Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin
Special opening hours during events
Schoolchildren, students, retirees, unemployed persons and recipients of ALG II, recipients under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act and severely disabled persons are entitled to reduced prices on presentation of proof.
Visitors who are holders of mark B disability cards and comparable international IDs are entitled to a free ticket to all events for one accompanying person.
Please also note special reduced admission for selected programmes.
Free entry on Mondays.
The exhibition opening ›Global Fascisms‹ on Friday, 12 SEP 2025, 6.30pm—midnight is free of charge.
Equipment for visually impaired
Equipment for blind people
Elevators accessible to wheelchairs
Parking for people with disabilities
WC accessible to wheelchairs
Parking available
Equal participation in and accessibility to exhibitions, cultural events, and performances is important to HKW. Below you will find detailed information on childcare, barrier-free transportation to and from HKW, and the forms of accessibility within the building.
Bus and subway services
All buses are barrier-free (excluding the 218 Bus). Most underground subway (U-Bahn) stations have step-free access and include folding ramps, but not all. The U5 and 100 bus are the most direct, barrier-free forms of transport to HKW:
- The U5 brings you to the ›Bundestag‹ stop and has elevator access. From there, one can head westward to reach the step-free back entrance or the Spree side entrance past the restaurant.
- The 100 Bus brings you to the ›Haus der Kulturen der Welt‹ stop located directly in front of HKW on John-Foster-Dulles-Allee. From the stop, one can follow the driveway of HKW to the two front entrances. Both entrances have step-free access.
To plan a barrier-free trip to HKW from anywhere in the city, visit the BVG website.
For more information on how to get to HKW, please go to the Visit page.
The following PDF is a detailed guide to the modes of transport in Berlin and their accessibility.
For persons with strollers, mobility aids, or those who prefer to avoid stairs
HKW is accessible via the barrier-free, step-free Itō Noe Entrance located off John-Foster-Dulles-Allee. Two other barrier-free entrances are located on the east side of the building and on the Spree side of the building. There are also automatic doors located on the Spree side of the building.Barrier-free passage from the Itō Noe Entrance to Restaurant Weltwirtschaft is possible via the Bessie Head Foyer by taking the lift in the Sylvia Wynter Foyer down one floor. Wheelchairs and folding chairs are available in the Sylvia Wynter Foyer. From the mezzanine floor, the roof terrace is accessible by lift. We would be happy help you plan routes and options for your visit. Send an email to [email protected] and we will call you back, or speak to our team during events.
Please note:
- Restaurant Weltwirtschaft has barrier-free access only via an entrance located on the side of the building that is closest to the Spree unless you enter via inside HKW from the bottom floor.
- Two barrier-free parking spots are in front of the main lobby’s right entrance; another is on the left side of the building, next to the gate in front of the eastern driveway to the building.
- The front entrances of the building have wheelchair-height intercom systems.
For persons who are partially sighted or blind
A floor guidance system leads from the Haus der Kulturen der Welt bus stop (Bus 100) to the main entrance. Outside this entrance, a table with a tactile model offers orientation about the different levels of the building. Here, information about the architecture of the building and its surroundings are provided in braille and are marked by strong visual contrasts. In addition, glass doors are labelled with safety markings and the elevators are equipped with braille panels and the stops are announced.
Additional accessibility
The basement and mezzanine each contain two gender-neutral restrooms that have step-free accessibility.
Most of the signage throughout the HKW building is written in German, but much of the exhibition and event texts as well as accompanying materials and books are published in English.
Tickets
Visitors who are holders of mark B disability cards and comparable international IDs are entitled to reduced ticket prices for all events and a free ticket for a companion. You can get your tickets by calling +49 30 397 87 175.
Feedback
HKW is committed to improving all facets of accessibility. Your feedback can help us in that regard. We appreciate your questions and suggestions: [email protected] or +49 30 397 87 175.
S+U Hauptbahnhof and Brandenburger Tor
U Bundestag
Bus 100
Boat station Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) is guided by the quest for strategies of how to live and better inhabit this world together. It is a house in which cultures of conviviality and hospitality are sown, nurtured to blossoming, and disseminated. It is a physical and affective space in which everyone has the possibility of breathing. To breathe and let breathe. A house in which respect for living and non-living beings is fundamental and shapes our understanding of cultures.
HKW highlights the notion of ›Welt‹ in its name. It proposes concepts of the world that embrace pluralities of cultures, epistemologies, sociopolitics, spiritualities, and ways of being in the world. This plurality of ›worlds‹ manifests itself in the deliberations on and acknowledgement of the malleability and processuality of the worlds we have historically shaped and continue to shape. The world is not a noun, but a verb: to unworld, to world, and to reworld.
Berlin is host to citizens from 170 nations from around the world, and these people and their communities are fundamental in shaping HKW, not as subjects or visitors only, but as fellow travellers and co-makers of the programme. The programme is anchored around migrant-situated knowledges and the realities of the plethora of beings and histories that constitute our worlds today. The task at hand is to make HKW a house of multiplicities and international encounters. These cultures are lived and experienced rather than othered, or merely displayed.
In an era in which humanity is questioned, put to the test, and negated around the world through the perpetration of varying forms of injustice, HKW adopts the emancipatory maxim of the Haitian Revolution (1791—1804) Tout Moun Se Moun to emphasize the spirit in which we work. It proclaims that every person is a human being, that we are all equal before the law, and that no human life is more important than another. Also embedded in Tout Moun Se Moun is the acknowledgement of the worlds of animal, plant, fungi, single and multicellular species, as well as non-living species that, too, are entitled to their spaces and co-existence in our world.
In, around, and associated with Haus der Kulturen der Welt there is no space for, nor tolerance towards, hate speech or hate actions of any kind. There is no space for ageism, anti-Semitism, gender discrimination, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and the like. HKW shall be a space in which love, respect, and generosity are realised through daily practice.