Culture buffs, architecture geeks and general history fanatics, rejoice - starting next year, multiple museums in Berlin will be offering free entry on one Sunday per month!

State and federal museums in Berlin free on Sundays

Last week, the Senator for Culture, Klaus Lederer, confirmed that from January 2020 all museums run by the state of Berlin will not charge for admission on one Sunday a month. The entry-free Sunday, also known as the “Family Sunday” (Familiensonntag), will apply to the German Museum of Technology, the Georg Kolbe-, Bröhan- and Brücke Museums, and the Stadtmuseum Berlin Museums (including Märkisches Museum, Nikolaikirche, Ephraim-Palais and Knoblauchhaus).

It is then almost certain that, from 2020, some of the capital’s federal museums will also start to offer entry-free Sundays. This would include some of Berlin's biggest attractions, including the museums on Museuminsel, the Neue Nationalgalerie and the Hamburger Bahnhof, as promised by Commissioner for Culture and Media Monika Grütters earlier this month: “Of course, the federal museums will join in - without us, in return, demanding that Berlin compensate for the loss of revenue.”

Political squabbles over who foots the bill

If you’re registering a bit of a sting in that statement, you’d be right. Lederer and Grütters actually had something of a disagreement earlier this year over plans for Berlin’s latest grand museum project, the Humboldt Forum. Grütters' dream project of keeping entry to the Forum free for the first three years was apparently scuppered when Lederer refused to grant access to Berlin’s 4.000-square-metre exhibition space if the federal government wasn’t prepared to make up for this loss of revenue.

“Berlin has always taken the position that free admission […] must be paid by the federal government,” Lederer was reported as saying. The government roundly rejected his suggestion and, in deciding to join in with entry-free Sundays in Berlin without demanding that the Senate foot the bill, has made its point rather clear.