This Week in Berlin: Week 17 (April 20–26, 2026)

Mid-April is supposed to be a lull. Easter is two weeks behind us, May Day is still ten days off, and Gallery Weekend doesn't open until May 1. On paper, Week 17 should be the kind of week when locals take long lunches and visitors drift between museums.

It isn't. Two international film festivals overlap this week. A major Marina Abramović exhibition just opened. The cherry blossoms are holding on for one last weekend. And the Schaubühne is staging Virginia Woolf on three consecutive nights.

The gap between Easter and May is the quietest-on-paper, densest-in-reality week of the Berlin spring. Here's what's actually happening.

1. achtung berlin wraps up (Mon–Wed, April 20–22)

The 22nd edition of achtung berlin — Berlin's second-largest film festival after the Berlinale, and the one that actually focuses on films made in and about the region — closes on Wednesday. Around 80 features, documentaries, shorts and series screen across nine cinemas, with a prize fund over €35,000.

The closing days still include competition screenings at Colosseum (Prenzlauer Berg), Babylon Mitte, City Kino Wedding, Wolf Kino and IL KINO (Neukölln), and BALI Kino (Zehlendorf). The Female Rage panel on April 21 at Volksbühne's Grüner Salon is worth a look if you read German.

This is where you see the next generation of Berlin filmmakers first. The Berlinale brings Cate Blanchett. achtung berlin shows you what DFFB students are making — which is often more interesting.

Tickets: €10 regular, €13 Sunday brunch screening. Full programme: achtungberlin.de

2. Marina Abramović opens at Gropius Bau

Abramović's first major solo exhibition in Berlin since the 1990s. Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition opened April 15 and runs through August 23, anchored by sculptural installations, video works and live performances — including the daily Nude with Skeleton piece (every day except Tuesdays).

The work draws on Balkan folk ritual, with the body as a collective rather than private medium. It's Abramović at her most confrontational: war, mortality, eroticism, grief. Not a show for children, and the content advisory — nudity, self-injury, racist violence — is accurate.

A second chapter opens in October 2026 as a stage production at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. This is the exhibition half.

Where: Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Kreuzberg Hours: Wed–Mon 10–19:00. Closed Tuesday. Tickets: From €14. Advance booking recommended for weekend slots.

3. ALFILM Arab Film Festival opens (Wed April 22–28)

The 17th ALFILM opens at HAU1 on Wednesday evening with Annemarie Jacir's Palestine 36, set on the eve of the 1936 Palestinian uprising against British colonial rule. The festival runs through April 28, with this year's Spotlight — Sudan: New Projections — curated for the first time by a guest: Sudan Film Factory founder Talal Afifi.

Highlights worth planning around:

• Wed 22 April, 19:00 — Palestine 36 opening, HAU1

• Thu 23 April, 19:00 — Suzannah Mirghani's Cotton Queen, HAU1

• Fri 24 April — festival party at Festsaal Kreuzberg

• Sun 26 April, 19:00 — Marwan Hamed's El Sett, a biographical film about Umm Kulthum

Venues include HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Kino Arsenal, City Kino Wedding, silent green, Sinema Transtopia, Wolf Kino and Gretchen. Most films have English subtitles.

Tickets and programme: alfilm.berlin

4. Orlando at Schaubühne (Fri–Sun, April 24–26)

Katie Mitchell's staging of Virginia Woolf's Orlando returns to the Schaubühne for three performances — a co-production that has previously travelled to Paris, Lisbon, Madrid and Gothenburg. Jenny König anchors a large ensemble, and Mitchell's signature live-video layer is part of the performance, not a gimmick. The show runs about three hours.

When: Fri 24 April 18:30 / Sat 25 April 20:30 / Sun 26 April 15:00 Where: Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Kurfürstendamm 153, Charlottenburg Tickets: From €17.40. Performed in German with English surtitles.

A rare weekend when the best theatre in the city is also in the most underrated neighbourhood for visitors.

5. Brancusi at Neue Nationalgalerie (still on)

Not new, but still unrepeatable. Over 150 works by Constantin Brancusi on loan from the Centre Pompidou — including The Kiss, Bird in Space, Sleeping Muse and the Endless Column. The partial reconstruction of his Paris studio is the real revelation: it's the first time these elements have left Paris since Brancusi willed them to the French state in 1957.

The exhibition exists because the Pompidou closed for a five-year renovation. Berlin got lucky. When it closes on August 9, the works go back into storage until the new Pompidou opens.

Where: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, Mitte Hours: Mon/Wed/Thu/Fri 12–19:00, Sat–Sun 10–19:00. Closed Tuesday. Tickets: €14. Book a time slot in advance.

6. Hertha BSC vs Holstein Kiel (Sat April 25, 13:00)

Second-division football at the Olympiastadion. Hertha BSC is mid-table in 2. Bundesliga; Holstein Kiel is fighting relegation. Kickoff 13:00, which makes this one of the few matches you can actually pair with a full afternoon afterwards.

There are 1,000 discounted tickets at €18.92 in blocks M, N and O (a Coca-Cola/Powerade partnership). Regular tickets from €28.50.

The real attraction isn't the football — it's the stadium itself. Werner March's 1936 design is the most politically loaded architectural space in Berlin after Tempelhof. Go for that, stay for the game.

Where: Olympiastadion Berlin Transport: S3/S9 Olympiastadion or U2 Olympia-Stadion.

7. Cherry blossoms: the closing weekend

Peak bloom was the weekend just past — April 11–12, when the Gardens of the World in Marzahn hosted its annual Hanami festival and pulled around 25,000 visitors. By Week 17, the later-blooming varieties are still holding, and the crowds have largely dispersed.

Three spots worth a morning walk this weekend, in order of local-to-tourist ratio:

• Cecilengärten, Friedenau — a quiet 1920s residential complex with mature sakura alleys at its northern and southern tips. Almost nobody goes here.

• Landschaftspark Nord-Ost — over 1,300 trees, still underrated because it's a long U-Bahn ride from the centre.

• Bornholmer Straße — trees planted along the former Wall crossing in 1990, donated by Japanese TV station TV-Asahi to mark reunification. A short, easy walk from S-Bahn Bornholmer Straße.

By the following weekend, most of these will be carpeted in fallen petals. The window is closing.

The Berlin Reality Check

Mid-April is routinely called a "shoulder week" in travel writing. Looking at the cultural calendar, it isn't. Two international film festivals are running simultaneously. A museum under a Mies van der Rohe roof is showing Brancusi. Abramović just opened in Kreuzberg. Woolf is on at the Schaubühne.

The genuinely quiet weeks in Berlin are January and early November. The weeks that look quiet — because they fall between named holidays — often turn out to be the easiest to travel in: hotel prices are lower, queues are shorter, and the city stops performing for you.

Quick Reference

What	When	Where	Price
achtung berlin finale	Mon 20–Wed 22 April	9 cinemas	€10–13
Marina Abramović	Through 23 August	Gropius Bau, Kreuzberg	From €14
ALFILM opens	Wed 22 April–28 April	HAU1 + 7 other venues	Varies
Orlando at Schaubühne	Fri 24–Sun 26 April	Charlottenburg	From €17.40
Brancusi	Through 9 August	Neue Nationalgalerie	€14
Hertha BSC – Holstein Kiel	Sat 25 April, 13:00	Olympiastadion	From €18.92
Cherry blossoms	Whole weekend	Cecilengärten / Bornholmer	Free

Getting around this week

Most of these events are within BVG zone AB. A day pass is €10.60. If you're visiting and plan to do three or more in a week, the WelcomeCard is worth calculating against single tickets.

Charlottenburg (Schaubühne) and Kreuzberg (Gropius Bau) are both about 25 minutes apart on the U1 — you could, in theory, see Abramović in the afternoon and Orlando in the evening on Saturday. Whether you should is another question.