This Week in Berlin: March 23–29, 2026

A banned ballet arrives from Russia, the city's sweetest market takes a world tour, and 13,000 runners reclaim the streets. Our curated weekly picks.

Brancusi's sculptures are three days old in their new Mies van der Rohe home. MaerzMusik closes out ten days of sound experiments across the city. And on Sunday, two utterly different crowds will occupy Berlin simultaneously: 13,000 half-marathon runners crossing the finish line at Brandenburg Gate, and a hall full of sweet-toothed Kreuzberg visitors tasting mochi and alfajores under 135-year-old iron beams.

That's a normal week here.

1. Nureyev — The Ballet Russia Banned

The Bolshoi Theatre premiered this ballet in 2017. In 2022, Russia removed it from the repertoire — officially because it violated new laws banning "propaganda of non-traditional values." The real reason: the production tells the full story of Rudolf Nureyev, including his relationships with men, his defection to the West, and his refusal to separate his art from his identity.

Now, the Staatsballett Berlin is staging Nureyev for the first time outside Russia, at the Deutsche Oper in Charlottenburg. It's a production of unusual scale — 141 performers spanning ballet, opera, and theatre, with choreography by Yuri Possokhov and direction by Kirill Serebrennikov, who has lived in exile since leaving Russia. The story unfolds through a staged auction of Nureyev's personal belongings, weaving together scenes from his career, his famous escape at Le Bourget airport, and the private life that made him an icon beyond ballet.

Two performances this week: Tuesday March 24 and Wednesday March 25, both at 19:30.

Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bismarckstraße 35, Charlottenburg. Tickets from €52. deutscheoperberlin.de

2. Brancusi — First Full Week

The Neue Nationalgalerie's biggest exhibition of 2026 opened last Thursday and this is the week to see it before word spreads. Over 150 sculptures, photographs, and archival materials — the most comprehensive Brancusi survey ever assembled, organized with the Centre Pompidou (currently closed for five years of renovation, which is partly why these works are here at all).

The highlights: The Kiss, Bird in Space, Sleeping Muse, and a partial reconstruction of Brancusi's Paris studio, shown outside France for the first time since the artist bequeathed it to the state in 1957. The glass-walled Mies van der Rohe building — all open space and light — may be the ideal setting for sculpture that reduces form to its essence.

The exhibition runs until August 9, but the opening weeks are when the crowds are smallest. The Centre Pompidou collaboration of this scale won't come to Berlin again.

Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, Mitte. Tue–Sun. smb.museum

3. MaerzMusik — Closing Weekend

Berlin's festival for contemporary and experimental music reaches its final days. Now in its 25th edition, MaerzMusik has been scattered across venues from the Haus der Berliner Festspiele to silent green in Wedding and a former factory hall in Oberschöneweide.

If you missed the 50-piano installation that opened the festival, the closing weekend still has dense programming. This isn't background listening — it's the kind of music Berlin commissions and stages better than anywhere else, precisely because the city still has spaces weird enough to host it.

Various venues across Berlin. Through March 29. Individual tickets from €12. berlinerfestspiele.de

4. Naschmarkt International — A Sweet World Tour in Kreuzberg

On Sunday, Markthalle Neun transforms into something between a food festival and a cultural exchange program. The Naschmarkt — Berlin's annual celebration of handmade sweets — goes international this year, with confectioners, chocolatiers, and pâtissiers bringing specialties that trace migration routes: Argentine alfajores, Armenian gata, Brazilian brigadeiros, Japanese mochi, and bean-to-bar chocolate made in Wedding.

There's a live conching demonstration (watch cocoa beans become finished chocolate), a children's program in the Kochschule Neun, and the "Süße Schnecke" award for the market's best product at 16:30. The hall itself — built in 1891, preserved as a working market rather than a tourist attraction — is half the experience.

Markthalle Neun, Eisenbahnstraße 42/43, Kreuzberg. Sunday March 29, 11:00–18:00. €5 entry (€3 from 16:00). Free for kids under 14 and local residents (PLZ 10997). markthalleneun.de

5. Berlin Half Marathon — 45th Edition

Sunday morning, the city belongs to runners. The Generali Berlin Half Marathon — one of the fastest courses in the world, flat and sheltered — starts at the Brandenburg Gate and loops 21 kilometers through Mitte, Kreuzberg, Neukölln, and Friedrichshain before returning to a finish between the Reichstag and the Victory Column.

The race has been the site of the last seven world half-marathon records, and this year joins the SuperHalfs series alongside Lisbon, Prague, Copenhagen, Cardiff, and Valencia. Registration closed months ago, but the Expo at Tempelhof Airport (Friday–Saturday) is open to everyone, and spectating on race day is free and surprisingly moving — 13,000 runners and an entire city cheering them through.

New this year: the Garmin Berlin Mile on Saturday — a 1.6 km race on the final stretch of the half-marathon course, open to all.

Start/finish: Straße des 17. Juni, Mitte. Sunday March 29, from 09:15 (inline skaters), 10:05 (runners). Expo: Tempelhof Airport, Friday March 27 (09:00–20:00) and Saturday March 28 (09:00–19:00). Free entry. generali-berliner-halbmarathon.de

6. Spring Funfair Opens Near Tegel

Berlin's first big funfair of the year launches Saturday at the Zentraler Festplatz near the former Tegel Airport. Rides, roller coasters, Ferris wheel, Bratwurst, and fireworks on weekends. It's not cultural, it's not curated, and it's not trying to be anything other than what it is: loud, greasy, and exactly right for the first warm weekend of the year.

Runs through May 3.

Zentraler Festplatz, Kurt-Schumacher-Damm, Reinickendorf. Opens Saturday March 28. Free entry (rides cost individually).

7. Van Gogh: Between Madness and Wonder — Still Running at RAW

The immersive Van Gogh exhibition on the RAW-Gelände in Friedrichshain has been running since September and continues through at least June. It's a 360-degree projection experience focused on Van Gogh's final years — the period in Arles, Saint-Rémy, and Auvers-sur-Oise where he produced the work the world now puts on tote bags.

What sets this one apart from the dozens of immersive Van Gogh shows touring globally: it centers the correspondence between Vincent and his brother Theo, using the letters as narrative structure rather than just projecting Starry Night on a wall. Whether that's enough to justify €20 depends on your tolerance for "experience economy" exhibitions — but the RAW-Gelände location, a former train repair hall that's now Berlin's most contested piece of real estate, adds genuine atmosphere.

New Media Art Center, Revaler Straße 99, Friedrichshain (RAW-Gelände). Daily 10:00–20:00. From €20. vincent-immersiv.de

The Berlin Reality Check

A banned Russian ballet, a Romanian sculptor in a German modernist glass box built by a man who fled to America, and a Kreuzberg market hall where Argentine confectioners sell cookies to Wedding chocolate-makers — all in the same week, none of it planned as a theme. Berlin doesn't curate its own contradictions. They just show up, every seven days, and overlap.

Quick Reference

Event	When	Where	Price
Nureyev ballet	Tue 24 & Wed 25 Mar, 19:30	Deutsche Oper, Charlottenburg	From €52
Brancusi exhibition	Now – Aug 9 (Tue–Sun)	Neue Nationalgalerie, Mitte	Standard museum entry
MaerzMusik closing	Through Mar 29	Various venues	From €12
Naschmarkt International	Sun 29 Mar, 11:00–18:00	Markthalle Neun, Kreuzberg	€5 (€3 from 16:00)
Half Marathon	Sun 29 Mar, from 09:15	Start: Brandenburg Gate	Free to spectate
Half Marathon Expo	Fri 27–Sat 28 Mar	Tempelhof Airport	Free
Spring Funfair	Opens Sat 28 Mar	Zentraler Festplatz, Reinickendorf	Free entry
Van Gogh Immersive	Ongoing, daily 10–20	RAW-Gelände, Friedrichshain	From €20