue to Fri 9 am - 5 pm, Sat + Sun 11.30 am - 5 pm
Where: Marienfelde Refugee Centre, Marienfelder Allee 66/80, Tempelhof-Schöneberg
Tip 7: Attend a workshop with your children
Stay in the Marienfelde emergency reception camp: among the millions of people who found initial accommodation there were numerous children- just like today in the neighbouring temporary accommodation centre for refugees. How did they experience being on the run? How did they accept their parents' decision to leave the familiar, what did camp life mean to them? The refugee families and their children who live on the site today experience the same situation.
In the workshop Mit Dabei - Kinder auf der Flucht , your children will develop sensitivity for others and learn to understand their insecurities and problems. In addition to insights into the personal stories of refugees, they will be given small playful tasks and realise how important things such as affection, security and trust are in moments of uncertainty. The 2.5-hour workshop is aimed at children aged between 8 and 12.
When: please send a booking enquiry with your preferred date
Where: Marienfelde Refugee Centre, Marienfelder Allee 66/80, Tempelhof-Schöneberg
Tip 8: Watch the theatre play "Electricity and Sky Fish"
Highly topical and an exciting and empathetic experience, especially for young people: the book"Electricity and Sky Fish" , which has been nominated for the 2025 Youth Literature Prize, will be performed as a staged reading in Berlin. Marzia, 14, describes her family's escape from Ukraine. Just as the eagerly awaited bunk bed for the children arrives in February, the family packs everything up head over heels. The five of them head west by car in the February cold. Wedged between suitcases and bags, Marzia writes her experiences on scraps of paper in the instructions for assembling the bunk bed - then suddenly her tracks disappear. A writer brings her story to the public. An impressive stage play based on the authentic experiences of a fifteen-year-old Ukrainian girl, which surprises with unexpected humorous interludes.
When: Tue, 23 September + Wed, 24 September, 11:30 am
Where: Theatre an der Parkaue, Parkaue 29, Lichtenberg
Extra tip: If you can't be there on the days offered: The Theater an der Parkaue also has an impressive repertoire play on the subject of escape in store for you."Das Kind träumt" is primarily about the urgent search for empathy and humanity of people on the run. The play, which was awarded the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST 2023 in the category "Theatre for Young Audiences", is unfortunately sold out until the end of the year, but you can make a note of it for January.
Tip 9: Get to know someone really brave - Otto Weidt
If we go back through Berlin's history, we come across Otto Weidt:
Berlin at the time of National Socialism, thousands of Jews seeking refuge from persecution. In Rosenthaler Straße, the small factory owner Weidt has a workshop where brooms and brushes are made, including for the Wehrmacht. Weidt, who was blind himself, employed blind and deaf Jews - and did everything he could to protect them from persecution and deportation. He hid people, issued false passports and bribed the Gestapo. Often with success, for which the desperate people later gave him touching tokens of gratitude. You can see the workshop, the hiding places, photos, poems and lots of information about this unusual personality at the Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt in Mitte.
When: Mon to Fri 9am - 6pm, Sat + Sun 10am - 6pm
Where: Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt, Rosenthaler Straße 39, first courtyard, left staircase, Mitte
Tip 10: Enjoy the soundscapes of composer Edi Tyrmand at the Konzerthaus
This will be a very special autumn evening at the Konzerthaus Berlin: as part of a concert series, the music of composer Edi Tyrmand, who had to flee Poland during the Nazi era and was able to establish a new home in Mynsk, will be performed.
Composers and musicians who were persecuted at the time were often forgotten, along with their outstanding works, and are now being revived as musica reanimata . Listen to the wonderful sounds of violin and piano and later experience a conversation about their lives as refugees and the historical situation at the time.
When: Fri, 23 October, 8 pm
Where: Konzerthaus Berlin - Music Club, Gendarmenmarkt, Mitte
Tip 11: See the exhibition "Flight. Photographs from Moldova, Armenia and Georgia"
Our last tip for you: Marvel at an extraordinary photo project. Over the past three years, award-winning photo artist Frank Gaudlitz has travelled through Moldova , Armenia and Georgia, where he met people who have fled Ukraine and whose existence has been severely affected by the Russian war of aggression and its consequences. Take a look at some forty touching portraits of contemporary refugees, uprooted and on their way into the unknown. Interviews and quotes accompany their personal stories.
When you look at Gaudlitz's photos, the faces of the people and their belongings, or what is left of them, you might think that fleeing is always a similar human experience throughout the ages. In the beginning the decision to leave, then the loss, possibly risk, danger and despair, the attempt to move forward as quickly as possible and the hope - ultimately for a new sense of security and human help.
When: 19 September 2025 to 1 March 2926, Wed - Fri 10 am - 5 pm, Sat + Sun 11 am - 6 pm
Where: Museum of European Cultures, Arnimallee 25, Dahlem
