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visitBERLIN - The city of freedom celebrates the first Berlin Freedom Week
| 2025-10-09 |   |
More than 35 years after the fall of the SED dictatorship and the collapse of Soviet communism, autocrats and dictatorships are once again dominating the global headlines. Berlin, the city of freedom, is taking a stand against this with Berlin Freedom Week and giving freedom fighters and prominent democrats from all over the world a stage: Berlin Freedom Week is taking place in the capital for the first time from 8 to 15 November - with more than 70 events at over 30 locations throughout Berlin. The Berlin Freedom Conference on 10 November in the Gasometer on the EUREF campus will be the centrepiece of the event. Numerous international guests are expected to attend, including civil rights activists, researchers, media professionals and politicians.
Berlin Freedom Week is an offer and an invitation to all Berliners and interested visitors to the city. Museums, embassies, theatres and historical sites offer a variety of formats. The focus is on the special significance of freedom for Berlin as well as the topic in the current global context.
Central highlight: the Berlin Freedom Conference
A highlight of Freedom Week is the Berlin Freedom Conference on 10 November. Stakeholders from politics, business, civil society and the media will come together at the Schöneberger Gasometer. In keynote speeches and panels, they will discuss how freedom and democracy can be protected and strengthened in times of strengthening autocracies.
Guests include the Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk, the Russian journalist and civil rights activist Vladimir Kara-Mursa, Ben Hodges, former Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces in Europe, and the Director of the German Economic Institute, Professor Dr Michael Hüther. Speakers from the World Liberty Congress include the President and renowned Iranian journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad and the Venezuelan politician and freedom activist Leopoldo López.
Travelling throughout Berlin: the Berlin Freedom Mobil
The speakers of Berlin Freedom Week will be on a Berlin Freedom Week Mobil in public spaces. Between 8 and 15 November, the mobile stage will stop for around five hours a day at central and symbolic locations. Guests can expect a varied programme with stage performances, film screenings, audio installations and interactive elements. The centrepiece is the 1:1 replica of the Freedom Bell, which was donated to West Berlin by 16 million US citizens in 1950 and ceremoniously hung in Schöneberg Town Hall. The project is curated and designed by Beier+Wellach, in co-operation with the Ernst Reuter Archive, the Airlift Donation Foundation and the American Jewish Committee. It is sponsored by the German Postcode Lottery. All stations and speakers will be published on the website in good time.
From book to film
The programme ranges from film and literature, theatre and art to workshops and dialogues: Stories of Freedom" at the Colosseum film theatre will feature ten films and panels with international dissidents. The focus here is on "Women as the voice of freedom". "Who, if not us?" is the screening of a documentary about three women who are fighting tirelessly for a democratic Belarus after the protests of 2020. At the Future Freedom Lab at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, young people will find workshops, dialogues and creative formats that make it possible to experience and shape democracy. The book presentation "Two, Three Blue Eyes" by Victor Schefé at the Tränenpalast provides a literary reference to freedom. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk will read from his book "Freedom Shock" in the conference room of the DDR Museum. The Chinese exile artist Badiucao and the American journalist Melissa Chan talk about art, activism and censorship at the Literaturhaus at "You Must Take Part in the Revolution". Theatre also plays a role in Freedom Week, including at Pfefferberg with the historical drama "The Trial of Hans Litten" about freedom, justice and dictatorship. Berlin and its history can be experienced first-hand during Berlin Freedom Week, for example on a multimedia tour of the former border strip. At "Autumn '89", the German Historical Museum invites visitors to share their personal experiences during the fall of the Wall.
Messages in embassies
Several embassies are hosting information and dialogue events: At the French embassy, leaders from politics and the tech industry will meet at the "Freedom & Defence Tech Forum". At the Polish embassy, the panel discussion "Security is Freedom" will focus on the role of women as security policy actors. "Nordic Freedom": Guided tours in the Nordic embassies and through an interactive exhibition show how democracy is lived in Danish community culture. The letter workshop at Libereco in Mitte aims to send out messages of hope and solidarity: Participants write postcards together with former political prisoners from Belarus to people who are currently imprisoned there.
