Cinemas & movie theaters – All our local tips

I challenge you to find a better cinema in Berlin when it comes down to variety and internationality. It never stops surprising me with what they come up and where the hell they get it from…

Starts off with dozens of annual film festivals and regular programmes they run over the year. Often several different ones at the same time. Most international movies are shown in original version and subtitled. Here a few examples:

- Cine En Español: Regular Monday movies in Spanish

- CinemAperitivo: Regular Sunday (16:00) Italian movies, with Italian aperitif afterwards

- New German Cinema: every Thursday

Special events can be seen on either our Events Calendar or on the website of Babylon.

Sometimes the Babylon is also used for other events such as Readings, cabaret or concerts. Which is not really surprising: The huge main hall still keeps the air from 1929, when the cinema opened first. Furthermore, keeping its history in mind, they screen silent films with live piano music.

The two smaller showrooms in the back of the building are spots of movies only and, as I can confirm, really cosy. Gives you the feeling of non-mainstreamism, which I love.

Be aware that there exist two Babylons in Berlin (both are cinemas!). Which is why both cinemas need to index themselves with the district: Mitte or Kreuzberg. This article deals with the one in Mitte.

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Babylon: Mitte | Cinemas | Normal admission € 6.50
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30 | Mitte | +49302425969
Daily (times see website)

“For me Berliner backyards are like surprises. You never know what’s waiting for you behind the gate.”

On one hand the way apartment buildings were built during the so called “Gründerzeit” (time around 1870-1914) produced the typical apartment blocks in Berlin, now known as “Altbauten” (old buildings) or “Mietskasernen” (tenements). On the other hand it gave Berlin those backyards everywhere.

In a particular area called “Scheunenviertel” (Barn Quarter) you can find a couple of very interesting “Hinterhöfe” where life seems to be hidden. Enjoy theatres, cinemas, galleries, museums, shops, cafes, bars, restaurants and other surprises there!

Except for “Hackesche Höfe“, now a tourist magnet and the most prominent complex of backyards, tourists and even Berliners don’t visit them. That is very unfortunate. And you will understand that if you go out to discover the following backyards:
– Backyard of Haus Schwarzenberg (see the Haus Schwarzenberg article)
- Heckmannhöfe (see the Heckmanhoefe article)
- Hackesche Höfe: a complex of 8 backyards
Rosenthaler Straße 40/41 & Sophienstraße 6
- Kunsthof, contains very nice hospitality and quality galleries
Oranienburger Strasse 27
- Sophie-Gips-Höfe, contains the Hoffmann Collection (see the Hoffmann collection article) Sophienstraße 21
- Rosenhöfe, Rosenthaler Strasse 36
- Panasia/Gallerie Cicero, Rosenthaler Strasse 38

Also, I’d like to encourage you to keep your eyes open for many other backyards in this area and not to be shy to enter them. With a bit of luck you can find real jewels of cultural & night life in them!

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Berliner backyards | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Theaters, Restaurants
Different locations | Mitte
Various opening times

To find the cinema “Central”, you first have to point out Haus Schwarzenberg (see the Haus Schwartzenberg article). Go through to the end of the backyard and find the actual cinema on the right.

Their programme of movies makes this little cinema one of my favorites. It is nothing of the big commercial cinemas that (only) screen mainstream films from Hollywood. People on the search for interesting, independent and international films are right here. Usually they play films in their original language and have subtitles in English or German, respectively.

The chairs in the two show rooms are extremely comfortable; the Central’s website is really user-friendly and partly in English (sometimes descriptions of movies are not in English). So check the programme!

A movie that I can totally recommend is “Berlin Calling“. It runs successfully here for more than a year, letting the audience dive into the Berlin world of Techno. Paul Kalkbrenner, a famous Berliner DJ, plays the main character – a DJ who has to go for a withdrawal treatment after a drug overdose. Great & famous soundtrack included! Everyone with a taste for underground music should watch this!

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Central | Cinemas | admission from € 5.50
Rosenthaler Strasse 39 | Mitte | +493028599973
first movie 15:00 – last movie 00:15

My favorite backyard (see the Backyards article): Haus Schwarzenberg.

One could say there are two cafes/bars, two shops, a gallery, a cinema, a museum…But that wouldn’t be enough to describe the importance of Haus Schwarzenberg. For getting a proper feeling of the cultural Berlin you have to go there.

Here is where Otto Weidt saved lives of deaf and blind Jewish workers from Holocaust in his broom and brush workshop. Find out more about this historical place in the “Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt“.

The memorial “Stille Helden” honors and commemorates those people who, like Otto Weidt, risked their own lives to rescue prosecuted Jewish people from assured death.

Go further through to the second backyard. Here’s the lovely cinema “Central” (see this article). Also, you have the café “Kaschemme” which is “turned” into a bar and renamed “Eschschloraque” at 20:00 (see this article), a place with an alien-like decoration and really friendly staff.

Above the “Eschschloraque” is the “Neurotitan” – an extremely unique shop and gallery that sells, supports and exhibits all kinds of works of local artists, be it paintings/drawings, CDs/records or t-shirts/tops, books or other stuff.

Other places in Haus Schwarzenberg that are also worth going to are the “Anne-Frank-Zentrum” – an exhibition about the life of the Jewish girl whose diary became so famous and the lovely “Café Cinema”.

Finally, take some time to look at the walls. Most of Berlin’s famous street artists, such as Alias, El Bocho, Karl Toon or Vectorian, are present here.

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Haus Schwarzenberg | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Music, Shopping
Rosenthaler Strasse 39 | Mitte
Daily

It doesn’t happen very often that a very old brewery inhabits places for culture and night life – but here it does. The Kulturbrauerei (literally “Culture Brewery”) is one of these places Berlin is so much loved for (see it as a recipe for Berlin’s venues: Take something old, but don’t tear it down and build new – recycle! Leave it unfinished or renovate and rebuild it – keeping the old spirit and looks in order to create a new (but still old) place; an interesting, historical and architectural landmark.)

I think the Kulturbrauerei is one the highlights of these sort of places. It is a complex of former brewery buildings (boiler house, machine house, stable, canteen,…) that are now host to the places we can find there now:
Night clubs, cafes, bars, a cinema, theatres, an important concert house, a dance school, a billiard saloon, a cooking workshop, but also companies such as publishing houses, a bicycle hire shop (Berlin on Bike also offers guided tours on bikes) and many others.

Fans of old architecture will definitely enjoy Kulturbrauerei which is a wonderful example of the long period of historism. The 1889 complex has a bit in common with a castle from the middle ages. The renovation, completed in 2000, kept the old brewery air and hence made it one of the nicest and most important cultural platforms in Prenzlauer Berg and surely in whole Berlin, too.

The website is user-friendly, in German and English and comes up with cool moving surround views. See here for the cultural program and opening times as well as the presentation of each venue.

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Kulturbrauerei | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Music, Theaters
Knaackstraße 97 | Prenzlauer Berg
Daily

If you have trouble remembering classical films, if you are already bored of the cinemas in the big commercial centres, or if you are just looking for an alternative way to spend an evening, do stop by the silent film evenings accompanied by live piano, which take place every first Wednesday of the month, in Morus str. 14.

Expect a charming electro piano, with an original piano soundtrack performed by Francois Regis, films by directors such as Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin, a small bar with affordable prices, authentic and cosy quarter atmosphere and elderly public. The films are organized within a bigger social project and they are donations based.

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Morusstreet 14 | Cinemas, Music, Snacks
Morusstr 14 | Neukölln
Every 1st Wednesday of the month from 19:30

Go to Kunsthaus Tacheles! If I was to recommend you one place in Berlin to go to – it would be the Tacheles!

This ruin is basically the rest of a 1909 shopping mall. The rest of it which still exists today has survived bomb hits in WW II and plans of blasting. That could be avoided in 1990 by an initiative of artists, called “Tacheles”. As time passed it became a place full of life and a very important Berlin art center.

You should check out the Kunsthaus (= art house) Tacheles for many reasons:
- an extremely special, creative, alternative and lively place
- galleries and studios of at least 50 here working artists
- the wide range of their interesting art: paintings, sculptures, photos, collages, installations, videos
- High End 54 – a bar and cinema screening non-mainstream movies (program)
- the “panorama bar” on the top floor and the Café Zapata downstairs
- the “Goldener Saal” (”Golden Hall”): a huge and flexible hall for any sort of performing arts
- the backyard with the beer garden: full of interesting details such as sculptures and installations
- the architecture of the building (protected as a monument)
- here you can really feel the way the city of Berlin ticks
- uniqueness, independence from money

The website of Tacheles is partly in English, German and Spanish; other languages appear out of the blue. Though without structure about the languages, you’ll get on with the site to find out more about Tacheles.

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Tacheles | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Theaters
Oranienburger Str. 54-56a | Mitte | +49302826185
Daily

Whenever I feel active to do something I go to my favorite park “Friedrichshain” For me it’s simply the best place to relax and retreat from daily life.

This park is the second oldest in Berlin after Tiergarten and was first completed in 1848 but had to go through times of war when the Nazis erected two Flak towers here which were blasted after the war and piled up with rubble. Same two little “mountains” are still there. Over the years flora and fauna grew back on here and now the F’hain is one of the most diverse parks in Berlin.

There’s no time of the day when you don’t see people jogging, going for a walk or letting their children play or being active in sports. Speaking about which, there is plenty to do here: Tennis courts (€ 12.00 / hr), half pipes, a nice little climbing rock, soccer and basketball courts,…

Also, where there used to be a swimming stadium (you can still see the former shape of it in the park ground) people love to go for beach volleyball (in summer) or roller skating on the surrounding 800 meters asphalt track.

Whenever it’s warm, barbecue and picnic are extremely popular, too, next to sitting in Cafe Schoenbrunn, in the adjacent beer garden or having cones of ice cream while wandering about at famous “Märchenbrunnen” (”Fairy Tale Fountain”, see picture) in the very western corner of F’hain.

On top of all that, there is a popular outdoor cinema (next season: May 19th – Sep 19th).

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Volkspark Friedrichshain | Cinemas, Relaxing, Festivals & events | Tennis € 12.00
Volkspark Friedrichshain | Friedrichshain | +491706344007
Tennis court: Tue – Sun 11:00 – 19:00

Looking for a night out with the accompanying two fingers up at the establishment attitude? This is your bar. Local and International rock/electro/punk/country bands perform here making White Trash a multi-faceted package deal.

It’s safe to say this place is a regular haunt of mine and it’s not uncommon that my friends have more than once found me asleep in the restrooms after a drink or two.

White Trash also hosts the weekly Smoking Cinema, an evening featuring underground films and old time classics, where despite the recent smoking ban, you can light up a cigarette or two whilst watching cult classics. Sprinkle on top tarot readers, burlesque dancers, extroverts galore and waiters with attitude, the result is a pretty eventful night out.

Be warned! It’s crazy packed on Saturdays, which may have something to do with the pole dancers in the street windows they have now employed to entice you in for their White Noise evening. On Sunday you can enjoy live Jazz and experimenta  music on ‘Last Exit Sunday’. Here you can find manager and Proustian disciple Wolfgang Sinhart (great last name right?) in his beautifully tailored suits as he hosts the evening while you chomp away on your Elvis burger.

My top tip is Friday evenings in the Diamond Lounge, where you can catch DJ Anita Drink make you shake your moneymakers to best of punk, rock and pop. Oh and she happens to be a rather frightening drag act as well.

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White Trash | Cinemas, Restaurants (Fast Food) | Entry from € 2.00
Schönhauseralle 6-7 | Mitte | +493050348668
18:00 – till late daily