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We've compiled the best of the best in Charlottenburg - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
This lovingly curated museum in the Theaterbau (theater building) near Schloss Charlottenburg pays homage to one of Berlin’s favorite artists, the female sculptor, printmaker, and painter Käthe Kollwitz. Perhaps best known for her harrowing sculpture of a mother mourning a dead child inside the Neue Wache on Unter den Linden, she also lent her name to one of the city’s most beautiful squares, the posh, leafy Kollwitzplatz, which contains a sculpture of her.
Native son Helmut Newton (1920–2004) pledged this collection of 1,000 photographs to Berlin months before his unexpected death. The man who defined fashion photography in the 1960s through the 1980s was an apprentice to Yva, a Jewish fashion photographer in Berlin in the 1930s. Newton fled Berlin with his family in 1938, and his mentor was killed in a concentration camp. The photographs, now part of the state museum collection, are shown on a rotating basis in the huge Wilhelmine building behind the train station Zoologischer Garten. You'll see anything from racy portraits of models to serene landscapes. There are also rotating exhibitions from other photographers, such as Mario Testino and Jean Pigozzi.
This enjoyable, lesser-known museum of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and functionalist furniture, dishware, jewelry, and paintings is hidden away in plain sight, just across the street from Schloss Charlottenburg. It provides a lovely glimpse into a time when every object was made with great care and artistic creativity—and when artists in booming creative cities like Berlin and Vienna were at the top of their game.
Set in the renovated 1950s-era Amerika Haus building, C/O Berlin focuses on contemporary photography by established and emerging international artists. The gallery's rotating exhibitions have profiled legendary photographers such as Annie Leibovitz and Irving Penn, while its themed group shows have featured the likes of Nan Goldin, Gerhard Richter, and Weegee.
This small modern-art museum holds works by Matisse, Klee, Giacometti, and Picasso, who is particularly well represented with more than 120 works. Heinz Berggruen (1914–2007), a businessman who left Berlin in the 1930s, amassed this fine collection of paintings and sculpture. The museum is closed for major renovations until at least 2025.
