November is the start of the fairy tale season! As part of the Berlin Fairy Tale Days, exciting events for fairy tale fans are offered throughout Berlin. Music plays a special role this year: it brings people together across generations and cultures, offers comfort, inspires hope and brings stories to life in a very special way.

The Berlin Fairy Tale Days are taking place for the 37th time (from 5 to 22 November 2026). This year’s theme is ‘The Magic Flute and the Star Harp – Music in Fairy Tales and Stories’.

Music is far more than a collection of sounds – it is a universal language that brings people together when words alone are not enough. It also works its magic in fairy tales and stories: it can touch hearts, open up new paths and transform loneliness into a sense of community. A well-known example is the Brothers Grimm’s *The Bremen Town Musicians*, in which singing together opens up new horizons for four outsiders. Works such as *The Magic Flute* and *Peter and the Wolf* also demonstrate how music recounts adventures, sparks the imagination and brings people together.

Here at the Käthe Kollwitz Museum, on Sunday 8 November 2026, Sergei Prokofiev’s musical fairy tale *Peter and the Wolf* will come to life as an atmospheric shadow puppet show accompanied by orchestral music.

Berlin Fairy Tale Days November 8, 15.00 until 17.00 at Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum:

Upcoming dates:

• 1 November

• 6 December

Admission € 4
Participation in the programmes included in the admission price.

Kollwitz Sunday – more than just a visit to the museum!

Every first Sunday of the month, the Käthe Kollwitz Museum invites you to a special experience: explore the collection for a special price of just 4 euros, join an exciting guided tour and immerse yourself in the fascinating world of printmaking!
In our open print workshop, you can try out various artistic printing techniques – no prior experience required. During our guided tour, you’ll also learn fascinating insights into the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz.
Join us – be inspired and get creative yourself!

The programmes:

Kollwitz Sunday was initiated to maintain the popular format of the open print workshop even after the free Museum Sunday was cancelled. The positive response from many interested museum visitors has reinforced our decision.

We hope that the reduced admission price of 4 euros will continue to facilitate low-threshold access to our museum for everyone. Children and young people under the age of 18, as well as holders of a valid pass (formerly the BerlinPass), members of the Association of Berlin City Guides, members of the press and members of ICOM will continue to enjoy free admission on Kollwitz Sunday.

Upcoming dates:

• 1 November

• 6 December

12 am – 3 pm

Drop-in offer
from 8 to 99 years
Registration possible on location from 11 am

Entrance fee on KollwitzSunday: 4 €
Participation included in the entrance fee

The museum invites you to a creative printing workshop!

Even adults are allowed here!

Upcoming dates: 

1 November Collagraphy. Building up rather than taking away in relief printing

6 December Printed and celebrated! Designing cards using mixed media

KollwitzSunday

On the first Sunday of every month, the museum opens its doors at a special price of 4 euros. The entrance fee also includes participation in the print workshop.

Children and young people under the age of 18 as well as holders of an authorisation card (formerly berlinpass), members of the Berlin City Guide Association, representatives of the press and members of ICOM continue to enjoy free admission on KollwitzSunday.

Exhibition talks in DGS

Dates:
12 April 2026, 3 p.m.

The special exhibition “Käthe Kollwitz and the Theatre” offers the first comprehensive exploration of Käthe Kollwitz’s passion for the theatre and its influence on her work. It also highlights her family’s close ties to the stage during a formative period in Berlin’s theatrical history.

17 October 2026, 3 p.m.

With the special exhibition ‘Ida Gerhardi – And Everything Danced’, Berlin’s Käthe Kollwitz Museum is shining a spotlight on an extraordinary modernist artist whose significance has long been underestimated. Around 40 paintings and drawings from Gerhardi’s years in Paris around 1905 reveal a painter who moved with confidence through the vibrant metropolis and was one of the first female artists to explore Parisian nightlife and the world of dance as subjects.

Registration is appreciated: bildung@kaethe-kollwitz.de

Participation included in the museum admission price.

WHO AM I – Portrait Workshop

Course days: Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri – 27 to 30 October 2026

Time: 10 AM to 3 PM

Course fee: 80 euros incl. materials

Book online at Jugend im Museum

Course is held in German.

Jugend im Museum
Telephone: 030 – 505 907 71
E-mail: info@jugend-im-museum.de

Woodcarver Klaus Hack

November 15, 2026 to January 10, 2027
Opening: Sunday, November 15, 2026, 11:00

Contrary to the prevailing trend, the sculptor Klaus Hack (born 1966) opted early on for the traditional medium of wood, which offers the ideal conditions for his imaginative art, which straddles the line between surreal creatures and structural forms. In addition to free-standing sculptures, Klaus Hack also creates reliefs and woodcuts, and is an imaginative draughtsman.

After studying under Wilhelm Uhlig in Nuremberg and Rolf Szymanski and Lothar Fischer in Berlin, Hack completed his training as a master student in 1995. He has been working as a freelance artist ever since. Born in Franconia, he now lives in Brandenburg.

Show presentation

Public show presentation

You will have the opportunity to experience the printing press in action and thus familiarise yourself with the artistic technique of lithography and be shown exactly how lithography is done during a demonstration.

Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 11.30 (Printing Arts Day)

Saturday, 7 November 2026, 11.30 (Graphic Design Weekend)

Duration: circa 60 minutes

10,00 € Participation fee and reduced admission

Guidance: Diogo deCalle

Number of participants: maximal 15 people

Registration required via phone 030 – 882 52 10 or via e-mail bildung@kaethe-kollwitz.de

In addition to the two public dates, you also have the option of booking a private demonstration.

Appointment by arrangement
Duration: circa 90 minutes
Number of participants: minimum 5 people, maximum 15 people
Costs: 400 euros, Payment in advance

We look forward to receiving your enquiry!

e-mail: bildung@kaethe-kollwitz.de
phone: 030 – 882 52 10

every two months, one Thursday per month | 17.00 

In April 2023, the popular interactive guided tour format “Slow Art” was reintroduced. This series of mediations, already tested by the Kollwitz Museum, aims to decelerate the museum visit. Every two months, one Thursday per month at 5 p.m., visitors are invited to take a closer look at a few selected works in our current special exhibition.

The slow, independent viewing of art is the focus of Slow Art. Through an unbiased look – at first without information – and the subsequent conversation, a new perspective on the works of art opens up to the visitor.

Duration: ca 60 minutes

Number of participants: min. 3 persons

Costs: reduced entrance fee plus 3 euros participation fee, free of charge for members of the Association of Friends

Registration requested via e-mail to bildung@kaethe-kollwitz.de

Begleitprogramm

SLOW ART GUIDED TOUR
September 3, 2026 at 17:00
with Director Dr. Josephine Gabler

SCENIC READING
Oktober 8, 2026 at 18:00
with Heike Steinweg, photographer and actress, and Dr. Annegret Rittmann, editor of the Gerhardi-Letters

from August 29, until November 1, 2026

The painter Ida Gerhardi (1862–1927) is one of those female artists whose achievements and significance in her own time have been all but forgotten today. After studying at the School for Women Artists in Munich, Gerhardi lived in Paris beginning in 1891, where she established herself as a German artist. She earned a reputation as a portraitist and networker who also facilitated contacts and exhibition opportunities for fellow artists in Paris and elsewhere. She was acquainted with prominent art collectors such as Karl Ernst Osthaus, was a member of the Berlin Secession and the German Artists’ Association, and was a co-founder of the German Lyceum Club. In 1913, Ida Gerhardi was forced to leave Paris due to illness and return to her hometown of Lüdenscheid. She was able to continue her artistic work only to a limited extent.

The exhibition at the Kollwitz Museum is dedicated to Ida Gerhardi’s time in Paris, focusing in particular on her expressive paintings of dance and scenes from Parisian nightlife, as well as her striking self-portraits. Gerhardi strolled through Paris alone and visited dance halls by herself—both of which were highly unusual for a woman at the time. Beginning in 1903, she began to explore these scenes artistically. In art history, she is thus considered a pioneer, as no woman before her had painted these subjects.

During her wanderings through the bars and taverns in 1904, while on her two-month stay in Paris, Käthe Kollwitz had accompanied her, along with the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde (1874–1947). During this time, a deep affection developed between the two artists, which grew into a friendship maintained despite the physical distance. The two women also found common ground artistically in the motif of self-portraits. For this reason, the Kollwitz Museum in Berlin feels compelled to honor this fellow artist of Käthe Kollwitz in an exhibition.

Six years ago, while the museum was still at its old location, there were attempts to organize an exhibition titled Ida Gerhardi “…and everyonw was dancing”. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted two attempts to present this exhibition at the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin. It was only after the move to the Theaterbau and the completion of all construction work that this long-planned exhibition could finally be realized.

It is the artist’s first exhibition in Berlin in 25 years. Back then, the now-defunct Verborgene Museum had dedicated itself to this forgotten body of work. On display are approximately 40 paintings and drawings by Ida Gerhardi, primarily from her time in Paris around 1905.

An accompanying booklet is available (70 pages, numerous illustrations, 10 euros).