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Wheelchair Accessible Berlin Tourist Attractions

Wheelchair accessible Berlin tourist attractions can fill up several days of excellent sightseeing in the city.  I have provided detailed accessibility information on the museum, memorials, and churches in Berlin.

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Recommended Itinerary for Disabled Travelers

Here is an itinerary to see the top sights in Berlin. I’ve grouped the sights to minimize the amount of effort to get between the sights while also making sure that each day doesn’t have too much or too little to see. The sights in blue are the don’t miss sights.

Day 1 – Original Walks walking tour (starting at 10:30 am and including Unter den Linden street, Brandenburg Gate, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie), German Cathedral, Gendarmenmarkt. If you can’t do the walking tour, get a private guide and a taxi or take one of the bus tours.

Day 2 – German History Museum (there is enough here to fill up an entire day…I’ve done it)

Day 3 (Checkpoint Charlie area) – Jewish Museum Berlin, Topography of Terror exhibit, Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie,

Day 4 (near Tiergarten) – Reichstag, (then take the #100 bus to)Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church,shopping in the former West Berlin

Day 5 (Museum Island) – Pergamon Museum, Egyptian Museum, Berlin Cathedral,

Day 6 – Gemäldergalerie art museum, German Resistance Memorial, Berlin Wall Documentation Center

Note – if you want to try to pack more into each day (and you can), the Reichstag is open from 8 am to midnight and the Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie is open until 10 pm. Most of the rest of the sights are open from 10 am to 6 pm.

Group Walking Tour

Original Berlin Walks – Their 3 ½  hour Discover Berlin walk is my favorite walking tour in Europe and almost completely step-free . The lone exception is the short detour into the old East Berlin subway station. It goes into one station and you can stay above ground and meet them at the subway station the tour exits from which is about a block away.

If you join at the Meeting Point West you will have to take the train, so join the tour at the Meeting Point East near Hackescher Markt.

You will visit the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and Unter den Linden. Additionally, the guide will point out many other tourist sights that you can visit later. The entire tour covers about 5 km, which is not as tough as it sounds because it is spread over 3 ½ hours.
http://www.berlinwalks.com/

Private Walking Tour

http://www.visitberlin.de/deutsch/zielgruppen/d_zg_berlin-ohne-barrieren.pdf – tours can be found here (in German)

Self Guided Tour

You can download 16 mp3 audioguides for €5 total.
http://www.visitberlin.de/english/sightseeing/e_si_stadterkundungen_fuss_audioguide.php

Wheelchair Accessible Berlin Bus Tours

City Circle Tour – 5 Star Sage Accessibility
Half of their City Circle Tour busses have wheelchair ramps. The tour is approximately 2 hr 15 minutes and runs every 15 minutes. The headphones have narration in 8 languages, and there are 16 stops.

BBS Berliner Bären Stadtrundfahrt GmbH
Phone: +49-(0)30/35 19 52 70
www.sightseeing.de

Plazas / Monuments / Bridges / Scenic Views

Potsdamer Platz – 5 Star Sage Accessibility
Postdamer Platz was the most popular square in Berlin before WWII. It is worth seeing and your best option is to view it from the #200 bus.

Unter den Linden street – 5 Star Sage Accessibility

This street used to have enormous trees lining it until Hitler had them torn down so his victorious armies would have flags on either side when they returned home from battle. The street is best visited either on the Walking Tour or on bus #100 or #200.

Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) and Pariser Platz – 5 Star Sage Accessibility

Similar to several other wheelchair accessible Berlin tourist attractions, the Brandenburg Gate is outdoors, flat, and smooth. The Brandburg Gate was one of the original Prussian gates to the city and was also the site of President Kennedy and President Reagan’s famous speeches. Slightly less famous is the hotel balcony nearby where Michael Jackson dangled his baby. It’s located at the end of Unter den Linden near Tiergarten Park. The square is flat and smooth and there is no interior to the Brandenburg Gate so there are no accessibility challenges.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkal für die Ermordeten Juden Europas) – 5 Star Sage Accessibility

Located a block south of the Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe consists of 2711 pillars and covers a city block. You can view the memorial from outside the pillars where it is flat or move amongst the pillars where there are rolling paved surfaces with Sage 4 Star Flatness. There is enough room between the pillars for wheelchairs to fit.

Checkpoint Charlie – 5 Star Sage Accessibility

The area around the replica of the Checkpoint Charlie guardhouse is flat and smooth. It’s worth taking a picture of, but the nearby Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie is where the real history is.

Gendarmenmarkt – 4 Star Sage Accessibility

The Gendarmentmarkt square is surround by the Opera House, the French Cathedral, and the German Cathedral. Part of it is smooth and part of it is covered by cobblestones (4 Star Sage Flatness).

TV tower – 1 Star Sage Accessibility

Per the TV Tower website, wheelchair users are not allowed to visit the TV Tower for safety reasons in case of an evacuation. Go to the Reichstag dome instead to view the city from above.

 

Palaces / Castles / Historical Buildings

Reichstag – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
The Reichstag is the German parliament building and is located near the Brandenburg Gate. It has a dome on top with a good view of the city that is accessed by a long ramp to get up a couple of floors (Sage 4 Star Flatness). A visit to the inside of the building is step-free but requires making a reservation 2 or 3 weeks in advance. The ramped entrance to the building is on the right if you are facing the front of it (southwest corner). More details

Museums

German History Museum – 4 Star Sage Accessibility
The German History Museum is one of the best history museums I’ve ever been to. It covers all of German History from pre-historic times to today and it is easy to spend all day there. I recommend going to this museum in the beginning of your trip so you will have a historical context to the sights you will see. There is a step-free entrance on Unter Den Linden street to the south of the building.  More details

Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
This is one of the best museums in Berlin with authentic artifacts from the Cold War, the Wall, and escape attempts. It is definitely worth a visit even though only half of it has step-free access. Use the step-free entrance to the gift shop and a staff member will escort you to an elevator to the first floor of the exhibit. A second elevator gets you to the second floor, but you will also have to navigate -3, +3, and +3 steps. More details

Topography of Terror exhibit – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
If you want to see the Berlin Wall, there are only a few places to do it and this is the easiest one to get to. It also has Hilter’s underground SS bunkers….keep in mind that these were built a few decades before the wall. The exhibit is outdoors and located a block away from Checkpoint Charlie. There is a lower level accessed by steps (where the SS bunker remains are) and an upper level with step-free access. You can easily view the lower level from the upper level. More details

Pergamon Museum – 4 Star Sage Accessibility
The Pergamon museum has fascinating, massive ruins from Greek and Near East excavations. Although only 60% of the museum is step-free, it is definitely worth visiting. The museum is accessed via a bridge over the Spree River, located to the west of the building, which has a wheelchair lift to get up the steps. The neighboring Neues Museum requires a ticket with an entrance time so when you get to the Pergamon Museum, buy a Neues Museum ticket for 2 ½ or 3 hours later. More details

Neues Museum – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
The Neues Museum has a variety of artifacts from prehistoric, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman times, the most famous of which is the bust of Nefertiti. It is step-free throughout and currently requires a ticket with an entrance time. Visit the nearby Pergamon Museum beforehand and buy a Neues Museum ticket for 2 ½ to 3 hrs later. More details

Gemäldegalerie art museum – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
The Gemäldegalerie is the top art museum in town and contains art from the 13th to 18thcenturies including works by Raphael, Titial, Caravaggio, Rubens, Dürer, and Rembrandt. It is located just south of the Tiergarten. The German Resistance Memorial is a couple of blocks away and a number 200 bus stop is about 3 blocks away. To the left of the large ramp at the main entrance is an entrance with level access. Elevators can take you to all levels of the museum. More details

German Resistance Memorial – 2.5 Star Sage Accessibility
The German Resistance Memorial is located in the building where the Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler was planned, and the courtyard is the location where the conspirators were executed. There is a single step at the entrance to the building. Sixty percent of the exhibits are accessible by an elevator, and the other 40% are accessed via 6 steps. More details

Jewish Museum Berlin – 4 Star Sage Accessibility
The Jewish Museum Berlin is one of the top museums on Jewish history and culture in the world. It has a ramp at the main entrance and is step-free throughout. The museum is located southeast of the other tourist sights, about 6 blocks away from Checkpoint Charlie. More details

German Cathedral – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
The German Cathedral is the southernmost of the twin churches on the Gendarmenmarkt square. Although it looks like a church from the outside, the inside is a multi-level museum on the history of German parliament. The main entrance has steps but you can go to the south (left) side of the building, press the button, and a staff member will unlock the door that you will need to pull open. An elevator can get you to all levels of the building except for the reception desk to pick up an English audioguide. More details

Berlin Wall Documentation Center – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
The Berlin Wall Documentation Center contains the only remaining fully intact Berlin Wall system including both walls and the no-man’s-land in between. The multi-story building overlooks the wall system and has an elevator to get between floors. It’s located north of the other tourist sights…to get there take the U8 subway from Alexanderplatz to Bernauer Strasse, or the S1 or S2 train from the Brandeburg Gate to Nordbahnhof station, or the #245 bus from Zoologischer Garten or Hauptbahnhof to Nordbahnhof. More details

Churches

Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
The Berlin Cathedral is located on museum island and can be accessed via an elevator through the side entrance on the left (north) side of the building. More details

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church – 3 Star Sage Accessibility
The church actually consists of two buildings: the bombed ruins of the old church and the modern church next door. The ramp to get to the church entrances is located on the south side of the churches. The modern church has step-free access and the old church can be accessed via a ramp (3 Star Sage Flatness) at the back (east) side of the building. Both churches are step-free on the inside. The useful number 100 and 200 busses stop on the street just north of the churches. More details

Shopping

Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) – Shopping store in West Berlin.
Europa Center – Large shopping center near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Friedrichstrasse – Many stores in the former East Berlin

Have questions about Berlin accessibility?  
Our Berlin accessible travel consultants have all the answers

Read more:

Berlin Accessible Travel – main page
   Pros and Cons of Berlin Disabled Access
   8 Wheelchair Accessible Travel Tips for Berlin Germany
   8 Keys to Success for Berlin Disabled Travel
   Handicapped Access at the German History Museum
   Berlin Wall Wheelchair Access
   Disabled Access at Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie
   Wheelchair Access at the Reichstag
   German Resistance Memorial Handicapped Access
   Travel Insurance for Disabled Travelers
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