60 min
50 min
U1 · U2 · U3 · U4 · U7 · S1 · S41
10.5 / km²
9
16
545
−9% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Schöneberg
Schoeneberg has been the centre of gay Berlin since the 1920s, around Nollendorfplatz and Motzstrasse, and Christopher Isherwood wrote Goodbye to Berlin from a room on Nollendorfstrasse. Beyond that it is a dense residential district of stucco apartment houses, tree-lined avenues and large squares: Winterfeldtplatz holds the best Saturday market in the city, and the Akazienkiez a few streets south is where people who live here eat.
The trade is obvious. Nothing in the district is on anyone's list of things to see, and Museum Island is an hour on foot. What it does have is five U-Bahn lines and the S-Bahn: Potsdamer Platz is ten minutes, Mitte twenty, and KaDeWe is at the district border. Outside the bar streets around Nollendorfplatz it is quiet by 22:00, which is either the point or the problem depending on the trip.
Book it for a second visit, a longer stay, or any trip where a large room and a full night matter more than walking distance to the Brandenburg Gate.
What works
- Europe's oldest gay quarter, still centred on Nollendorfplatz and Motzstrasse
- Winterfeldtplatz on a Saturday is the best market in Berlin
- Five U-Bahn lines cross the district: Potsdamer Platz in 10 minutes, Mitte in 20
- Rooms are larger and cheaper than Mitte's, and quiet after 22:00
- KaDeWe and the Ku'damm are a walk away at the western edge
What does not
- No sight in the district will be on your itinerary
- An hour on foot to Museum Island, so the U-Bahn is part of every day
- Dead after 22:00 away from the few bar streets around Nollendorfplatz
- The southern half towards Tempelhof is plain residential and worth nothing to a visitor
- Fewer hotels than Charlottenburg or Mitte, so it books out earlier
Schöneberg is the traditional centre of the gay scene in Berlin. Today the borough is partly gentrified and very popular with young families and middle-aged singles and is a very ethnically diverse area with lots of cool shops and cafés.