Hackesche Höfe Berlin: Art Nouveau courtyards, shops and cafés in Mitte

The Hackesche Höfe are a group of eight interconnected courtyards between Rosenthaler Straße and Sophienstraße, opposite Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station. Opened on 23 September 1906, they were designed by the architect Kurt Berndt; August Endell drew the Art Nouveau façades of the first courtyard. From the start, the courtyards combined flats, workshops, shops and function rooms. They still do: around 80 flats sit alongside nearly forty shops, cafés, a cinema and a variety theatre. Walking through is free, every day from 9am to 10pm.

Highlights

August Endell's first courtyard

On the Rosenthaler Straße side, the first courtyard is the most striking: Endell clad its façades in glazed bricks of several colours, laid in wave-like patterns that break up the building's straight lines. He also designed the function rooms, staircases and restaurants of this courtyard.

The Chamäleon

In the first courtyard, the Chamäleon is a variety theatre devoted to contemporary circus, staging international productions. The Hackesche Höfe Kino, in the same courtyard, shows new releases, festivals and matinees.

The residential courtyards

Beyond the first courtyards, pale façades covered in Virginia creeper and vaulted passages lead to the eighth courtyard and the Sophienstraße exit. People live in these courtyards too, and the atmosphere is calmer.

The shops

The shops are small and often from Berlin: the Ampelmann shop (courtyard 5), devoted to the little man of the East German pedestrian lights, Inge-Glas hand-blown glass decorations (courtyard 5), Trippen shoes and Perlin jewellery (courtyard 4), Askania watches (courtyard 1) and Sawade chocolates (courtyard 2).

Haus Schwarzenberg

Right next door at Rosenthaler Straße 39, an alley covered in street art leads to Kino Central, galleries and two memorial sites. The Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt tells the story of the workshop where Otto Weidt employed blind, visually impaired and deaf Jews to protect them from deportation (free entry). The Anne Frank Zentrum shows the exhibition "Alles über Anne" (€8, reduced €4, free up to age 10).

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