Charité

Listen to the fascinating stories of life and death that the Berlin Charité has to tell. Hear about its history, starting in the 18th century with a plague house that would later develop into what it is today: one of the most important university hospitals in Europe. Join your guide and learn about famous doctors, scientists, and Nobel Prize winners, such as Rudolf Virchow, Emil von Behring, Robert Koch, and Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Learn interesting facts about the geniuses of Berlin medicine and the dark times of the institution, when doctors collaborated with the Nazi regime. Visit a mysterious "medicine temple", Berlin's oldest surviving teaching building, hidden in a backyard. Start your tour at the Charité Bed House, which you'll view from the outside. Then walk along Luisenstraße, and across the university campus. The hospital grounds (Charité Campus Mitte) are not accessible for group tours. Finally, visit Berlin's oldest surviving teaching building from the inside.

The tour opens with the story of the hospital’s foundation in 1710, when it was first built as a simple plague house to protect against the approaching epidemic. In the early days of the hospital, methods such as bloodletting, doses of mercury and amputations were common in treating the sick. A visit to the Veterinary Theatre, the oldest academic building still in existence in Berlin, provides fascinating insight into how the ailments of the city’s livestock and cavalry horses were explored in the 18th century. The tour circumnavigates the historical neo-gothic campus of the Charité, where medical pioneers like Robert Koch and Rudolf Virchow made groundbreaking discoveries. But Charité is also a symbol of social progress, being the place where Rachel Hirsch became the first woman to hold a medical professorship in Prussia. Her appointment in 1913 marked a significant step forward for women in medicine, reflecting the shifting social attitudes of the early 20th century, despite the resistance she faced within the institution. The hospital also witnessed a dark chapter under the Nazi regime. Medical ethics were disregarded and ideas of racial hygiene were ruthlessly imposed. While some doctors kept quiet, others actively organised the extermination of psychiatric patients. In subsequent decades, East Germany prided itself on the achievements of the Charité, while also bricking up those windows that faced the capitalist West. This tour finishes close to the Central Station, making it the perfect place to continue exploring Berlin. Please dress warmly in cold weather as most of the tour takes place outside!

This tour is only available in German. On this tour you will explore the places where exciting stories of research and medical history have taken place. On the venerable campus of one of the most famous hospitals in the world: the Charité in Berlin Mitte. At the tour stops there are entertaining tasks to solve and exciting questions to answer. Who knows, for example, that the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I even donated a skeleton of one of his revered "Tall Guys" (“Langen Kerls”) to the Charité for research purposes? The tour is a great way to get outdoors and discover new things with family friends or even on your own. It's like being shown around campus by a good friend. The tour can be started at any time, on site or from home, in the browser of a smartphone. Have fun in Berlin Mitte! *** Good to know *** You will receive the link to start the tour in an email directly after booking.

Stay active while on vacation in Berlin on an e-bike tour. Cycle to famous sites linked to the Berlin Wall and iconic Berlin landmarks, including the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. Learn about Berlin's rich and sometimes dark history from your local guide en route. Explore Berlin's central Mitte district, where most of the city's historical landmarks are based, and cycle to important locations linked to the former Berlin Wall. Start your tour near the iconic ex-border crossing on Bornholmer Strasse, where East and West Berliners jubilantly stormed through the opened gates at the fall of the wall on the night of November 9, 1989. Cycle on to Mauerpark, where the wall used to divide the park in two between East and West Berlin. Continue down Bernauer Strasse to the Wall Memorial and the Chapel of Reconciliation before heading to a former ghost train station, Nordbahnhof. Head into the Mitte neighborhood to see Berlin's famous and long-standing Charité hospital, the government quarter with its imposing Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, and leafy Tiergarten. Pause at the Holocaust Memorial to pay your respects to the fallen Jews of Europe during WWII before making your way to the historical and imposing Gendarmenmarkt, and Bebelplatz. Cycle down the large and long Unter den Linden allee to see the Berlin Cathedral, the renovated Berlin Palace, and the charming streets of Nikolaiviertel — the original village that constituted Berlin. End your tour in the modern central district to see the iconic TV Tower, Marien Church, Rotes Rathaus, Alexanderplatz, and the World Clock.

Begin your tour of Berlin's Mitte District on the historic Bornholmer Straße, where the first Berliners from East and West joined arms joyfully on the day the Berlin Wall fell. Discover the impressive New Synagogue and the Old Post Headquarters. See Berlin as a city of contrasts – from the Hauptbahnhof to the Charité. Visit the Government Quarter and the Reichstag, symbol of a united Berlin. Through the much-loved Tiergarten, Berlin's Central Park, you will ride onwards to the most famous landmark in the city: the Brandenburg Gate. Then, passing many historic monuments and interesting places, you will journey to Alexanderplatz, with the Red Town Hall, the TV Tower, the beautiful Neptune Fountain and the unique East German World Clock. Finally, you will cycle through hip Prenzlauerberg back to your starting point.