--- title: "Berlin Backyards" date: 2025-05-13 last_modified: 2025-09-19T12:04:49+02:00 generated_at: 2026-06-08T22:01:09Z url: "https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/en/exhibition/berlin-backyards" description: "Photographs and graphics offer fascinating insights into the hidden open spaces behind Berlin's walls." image: "https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/berliner-hoefe-hauptmotiv.jpg" language: "en-US" --- # Berlin Backyards ### **Between everyday life, labour and encounters** ![]() ![Plakatmotiv © Stadtmuseum Berlin/ Gestaltung: Groupe-Dejour.de](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/EP_Berliner-Hoefe_1080x1350px.png) ![Blick auf der Vogelperspektive in die industriell geprägten Gründerzeit-Hinterhöfe](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SM-2020-00647-10047-a_web-1.jpg) ![Leierkastenmann und tanzende Paare in einem Berliner Hinterhof](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SM-2012-441014_web.jpg) ![Abblätterndes Motiv klassizistischer Säulen mit Bäumen auf einer verwitterten Brandmauer](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SM-2023-0126121_web.jpg) ![Zum Trocknen aufgehängte Wäsche in einem verfallenen Hinterhof, aus dem einzigen Fenster blickt ein Mann mit nacktem Oberkörper und verstränkten Armen auf die Fensterbank gelehnt in die Kamera](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SM-2022-0078316_web.jpg) ![Drei Männer schieben eine mit Kisten beladene Karre durch einen Hinterhof](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Cagatay_CY493_web.jpg) ![Altbau mit Hinterhof und Umfassungsmauer inmitten von Neubauten in Berlins Mitte](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SM-2025-0116411_web-1.jpg) - Berlin is the city of backyards: dense, diverse, lively. Who meets here? How are these spaces changing? And what is going on there? **Location** Museum Ephraim-Palais Poststraße 16 10178 Berlin **Opening Hours** Tue – Sun | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (also on public holidays) Mon closed **Tickets** 7 euros (single ticket) | 15 euros (combi-ticket\*) | free admission (under 18 years or with reduction) \* Valid for our three museums in the Nikolaiviertel (Museum Nikolaikirche, Museum Ephraim-Palais, Museum Knoblauchhaus) on two consecutive days . Berlin backyards have a lot to tell. Since the industrial revolution in the 19th century at the latest, Berlin has been a center of attraction for people from other regions of Germany and from other countries. The history of the city has therefore always been a history of migration. Due to enormous population growth, spatial expansion and structural densification, Berlin is characterized by backyards like no other city. They are used for residential, educational, commercial, artistic, culinaric and many other purposes. Their history is diverse, just like the people who live there. With the special exhibition “Berliner Höfe” (Berlin Backyards) on the 3rd floor of the Museum Ephraim-Palais, the Stadtmuseum Berlin invites you to explore these urban spaces between past and present. The backyards are exemplary of urban coexistence with all its contradictions. They show how people shape space. And they encourage us to take a closer look: What can backyards tell us about Berlin? What about ourselves? In short: What is going on there? ![Junge auf Tretroller vor Toreinfahrt in einen Hinterhof, darüber deutsch- und türkischsprachige Werbung](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/berliner-hoefe-hauptmotiv-226x300.jpg) ### Graphics, photography and history The special atmosphere of the Berlin backyards has repeatedly inspired graphic artists, draughtsmen and photographers to create images. In the exhibition, highlights from the museum collection meet the artistic works of urban researchers Duygu Örs and Sinthujan Varatharajah, which were created especially for “Berliner Höfe”. Using sounds and light, they deal with different sensory impressions from backyards that Örs and Varatharajah encountered in Wedding. In addition, the junior curators from the Refik Veseli School in Kreuzberg and their mentor Yella Hoepfner present their own spaces in the permanent exhibition “BerlinZEIT” on the first and second floors of the museum. Their individual stories interact with objects from the collection. ##### Biographical data **Duygu Örs** is a researcher, art educator and curator specialising in cultural and urban research. Since 2019 she has headed the education and mediation work of the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, since 2025 with Jas Wenzel. At the Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organisation (ISKO) at Leuphana University Lüneburg, she is working on the role of the museum in the ‘Right to the City’ movement.‍ She is also a co-founder of the curatorial research collective Curating through Conflict with Care (CCC). Translated with DeepL.com (free version) **Sinthujan Varatarajah** (சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா) writes and researches in Berlin. As a political geographer, Varatarajah focuses on issues of statelessness, im-/mobility and displacement from the perspective of infrastructure, logistics and building culture. Varatarajah has published several books since 2022. Varatarajah's next book, ‘Where Time Stands Still’, will be published by Carl Hanser Verlag in spring 2026. ## Your Berlin Backyards - [ ![Hinterhof-Detail mit sommerlichen Bäumen, bunt bemalten Wänden, Blumenbeet, bepflanzten Zinkbadewannen und Kinder-Tretroller](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/berlin-jetzt-berliner-hoefe-web-300x198.jpg) ### Berlin Backyards Accompanying the special exhibition ‘Berlin Backyards’ on the 3rd floor of the Ephraim-Palais Museum, the Stadtmuseum Berlin once again invited the public to take part in its participatory project “Berlin jetzt!”. More than 1,700 photos of Berlin’s courtyards were submitted – take a look! Mehr erfahren ](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/en/berlin-jetzt/berlin-backyards) What the press says: > "So let's go to the Ephraim Palace again. It's well worth it. The city museum has succeeded in creating an exceptionally high-quality exhibition with a great feel for the city." Berliner Zeitung ![]() ![Der Eingang zum Ausstellungsbereich ist von Briefkästen flankiert](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/web-56-20250717-berliner-hoefe-4817.jpg) Just like in real life: past the post boxes, you enter the ‘Berlin Courtyards’. ![Besucher vor Bildern in der Ausstellung](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/web-49-20250717-berliner-hoefe-4778.jpg) Visitors at the exhibition. ![Eine junge Besucherin betrachtet historische Fotografien](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/web-berliner-hoefe-christian-kielmann-1.jpg) Historical photographs take you back to the past of Berlin's backyards. ![Nahaufnahme eines Besuchers, das das Farbfoto eines Hinterhofs mit Murials betrachtet](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/web-berliner-hoefe-christian-kielmann-3.jpg) Large-format reproduction of a backyard scene with murals in the exhibition. ![Zwei sitzende Jugendliche an einer Hörstation](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/web-3-20250717-berliner-hoefe-4518.jpg) The ‘Berlin Backyards’ are also part of the permanent exhibition ‘BerlinZEIT’, like this audio station. ![Nahaufnahme einer Leuchtwand mit Hinterhof-Farbfotos](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/web-9-20250717-berliner-hoefe-4563.jpg) Young people's perspectives in the permanent exhibition. ## Permanent exhibition Also visit our large Berlin exhibition on the 1st and 2nd floors of the Museum Ephraim-Palais! ![Das Plakatmotiv zur Ausstellung](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/berlinzeit-plakat-212x300.jpg) ### BerlinZEIT **The city makes hitory!** Visit our comprehensive exhibition on Berlin's city history in the Museum Ephraim-Palais. Lear more ## Info & Service ##### Opening Hours Tue – Sun | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (also on public holidays) Mon closed The [visitor rules](https://staging.stadtmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/besuchsordnung-stadtmuseum-berln.pdf) of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin apply. ##### Directions Poststraße 16 10178 Berlin [ Google Maps](https://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=de&geocode=&q=Ephraim-Palais%2C%20Poststra%C3%9Fe%2C%20Berlin&aq=0&oq=Ephraim&sll=52.520399%2C13.774109&sspn=0.482148%2C1.065674&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=Ephraim-Palais%2C&hnear=Poststra%C3%9Fe%2C%2010178%20Berlin&ll=52.515855%2C13.408406&spn=0.008031%2C0.018797&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A&cid=18287331903694586850) [ Bus & Bahn](https://www.bvg.de/de/verbindungen/verbindungssuche) ## Tickets ##### Admission **Combi-Ticket** 15 euros Valid for our three museums in the Nikolaiviertel (Museum Nikolaikirche, Museum Ephraim-Palais, Museum Knoblauchhaus) on two consecutive days (please note opening hours) **Single Ticket** 7 euros Day ticket for the Museum Ephraim-Palais **Free admission With proof of reduction** for children and adolescents under 18 years of age, students, trainees, FSJ/FÖJ/BFD volunteers, Berlin Ticket S holders, severely disabled persons (at least 50% GdB) and their Personal Assistant, refugees (with a valid work or residence permit/eAT and a Ukrainian passport or valid residence permit from Ukraine), recipients of transfer payments (Bürgergeld, ALG I), holders of the Berlin-Brandenburg Ehrenamtskarte, holders of the Super-Ferienpass / Berliner Familienpass, ICOM members, members of Deutscher Museumsbund, Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Stadtmuseums Berlin e. V. (except for the Museumsdorf Düppel), Förderverein Museumsdorf Düppel e. V., and Förderkreis Museum Knoblauchhaus e. V., media representatives with a valid press card. [ Ticketshop ](https://tickets.stadtmuseum.de/#/tickets/time?museum_id=2&group=day) ### Ласкаво просимо! Всі, хто має український паспорт, візу для України або дійсне студентське посвідчення українського університету та візу на проживання в Німеччині, можуть безкоштовно відвідувати всі наші локації; це також стосується всіх, хто має дозвіл на проживання в електронному вигляді (eAT). Ми з нетерпінням чекаємо на Вас! ##### Contact Infoline +49 30 240 02 - 162 Mo – Fri | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. [Write E-Mail](mailto:info@stadtmuseum.de) ##### Accessibility The Ephraim-Palais is accessible without steps. All exhibition areas are accessible via an elevator. There are barrier-free toilets in the building. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How is the advance sale regulated? Tickets are available at the earliest 14 days before the desired date of the museum visit. The tickets are not personalized and therefore transferable. However, please note here any discount reasons. ### How do I buy an online ticket? *Variant 1:* Please select the appropriate museum you would like to visit under Filter (above the calendar). Then select the desired day of your visit. *Variant 2:* Please select the desired day of your visit via the calendar. Now choose the ticket and the museum. ### How can I ensure that I can show the online ticket on my end device (smartphone, tablet) even without a network if necessary? To be on the safe side, please take a screenshot(s) of your PDF ticket(s) after purchase and save it (them) e.g. under "Images" on your end device. ### How do I show my online ticket? Please bring your ticket(s) either printed out or digitally on your smartphone and present proof of any discount reasons without being asked. ### Can I cancel my online ticket? Purchased tickets cannot be canceled, see the [terms and conditions of Stadtmuseum Berlin GmbH](https://tickets.stadtmuseum.de/#/page/agb).