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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.