Illustration: Rimini Berlin

Supporting art and culture is not a matter of taste – it is a vital investment in a democratic and open society. Let us make it clear what happens when culture falls silent: The #minutestrike is a nationwide symbolic protest against the existentially threatening budget cuts in the cultural sector. Every cultural event, performance, and exhibition will be interrupted for one minute.

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Lettering ‘draw love build’ in front of the image of a colourful glass house facade
sauerbruch hutton: Jessop West, Sheffield © Jan Bitter

On the occasion of the transfer of their advance legacy to the Academy’s Architectural Archives, Louisa Hutton and Matthias Sauerbruch have reconceived their retrospective exhibition “draw love build” and extended it significantly: access to the archives generates surprising dialogues between iconic architectural visions from the first half of the 20th century and the projects by the Berlin-based architectural team.

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Open call for artistic residencies

Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson

The Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, are organizing a joint residency program for artistic research in the field of sound art or visual arts on the occasion of the exhibition and festival “Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson” (November 2025 – January 2026). Application deadline is 14 January 2025.

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Insight into the display depot of the Architectural Archives © Akademie der Künste, Berlin, photo: Andreas [FranzXaver] Süß
Insight into the display depot of the Architectural Archives © Akademie der Künste, Berlin, photo: Andreas [FranzXaver] Süß

The Schaudepot (display depot) provides an exclusive insight into the Akademie der Künste’s outstanding collection of architectural models. The highlights of the collection can be seen in a permanent exhibition with a selection of the more than 750 models from the Architectural Archives by over 50 artists. Temporary exhibitions explore current topics relating to architecture and urban planning. Guided tours in German.

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Aerial image of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, 1988/89 © BStU, MfS, HA I, Fo, Nr. 365, Bild 32
Aerial image of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, 1988/89 © BStU, MfS, HA I, Fo, Nr. 365, Bild 32

The Akademie der Künste building at Pariser Platz reflects recent German history in a unique way. Traces of the changing uses and structural changes since 1907 are still visible today. A multimedia presentation shows how the ruptures and caesurae of the 20th century were inscribed in the history of the site, which personalities left their mark on the place and how the history of the Akademie and political events were interconnected.

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Anna Seghers Museum
Anna Seghers Museum in Berlin Adlershof, photo: © Andreas [FranzXaver] Süß

Bertolt Brecht's study, Helene Weigel's conservatory, Anna Seghers' “crow's nest” : Regular tours offer visitors a chance to view the homes and studies of the writer Bertolt Brecht, actress and theatre director Helene Weigel and the writer Anna Seghers, largely kept in their original condition. The tours provide an insight into how these three major international figures in the arts world of the 20th century lived and worked.

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Paintings on cellar walls
Picture Cellar, in the foreground mural by Harald Metzkes and Manfred Böttcher © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018, Photo: Andreas FranzXaver Süß

Picture Cellar
Wednesdays, 5 pm

Guided Tour

In the middle of the political “Tauwetter-Periode” (thaw period), the master students of the German Akademie der Künste celebrate carnival in the coal cellar in 1957 and 1958. The murals by Manfred Böttcher, Harald Metzkes, Ernst Schroeder and Horst Zickelbein can be visited as a unique testimony to unofficial art in the GDR and as part of the eventful history of the institution and the building. Guided tours in German.

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Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz. Photo © Jeanette Gonsior
Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz. Photo © Jeanette Gonsior

The Akademie der Künste is an international community of artists that currently totals 430 members in its six Sections Visual Arts, Architecture, Music, Literature, Performing Arts, Film and Media Arts. It is an exhibition and event location. Its Archives collectively form one of the most important interdisciplinary archives on 20th century art. Founded in 1696, the Akademie der Künste in Berlin is one of the oldest cultural institutes in Europe.

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News

Call for Proposals: “Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson”more

Anh-Linh Ngo's speech on No Other Landmore

In opposition to the axing of 3sat under the pretext of “transferring content”more

Further news are available in German only: News

Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof (Dorotheenstadt Cemetery), Berlin Mitte, © Akademie der Künste, Berlin
Wednesday, 15 Jan
Guided Tour

2 pm

Brecht-Weigel Museum
Chausseestraße 125
10115 Berlin

Famous women

The resting places of famous women in art and culture are the focus of this guided tour of the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof (Dorotheenstadt Cemetery). It tells of the writers Christa Wolf and Annemarie Bostroem, the artists Beatrice Zweig and Doris Kahane, the opera director Ruth Berghaus and many others. Thematic guided tour in German.

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Peter Pfankuch, 18 March 1940; photo: private
Wednesday, 15 Jan
Book Premiere

7 pm

Hanseatenweg

Clubraum

Privileged discrimination:
The diaries of Peter Pfankuch

Peter Pfankuch (1925 – 1977), architect and member of the Akademie, grew up in Berlin during the National Socialist era. The young man’s life was characterised by increasing marginalisation, as he was considered “half-Jewish”. Pfankuch documented his life on a daily basis in diaries and letters from the age of 14. The editor and Pfankuch’s daughter, Susanne Pfankuch, is in dialogue with historian and Antisemitism researcher Wolfgang Benz. In German.

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Exhibition view “draw love build / sauerbruch hutton tracing modernities”, © Jan Bitter
Saturday, 18 Jan
Talk

7 pm

Hanseatenweg

Studio

Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century

To mark the closing of the exhibition “draw love build / sauerbruch hutton tracing modernities”, there will be a round table discussion dedicated to sustainable building and providing insights into the future of architectural practice. Welcome: Matthias Sauerbruch. Talk with Annette Gigon, Louisa Hutton and Regine Keller. Moderation: Katharina Matzig. In German and English.

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Untitled (Wind), 1953, 1990, Photo by Giulia Baresi and Giorgia Palmisano, Courtesy of Archivio Conz, Berlin 2024
Sunday, 19 Jan
Reading, Film, Happening

12 pm

Pariser Platz

Plenarsaal

GO concrete: A Eugen Gomringer matinée

As the founder of Concrete Poetry, Eugen Gomringer has been changing the language of literature and visual art for decades. Guests and companions, such as Ulrike Draesner, Nora Gomringer, Robert Kudielka, Michael Lentz, Ulf Stolterfoht and Hubertus von Amelunxen, will create a lively matinée for the artist using Gomringer’s poetic texts, prose fragments and own works in the border area of text and image. In German.

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Exhibition view “draw love build / sauerbruch hutton tracing modernities”, © Jan Bitter
Sunday, 19 Jan
Talk

4 pm

Hanseatenweg

Studiofoyer

Paths to the Future

To mark the closing of the exhibition “draw love build / sauerbruch hutton tracing modernities”, there will be a round table discussion providing insights into the future of architectural practice. With Peter Apel, Sibylle Bornefeld, Jürgen Bartenschlag, Tom Geister, Vera Hartmann, Falco Herrmann, Andrew Kiel, Julia Knaak, Lina Lahiri, Mareike Lamm, Jonas Luther, David Wegener, Juan Lucas Young. Moderation: Anh-Linh Ngo. In German and English.

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Anna Seghers Museum, Berlin Adlershof, © Andreas [FranzXaver] Süß
Tuesday, 21 Jan
Guided Tour

2 pm

Anna Seghers Museum
Anna-Seghers-Str. 81
12489 Berlin

Anna Seghers in the circle of her friends

Anna Seghers, who often appeared rather shy and cautious, found support among her friends, whom she trusted unreservedly, with whom she exchanged ideas and laughed unselfconsciously. The writer remained close to the actresses Steffie Spira and Helene Weigel, the author Berta Waterstradt and the politician Lore Wolf until the end of her life. Themed tour in German.

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Peggy Mädler, Annett Gröschner, Wenke Seemann (from left to right), 2023 © Andreas Rost
Wednesday, 22 Jan
Reading and Talk

6 pm

Musikgalerie an der Goitzsche
Ratswall 22
06749 Bitterfeld-Wolfen

Annett Gröschner, Peggy Mädler, Wenke Seemann: Three East German women get drunk and found the ideal state

The authors Annett Gröschner, Peggy Mädler and Wenke Seemann present their volume of talks, in which they take stock 35 years after reunification. They reflect on GDR clichés, memories, feelings and impressions as East German women. In the struggle for East German identity, the book is one thing above all: witty and warm-hearted. Reading and talk in German.

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Please click here to view all events and exhibitions.

Upcoming

Ein Dorf 1950–2022. Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler und Ludwig Schirmer
Exhibition: 28 Feb – 4 May 2025
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EMOP Berlin: what stands between us. Photography as a Medium for Chronicling
Festival exhibition: 28 Feb – 4 May 2025
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Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson
Exhibition: 14 Nov 2025 – 25 Jan 2026, Festival: 23 – 25 Jan 2026
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