Berlin, 15 June 2026
Four Berlin museums joined forces over the weekend to form the "MuseumsMeileMitte" and opened a new museum quarter in the immediate vicinity of Berlin's central station.
The participating institutions – the Museum für Naturkunde, the Hamburger Bahnhof, the Futurium, and the Medical History Museum of the Charité – will henceforth present themselves as a joint quarter along Invalidenstraße. According to a statement, the four institutions already attract two million people to the area every year. The opening was celebrated on Saturday with a neighborhood festival that included free admission to all four museums as well as workshops, guided tours, scavenger hunts, and film programs.
According to the initiative, the area has long been shaped by its location in the former border zone between East and West Berlin. "Diese historische Zäsur habe dazu geführt, dass sich nur punktuell städtisches Leben habe entwickeln können", the initiative writes on its website. The museums are located about 10 to 15 minutes' walk from each other, which should make combined visits easier in the future.
Background: A District Between the Wall and the Museum Mile
Till Fellrath, director of the Hamburger Bahnhof, emphasized that along the former Berlin Wall, a quarter is emerging with the neighborhood, with institutions and companies "ein Quartier, das die Zukunft der Stadt aktiv mitgestaltet". The initiative explicitly sees the new alliance as an open platform that aims to involve other players from the Kiez.
The website states that the quarter still appears "stellenweise fragmentiert und wenig verbunden – und genau darin liegt sein besonderes Potenzial". These breaks are to be made visible in the future and bridged through joint formats. Planned are, among other things, walking tours that explore lesser-known corners around Invalidenstraße.
Program: Festivals, Tours, and Free Admission
In the immediate vicinity of Berlin's central station, the area is well connected in terms of transportation. Visitors can arrive directly by S-Bahn, regional, and long-distance services and combine several institutions in a single day. The museum mile thus also sees itself as a low-threshold cultural offering for Berliners and visitors to the city.
With the merger, the initiative is responding to the growing importance of the area between the natural history museum, Invalidenpark, and the government district. The four institutions cover very different topics – from natural sciences to contemporary research to medical history and contemporary art – and hope that coordinating their programs will give them greater reach.
In the long term, the museums want to better coordinate their event planning, explore joint tickets or combination offers, and cooperate more closely with schools and initiatives from the neighborhood. The initiative speaks of an "offenen Prozess", in which suggestions from the neighborhood are to be incorporated.