BERLIN — Berlin is preparing to turn itself into a week-long stage for freedom. From November 7 to 14, 2026, the German capital will host the second Berlin Freedom Week, a city-wide programme of more than 150 events marking the 37th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — and asking, in a world where democracies feel under pressure, what freedom still demands of the people who enjoy it.
The week brings together activists, civil society organisations, cultural and educational institutions, political decision-makers and international partners at venues across the city, under the patronage of Berlin's Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner. Its centrepiece, the Berlin Freedom Conference, takes place on November 10 at the Colosseum cinema. And the programme opens in earnest this week: on Wednesday, November 4, the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel hosts its "DER OSTEN" conference for ideas and changemakers, focused on social and economic developments in eastern Germany, while the official press launch of Freedom Week follows on Friday, November 6, at the Academy of Arts on Pariser Platz.
Illustration: A crowd gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin at dusk, holding small flags and candles during a peaceful public festival.
What Happened
Berlin Freedom Week returns for its second edition after what organisers describe as a successful debut last year. The 2026 programme, published in full at berlin-freedom-week.com, runs from Saturday, November 7, to Saturday, November 14, and spans conferences, panel discussions, guided tours, exhibitions, film screenings, performances and family events — all open to Berliners and international visitors alike.
The timing is deliberate. November 9, 1989, was the night the Berlin Wall fell, when the border crossing at Bornholmer Straße — the Bösebrücke — became the first to open, and East Berliners streamed into the West. November 9 is also a date of darker memory in German history: it marks the November pogroms of 1938, as well as the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918. Freedom Week's programme holds both sides of that history together, pairing celebration of the Peaceful Revolution with remembrance of persecution and dictatorship.
The week's headline conference takes place on Tuesday, November 10, at the Colosseum cinema in Prenzlauer Berg. Under the theme "Change is possible," the full-day Berlin Freedom Conference will bring together representatives from politics, business, civil society, culture and the media across multiple stages, with the stated aim of strengthening democratic alliances against authoritarian regimes worldwide. Speakers announced by the organisers include former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov, American historian and journalist Anne Applebaum, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, security expert Dr Claudia Major, Josephine Ballon of the anti-hate organisation HateAid, and Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo López. The conference will be opened by East German civil rights activist Marianne Birthler.
A day earlier, on Monday, November 9, the German Bundestag hosts the Freedom and Security Women Summit. Its participants include Julia Klöckner, President of the German Bundestag; Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the French National Assembly; Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanouskaya; Iranian-American women's rights activist Masih Alinejad; Afghan tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob; Cuban opposition activist Rosa María Payá; and Uyghur human rights activist Rushan Abbas. The summit is a joint initiative of Evelyn Zupke, the Federal Commissioner for the Victims of the SED Dictatorship, together with My Stealthy Freedom, the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation and Frauen für Freiheit.
Background
Berlin Freedom Week is a joint initiative of the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation, Berlin Freedom Society, the Robert Havemann Society, the World Liberty Congress and visitBerlin, the city's tourism organisation. It is supported by the Berlin Senate Chancellery, Airbnb and Berliner Sparkasse, with Der Tagesspiegel, Deutsche Welle, radio3 and WALL among its media partners. The Berlin Freedom Conference is organised by Berlin Freedom Society in collaboration with the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation, the World Liberty Congress and visitBerlin.
The week is part of a newer tradition: rather than confining the anniversary of the Wall's fall to a single day of commemoration, Berlin now stretches it into a full week of public debate. The first edition in 2025 established the format, and the second edition expands it to more than 150 events — a scale that reflects both the city's history and its present role as a home for exiles, activists and journalists from countries where freedom is restricted.
That history is never far from the programme's surface. The Berlin Wall divided the city from 1961 to 1989, and the Tränenpalast — the "Palace of Tears" departure hall at Friedrichstraße station, where East Germans said goodbye to visitors returning to the West — is one of the week's key venues. So is the former headquarters of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police, and the escape tunnels beneath the city, where guides from Berliner Unterwelten lead tours and eyewitnesses share personal accounts of fleeing the East.
The "DER OSTEN" conference on November 4, which opens the week's orbit of events, is itself in its fourth edition and brings together more than 1,200 participants from politics, business, science and civil society to discuss the most pressing questions facing eastern Germany and beyond — a reminder that reunification, 37 years on, is still a live social and economic story, not a closed chapter.
Illustration: Candles and flowers placed at a preserved concrete segment of the Berlin Wall at a memorial site in Berlin.
Why It Matters
Freedom Week matters for two reasons that pull in opposite directions — and the programme is built to hold both. The first is memory: the people who lived through division are ageing, and the week turns their stories into public encounters rather than museum labels. At the Tränenpalast, the dance performance "BEYOND LINES" by LUNA PARK explores the crossing of boundaries through artistic expression. On guided tours of the escape tunnels, eyewitnesses describe what it meant to risk everything for a border crossing. At the former Stasi headquarters on November 7, the "Ostfrauen*Salon" — the East German Women's Salon — invites visitors to readings, a panel discussion and conversation around a long, shared table, in a building once defined by control, mistrust and isolation.
The second reason is the present. The programme deliberately connects 1989 to today's struggles. On November 11, "Stories of Freedom" at the Colosseum cinema presents international documentary films selected by international juries, telling the stories of people standing up against oppression and injustice — including LGBTQ+ soldiers in Ukraine fighting for their country and for equal rights, and a Syrian investigator bringing a war criminal to justice. Screenings are followed by discussions with filmmakers and an interactive virtual-reality experience, with two free school screenings to help young people explore freedom and human rights.
The discussion "Between Two Dictatorships: Remembrance, Responsibility and Freedom," featuring Holocaust survivor Boris Sabarko and historian Irina Scherbakowa, explores historical memory and human rights. "1989 as a Call to Action: Missed Opportunities? New Perspectives?", on November 12 at the Humboldt Forum, examines what the Peaceful Revolution means for today's social challenges. And "Reassembled" offers an artistic perspective on displacement, home and political persecution through dance, poetry and art by Belarusian artists in exile.
For Berliners, the week also makes a quieter argument: that freedom and social cohesion belong in everyday life, not just in conference halls. On November 12, the "Taiwan Night Market" at Markthalle Neun offers an evening of Taiwanese street food, celebrating the island's culinary culture and the values of an open society. On November 13, the family event "Letters to Political Prisoners in Russia" at Reforum Space Berlin invites adults to write letters to political prisoners while children learn about their stories through an age-appropriate programme. On November 14, a guided tour of the Stasi Records Archive offers insight into the history of state surveillance. Exhibitions running through the week include "Everyday Life in the GDR" and "Skaters & Skateboarders Before and After the Fall of the Wall."
Illustration: A speaker on stage addressing an attentive audience in a large conference hall during a civic event in Berlin.
What Happens Next
The immediate next steps are public and dated. The "DER OSTEN" conference takes place on Wednesday, November 4. The official press launch of Berlin Freedom Week follows on Friday, November 6, at 11 a.m. at the Academy of Arts on Pariser Platz, alongside the opening of the European headquarters of the World Liberty Congress. The week itself opens on Saturday, November 7, with events including the Ostfrauen*Salon at the former Stasi headquarters and guided tours at the Berlin Wall Memorial.
November 9 brings both the Freedom and Security Women Summit at the Bundestag and, in the evening, a gathering at the Bösebrücke — the Bornholmer Straße crossing that opened first on the night the Wall fell — where Berliners are invited to share memories and celebrate the freedom won in the East. November 10 is the Berlin Freedom Conference at the Colosseum, with a press breakfast at 9 a.m. November 11 is "Stories of Freedom" on film; November 12 brings both the Humboldt Forum discussion and the Taiwan Night Market; November 12 and 13 bring the 5th Taiwan Conference at the Berlin State Library, discussing new perspectives on German-Taiwanese relations; and November 13 and 14 close the week with the letters event and the Stasi Records Archive tour.
What happens after the week ends is the harder question the programme itself poses. The conference theme — "Change is possible" — is a claim about the future, not just a slogan about the past. Whether a week of exhibitions, films, conferences and shared tables changes anything beyond its own audience will depend on what visitors, schools, policymakers and the activists who travel to Berlin for it carry home. But as an act of public memory, the week does something concrete: it keeps the story of 1989 in the streets where it happened, told by the people who lived it, in front of the generation that did not.
For anyone planning to attend, the full programme is available at berlin-freedom-week.com, and the conference programme at berlin-freedom-conference.com. Many events are free, and several — including the school film screenings and the guided tours — are designed specifically for first-time visitors to this history.
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FAQ
When is Berlin Freedom Week 2026?
Berlin Freedom Week 2026 runs from Saturday, November 7, to Saturday, November 14, 2026. It is the second edition of the city-wide programme, following its debut in 2025, and it marks the 37th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
How many events are part of Berlin Freedom Week?
More than 150 events are listed in the programme, including conferences, panel discussions, guided tours, exhibitions, film screenings, performances and family events at venues across Berlin. The full programme is published at berlin-freedom-week.com.
What is the Berlin Freedom Conference?
The Berlin Freedom Conference is the centrepiece of the week, taking place on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at the Colosseum cinema in Berlin. Under the theme "Change is possible," it brings together representatives from politics, business, civil society, culture and the media. Announced speakers include Garry Kasparov, Anne Applebaum, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Dr Claudia Major, Josephine Ballon and Leopoldo López, with the conference opened by civil rights activist Marianne Birthler.
What is the Freedom and Security Women Summit?
The Freedom and Security Women Summit takes place on Monday, November 9, 2026, at the German Bundestag. Participants include Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, French National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad, Afghan entrepreneur Roya Mahboob, Cuban activist Rosa María Payá and Uyghur activist Rushan Abbas.
Why is November 9 significant in German history?
November 9, 1989, was the night the Berlin Wall fell, when the Bornholmer Straße crossing became the first border crossing to open. The same date also marks the November pogroms of 1938 and the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918, which is why Freedom Week pairs celebration of the Peaceful Revolution with remembrance of persecution and dictatorship.
Sources
- visitBerlin, "Berlin to Host Second Berlin Freedom Week in November," press release, October 26, 2026.
- visitBerlin, "Media service for Berlin Freedom Week," November 2026.
- berlin.de, "Berlin Freedom Week," event listing, last edited November 2, 2026.
- eGlobal Travel Media, "Berlin Freedom Week Returns to Celebrate Liberty," November 1, 2026.
- Berlin Freedom Week official programme, berlin-freedom-week.com.
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