Berlin Philharmonie

The Berlin Philharmonie, in the Kulturforum district next to Potsdamer Platz, is one of the world's most famous concert halls and a landmark of postwar architecture. Designed by Hans Scharoun, the golden building is home to the Berlin Philharmonic and is known for its tent-like roof and a hall where the audience sits around the orchestra. If you love music or modern architecture, it is one of the best things to do in central Berlin.

Why it matters

Construction began in 1960 and the hall opened on October 15, 1963, with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Scharoun placed the orchestra in the middle and arranged the audience in terraced blocks around it, an idea often called the vineyard layout. The main hall seats 2,250. The adjacent Chamber Music Hall followed in 1984 to 1987, built from Scharoun's original plans by Edgar Wisniewski, and seats 1,136. The complex is a listed monument.

What to see

• The golden facade: The metal skin glows yellow to bronze depending on the light.
• The foyer: Irregular staircases and levels, best explored when you have a concert ticket or join a tour.
• The main hall: Open only for concerts and guided tours.
• The Chamber Music Hall: The same design language at a smaller scale.

Tours and tickets (as of October 2026)

The Philharmonie is not a museum with daily opening hours. You enter with a concert ticket or on a guided tour run by the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation. Public tours cover architecture, acoustics and the orchestra's history and are offered in English and German. They cost 10 EUR, or 5 EUR for students, trainees, severely disabled visitors and berlinpass holders; children and schoolchildren go free. Tours can be booked online only, and dates for the following month are published on the 20th of each month. The meeting point is the artists' entrance to the main hall on Potsdamer Straße. The foundation does not state a duration for the public tour, so allow about an hour.

For concerts, the box office and phone line are open Monday to Saturday, noon to 6 p.m., closed on public holidays and on December 24 and 31. A service fee of 3 EUR per ticket applies, and the evening box office opens one hour before the performance. Short tours of the Green Room are free.

How to get there

The address is Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin. Potsdamer Platz station is served by the S-Bahn lines S1, S2, S25 and S26 and by the U2 subway; from there it is a short walk. Buses M29, M48 and M85 also stop nearby. Berlin is well connected by Deutsche Bahn, so the Philharmonie fits easily into any Berlin city trip, and the Deutschlandticket covers local transit if you hold one.

Nearby

The Kulturforum includes the Gemäldegalerie, the Museum of Decorative Arts, the New National Gallery and the State Library, another Scharoun building. Potsdamer Platz and the Tiergarten park are both a few minutes away on foot.