A global icon is celebrated: 200 years of Berlin’s Museum Island

On Saturday, June 6, and Sunday, June 7, 2026, there will once again be an extensive program featuring an open-air stage, an outdoor studio, and drop-in workshops.

Many activities are free of charge again this year—including more than 100 guided tours. With the Museum Island Festival day pass for 16 euros, visitors can explore all the museums on the island as well as the Friedrichswerdersche Church and PETRI Berlin.

Food will be available at the food court in front of the James-Simon-Galerie. Starting as early as Friday, June 5, 2026, there will be a special event day for up to 1,000 schoolchildren as well as the “Dabei-Open-Air” concert by the Berlin Choral Association.

For the second time, celebrations will take place throughout the entire weekend on the “Island” and in the museums. The public can once again look forward to a diverse program featuring free concerts, guided tours, workshops, and special surprise offerings in the museums—all centered on history, architecture, and the unique collections of Berlin’s Museum Island, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999 as an impressive example of the fusion of buildings and exhibited objects.

Matthias Wemhoff, Director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History and spokesperson for Museum Island: “The Island Festival impressively showcases the vibrancy and diversity of this place. With a broad program for all age groups, it invites visitors to rediscover Museum Island as an open space for encounter and exchange.”

The Museum Island Festival is part of the five-year celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of this globally unique museum quarter.

While the focus in 2025 was on the Altes Museum, 2026 centers on the Alte Nationalgalerie, which opened 150 years ago as the “National-Galerie.” This year’s Island Festival will therefore feature a particularly wide range of activities centered on the Alte Nationalgalerie and its eventful history.

Sunday, as World Heritage Day, will have a special program focus on democracy under the motto “Together for Peace and Understanding.” Marion Ackermann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, explains: “Museum Island in Berlin has been a sanctuary for art and science for 200 years—a place of freedom, participation, and democracy in action. Its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site obliges us to make these values visible. With Democracy Day at the Island Festival, we are sending a clear signal for dialogue and social cohesion.”

Highlights on the open-air stage in the Colonnade Courtyard

As was the case last year, the program events on the open-air stage in the Colonnade Courtyard between the Neues Museum and the Alte Nationalgalerie are free to attend.

The event kicks off on Saturday, June 6, 2026, at 10 a.m. with the Berlin Choral Association, which is performing at the “Dabei-Open-Air” on Museum Island to celebrate its 125th anniversary. More information on the “Dabei-Open-Air” follows below on page 4.

In the afternoon, the official stage program of the Island Festival begins at 4 p.m. with excerpts from the play “Der Gesang des Pottwals” by Heiner Bomhard, which premieres at the Deutsches Theater just a few days before the Island Festival. It will be tragic, dramatic, but also funny and over-the-top—carried by a great joy of performance that easily spreads to the audience. DT Jung* will also be there, presenting an excerpt from “Parzival”—a visually stunning, musical quest for meaning, guilt, and empathy. A generation sets out without knowing the answers—and in doing so, makes this ancient material surprisingly relevant today.

On Saturday evening starting at 6 p.m., the Bene Aperdannier Trio will perform a special musical set featuring jazz compositions. As a pianist and keyboardist, Bene Aperdannier has already accompanied artists across a wide range of genres: from tango and jazz to soul—including work with Joy Denalane and Jocelyn B. Smith—and hip-hop with Freundeskreis and Die Fantastischen Vier. In a trio with Christian Kögel (guitar, oud, dobro) and the grooves of drummer Hans Otto, he will envelop the Kolonnadenhof in atmospheric sounds.

On Sunday (June 7, 2026), the stage program will kick off at 11:30 a.m. with the Salonorchester Unter’n Linden featuring members of the Staatskapelle Berlin. Together with soprano Sandra Laagus, the musicians will present gems of opera and operetta repertoire and invite the audience to be enchanted by a performance or concert at Berlin’s famous opera house, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

The classical music program continues at 1:30 p.m.: Six musicians—two violins, two violas, and two cellos—from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin will perform Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet in G Major (Op. 36). This work by Brahms is chamber music at its most captivating: the six voices engage in a lively, multi-layered dialogue full of passion, lightness, and depth. A piece that both comforts and moves—ideal for surrendering completely to the music for a moment.

The evening’s finale on Sunday at 7 p.m. features Mousse T., one of Germany’s most internationally successful producers and DJs. The Grammy-nominated artist shaped the sound of an entire generation with global hits like “Horny” and “Sex Bomb” (for Tom Jones) and continues to blend house, funk, and pop into an unmistakable signature sound. The performance is presented by Flix SE—known for the FlixBus and FlixTrain brands—the mobility partner of the 200th anniversary of Berlin’s Museum Island, and at the same time sends a clear signal in support of collective mobility.

Free drop-in activities

Around 100 free guided tours—including tours led by museum directors—will be offered over the weekend. They provide in-depth insights into the history, architecture, and unique collections of Museum Island. During the surprise tours, which were extremely popular last year, participants don’t find out where they’re actually going until the tour begins. They take place every half hour on Saturday between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. in German and English.

A wide variety of workshops and drop-in activities for all age groups in a large open-air studio in the Kolonnadenhof, in the museums, and at Haus Bastian—Center for Cultural Education—round out the extensive program.

Focus on Democracy on UNESCO World Heritage Day

Who owns the black, red, and gold? What is the state of freedom of art and science? And how do we actually conduct a proper discourse? These are questions that will be discussed on Museum Island on Sunday, June 7. This is the official UNESCO World Heritage Day, which this year has the motto “Together for Peace and Understanding” and is celebrated on the island as Democracy Day. The James Simon Gallery will host panel discussions, live debate demonstrations by “Jugend debattiert,” an interactive experience trail, and many other activities.

Democracy Day is an initiative of the SPK in cooperation with the Berlin Wall Foundation, the Hambach Castle Foundation, the Hertie Foundation, the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Foundation for Sites of German Democratic History, the Gay Museum, visitBerlin, and the Berliner Festspiele.

It all kicks off on Friday, June 5, 2026: With the School Action Day and the Choir Festival

As early as Friday, June 5, 2026, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will invite up to 1,000 students to a School Action Day on Museum Island in Berlin as part of the Island Festival. In two-hour sessions, they can explore the UNESCO World Heritage Site Museum Island, visit the museums, and get creative themselves. Alternatively, they can explore a museum or Museum Island on their own in small groups as part of a scavenger hunt. Afterward, the creative activities continue at the large workshop tables under the colonnades or in Haus Bastian. The event is aimed at grades 1 through 6 as well as middle and high school students. The full program for the School Event can be viewed here: www.smb.museum/bildung-vermittlung/schulen-kindertagesstaetten/detail/aktionstag-schule-museumsinsel/

Also on Friday, June 5, 2026, starting at 2 p.m., the Berlin Choral Association will kick off the “Dabei-Open-Air” on the open-air stage in the Colonnade Courtyard to celebrate its 125th anniversary. The boundaries between stage and audience will blur as sing-along activities invite everyone to become part of the sound. On Saturday, June 6, 2026, the second day of the “Dabei-Open-Air” continues at 10 a.m., before the official stage program of the Island Festival begins in the afternoon. The choir festival is more than just a concert: it thrives on open togetherness. Sixteen choirs showcase the diversity of Berlin’s choir scene and beyond—from newly founded to seasoned, from classical to pop. Lively and communal, the “Dabei-Open-Air” is a participatory choir festival.

Culinary offerings: Food Court

The Food Court in the Neuer Hof between the James-Simon-Galerie and the Neues Museum will offer a wide variety of culinary delights throughout the day to keep you energized.

200 Years of Berlin’s Museum Island

Berlin’s Museum Island will be celebrated for five years—with exhibitions, events, open-air presentations, concerts, and activities for everyone. The fifth anniversary year was kicked off in 2025 with a focus on the Altes Museum, whose cornerstone was laid in July 1825. In 2026, the Alte Nationalgalerie took over the baton. In 2027, the Pergamon Museum will be at the center of the celebrations, reopening on June 4, 2027. The anniversary is under the patronage of Berlin’s Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner. It is supported by the LOTTO Foundation Berlin, the Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Flix SE, and visitBerlin.