The Berlin Museum Pass is a fantastic savings deal giving access to over 30 exhibitions and galleries for three days for only €32.
Culture and art lovers visiting the German capital save big with the cheap Museum Pass Berlin. This savings pass gives free admission to over 30 of Berlin’s top museums, galleries, and exhibitions on three consecutive days for only €32. Almost all of Berlin’s top museums, including the Pergamon and all Museum Island permanent exhibitions, are included in this savings ticket. Free time-slot reservations may be required at some top museums. From September 2025, only digital museum passes are valid.
Save with the Museum Pass Berlin
Berlin has a variety of travel cards and savings passes that make sightseeing and transportation for tourists cheaper but none save more on visits to museums, galleries, and exhibitions than the Museum Pass Berlin.
The Museum Pass Berlin gives admission to over 30 of Berlin’s museums and galleries on three consecutive days for €32. A reduced-price version is also available at €16 mostly for pupils, students, and the unemployed (suitable identification required) but note that under 18s enter many museums for free anyway.
Is the Berlin Museum Pass worth it? Absolutely! The museum pass is fantastic value for money and often pays for itself after four museum visits. The more expensive museums in Berlin charge around €12-€14 (Pergamon DasPanorama, Neues Museum, Neue Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof), or €24 for a Museum Island Berlin day ticket, but even two visits per day to smaller museums should save the bearer of the Museum Pass handsomely.
Buying and Saving with the Berlin Museum Pass
The Museum Pass Berlin is available from the ticket windows of most museums where the card is valid, from many hotels, and from the Visit Berlin tourist information offices.
From September 2025 the museum pass is digital only — buy online, e.g. from SMB.
Time-slot reservations are currently rarely required for museums in Berlin but it is a good idea to book a time slot if possible, especially over weekends and holiday periods. Time-slot reservations may usually be made online for free at any museum website — it is often even possible before buying a ticket or pass.
Although the Museum Pass Berlin is often advertised as “no queues at the museum”, it is NOT a real skip-the-line ticket. At some museums, it is still necessary to pick up a free ticket at the ticket desk. However, if the ticket queues are long, check directly at the entrance.
All the Berlin State Museums now accept the pass at the entrance door without needing a museum-specific ticket, except at major exhibitions when a time-slot reservation is necessary.
For some large museums, including the Alte Nationalgalerie, Pergamonmuseum (closed until 2027), Neues Museum, and Neue Nationalgalerie, it is possible to skip the line by making free online timeslot reservations – see Tickets for the Berlin State Museums for details. (No matter how the ticket was bought, make free reservations for museums where possible.)
Tips on Saving with the Museum Pass Berlin
The Museum Pass Berlin is a great choice when going to several museums, especially if only interested in a smaller part of a museum or even popping in just to see a single item or artwork. Many of Berlin’s larger museums such as the Deutsches Technikmuseum, Neues Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Pergamon, and German History Museum have more to see than anybody could manage in a single day.
Children under 18 have free admission to most (but not all) of Berlin’s museums.
The pass is valid for three calendar days, not 72 hours, so start using it early on the first morning. (The over-ambitious may time the last visit to a museum that is open at night.)
The pass is not transferable – enter names and the date of first use on the card in ink. From September 2025, the museum pass is only available in digital format.
Closed Days Count!
Most museums are closed one day per week but enough museums are open even on Mondays (e.g. in the Humboldt Forum) to fill a busy day of sightseeing. (Many top museums are also closed on Tuesdays since April 2024.)
Museums are usually open on holidays but are very likely to be closed on December 24 and 31.
Normally, the Museum Pass Berlin gives admission to the complete museum but occasionally there may be an additional charge for special temporary exhibitions, and very rarely that surcharge may be compulsory even if interested only in seeing the permanent exhibition.
A few museums are free for a few hours per week, e.g. Neue Nationalgalerie and Hamburger Bahnhof on Thursday evenings and Communication on some Wednesday evenings. Many of the best museums are open for free on the first Sunday of the month (and mostly require online reservations).
Many sights in Berlin are free and thus best seen on day four or five: e.g. Museum in the Kulturbrauerei, Tränenpalast, Berlin Wall Memorial in Bernauer Straße, and Topography of Terror documentation centers. Admission to the Reichstag is free but advance reservations are essential, or book a tour.
Top Museums Covered by the Museum Pass
The Museum Pass Berlin is currently valid at:
- Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery)
- Altes Museum (Old Museum)
- Anne Frank Zentrum
- Bauhaus-Archive / Museum of Design
- Berlinische Galerie
- Berlin Global at the Humboldt Forum
- Bode Museum
- Bröhan-Museum
- Brücke-Museum
- Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) — closed until at least 2026.
- Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen (moved and not yet reopened)
- [no longer valid at the German Spy Museum]
- Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin with Science Center Spectrum (Museum of Technology)
- Ephraim-Palais
- Gemäldegalerie (Old Master Paintings)
- Georg Kolbe Museum
- Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum of Contemporary Art
- Jüdisches Museum Berlin (Jewish Museum Berlin)
- Knoblauchhaus
- Kunstbibliothek (Art Library)
- Kunstgewerbemuseum Kulturforum (Museum of Decorative Arts)
- Kunstgewerbemuseum Schloss Köpenick (Museum of Decorative Arts)
- Kunsthaus Dahlem (House of Arts)
- Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings)
- Märkisches Museum (local history)
- Museum Berggruen (closed until 2025)
- Museum Europäischer Kulturen (Museum of European Cultures)
- Museum für Fotografie (Photography)
- Museum für Kommunikation (Museum for Communication)
- Museum für Naturkunde (Natural History Museum)
- Musikinstrumenten-Museum (Museum of Musical Instruments)
- Neues Museum (New Museum)
- Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery)
- Nikolaikirche
- Pergamon Museum (closed until 2027) but some Greek sculptures are in Das Panorama.
- The Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection
Museums NOT Included
Most of Berlin’s top museums, including all the national state museums, are covered by the Museum Pass Berlin but many of the new, high-tech experience museums that popped up in especially the Berlin-Mitte area of Berlin in recent years are not included.
The fun-to-visit DDR Museum is not covered, nor is the somewhat pricy, but long opening hours and interesting, Wall Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie.
Save with a Berlin Welcome Card
Another savings pass aimed at visitors to Berlin is the Berlin Welcome Card. This savings pass is predominantly a transportation travel card but also gives savings on some sights. The Berlin Welcome Card Museumsinsel includes admission to all the SMB museums on Museums Island while the pricier Berlin Welcome Card All-Inclusive covers many museums and further Berlin sights.
For active museum visits, a Museum Pass Berlin may be worth buying in addition to the Welcome travel card to get free entry rather than just small discounts, although the Museum Pass plus a standard public transport day or week tickets (and sometimes the €58 Deutschland-Ticket) are good combinations too.
More on the Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin):
Note new opening times for many Berlin museums in 2025 — several are now closed on both Monday and Tuesday.
Timeslot reservations are sensible (and sometimes needed in busy periods) for the Alte Nationalgalerie, Gemäldegalerie, Neue Nationalgalerie, Neues Museum, and Pergamon – Das Panorama. (The Pergamon Museum itself is closed until 2027!). Timeslots are released only a few weeks in advance. Online tickets are available from GetYourGuide or SMB.
Many passes and multi-museum tickets offer savings (Kulturforum / Museums Island). Individual museum ticket prices range from €8 to €14 (€20 for special exhibitions). Online tickets are skip-the-line — go directly to the gallery entrance to scan the code.
For more general information on the Berlin State Museums:
- Top National Museums and Galleries in Berlin (brief overview)
- Berlin State Museums: What Is Seen Where? (a short description of the collections in the different museums)
- Opening Hours of Berlin State Museums (2025) — major changes since mid-April 2024!
- Ticket Prices for Berlin State Museums (prices for museums, temporary exhibitions, combination tickets, online time-slot reservations). Buying online from GetYourGuide is easy. A ticket with a QR or bar code is scanned directly at the entrance — no need to pass by the ticket desk (but pick up the free audio guide before entering).
- Save with the Berlin Museum Pass – 30 museums (including all the SMB museums) in three days for €32 – a fantastic savings deal.
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (official website in German & English).
News & Temporary Exhibitions in Berlin in 2025:
- 2025: Top Special Art Exhibitions in Berlin in 2025 & Top Contemporary Art Exhibitions in the Hamburg Bahnhof.
- Museums closed in 2025: The Pergamon Museum is closed until 2027 (some sculptures are on display in Das Panorama), the Museum Berggruen is closed until 2026 (much of its collection is traveling the world), the permanent collection of the German History Museum (Zeughaus) is closed but temporary exhibitions continue in the Pei Building.
More Museum Reviews and Museum-Specific Information:
- Alte Nationalgalerie — 19th-century art.
- Altes Museum — Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art.
- Bode Museum — sculptures from the Middle Ages, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, Byzantine Art, and coins.
- Ethnological and Asian Art Museums in the Humboldtforum.
- Friedrichswerdersche Kirche (free admission) with a collection of 19th-century German sculptures.
- Gemäldegalerie — German and Dutch Old Masters and Italian paintings.
- Kunstgewerbemuseum (Decorative Arts).
- Musical Instruments Museum near the Berliner Philharmonie.
- Neue Nationalgalerie — 20th-century art.
- Neues Museum — Pre and Early History, Egyptian Collection with bust of Nefertiti.
- Pergamon Museum with Ishtar Gate — the whole Pergamonmuseum is closed from 2023 until 2027. Some Greek sculptures are shown in the
- Pergamon Museum Panorama Exhibition with Asisi panoramic painting and Greek statues.
- Photography — Helmut Newton collection and historic photos.
Previous Temporary Exhibitions in Berlin Museums:
- 2024: Overview of Top Berlin Exhibitions in 2024, Caspar David Friedrich in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Frans Hals in the Gemäldegalerie, Neue Nationalgalerie (20th-century art) Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art, Kupferstichkabinett (Prints and Drawings), and Photography Museum.
- 2023: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2023 — overview, in the Kulturforum, in the Neue Nationalgalerie, on Museum Island, and the Museum of Photography.
- 2022: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2022 — overview, in the Kulturforum (David Hockney), in the Neue Nationalgalerie, on Museumsinsel, Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art, and the Museum of Photography.
- 2021: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2021 — including the reopening of the Neue Nationalgalerie, as well as the Ethnological and Asian Art Museums in the Humboldt Forum.
- 2020: Highlights, in Kulturforum, on Museum Island, in the Hamburger Bahnhof, smaller museums, and the opening of the Humboldt Forum.
