Explore the Berlin-Dahlem Campus
Milestones of the history of science and the beginnings of the Max Planck Society in the "German Oxford"
100 years of science in the "German Oxford" │The classic introductory tour highlights the milestones of the history of Dahlem and follows in the footsteps of the 14 Nobel Prize winners who lived and worked in Dahlem from 1911 onwards - including Otto Hahn and Albert Einstein. On request, we are happy to focus on the history of biology, physics and chemistry.
Don‘t Be Led up the Garden Path! Fiction and Facts of the Dahlem Campus │Interactive introductory tour. Many legends that have sprung up about events, places and the geniuses of the science campus should be treated with caution. In times of fake news, it is worth checking the facts several times. Follow in the footsteps of the Dahlem scientists and consider for yourself whether the anecdotes are true or false.
Muses or makers? Women of the Dahlem Science Campus │ Physicist Lise Meitner is Dahlem's most prominent researcher, but there are lesser well-known women who also left a lasting mark on the campus. The tour portrays their lives and illustrates the short time it took for women to conquer the world of science, which had been dominated by men for centuries.
Einstein in Dahlem │Albert Einstein's work in Berlin made scientific history. The father of the theory of relativity also spent a lot of time in Dahlem. Follow Einstein's footsteps across the campus.
In the pantheon of science | In the footsteps of Nobel Prize winners. There is hardly any other place where so many Nobel Prize Laurates lived and worked at the same time than Dahlem. Discover more about their research and their lives – from Albert Einstein to Werner Heisenberg.
The measurement of humanity | Biological research in Dahlem and its impact At the beginning of the 20th century, a veritable race began among researchers to unravel the mystery of human life. How did genetics and anthropology influence the view of humanity of the time?
Free thinking – Free science │ Why the FU Came to Dahlem This tour provides an overview of the turbulent period after 1945, when the newly established Free University moved into the former institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG). During the final years of the war, the KWG had already relocated its Berlin research laboratories to West Germany, where they were reestablished as Max Planck Institutes starting in 1948.
German-Jewish history of science in Dahlem | Lise Meitner and Albert Einstein are just two of the many brilliant scientists of Jewish origin who shaped the intellectual landscape of Berlin and Dahlem starting from 1913. Their contributions enriched our understanding of the world in ways that cannot be overstated. Science provided an ideal foundation for fostering creative and friendly collaboration between Jewish and non-Jewish researchers. The Nazi regime's reign of terror subsequently forced the majority of Jewish researchers into emigration, causing lasting damage to German science for decades to come
All walking tours can be booked as group tours (25 people max) in German, English, Italian.
Cost: 150 euros (German), 170 euros (English, Italian). 20 percent discount for cooperating institutions.
Offers for schools
As an extracurricular place of learning, Campus Dahlem offers many topics that can be linked to the subject lessons in physics, chemistry and history. Depending on the arrangement, the focus is on people or scientific discoveries. Additional modules for half-day workshops can also be booked.
100 years of science in the "German Oxford"│Campus tour │Duration: 90 minutes Cost: 100 € │Suitable for secondary school from grade 8 Physics & History, as well as inter-class groups.
On your tour, you will experience the special atmosphere that characterises Dahlem and its campus to this day. You will travel through time and space, meet the past in the present, and gain a lively impression of outstanding achievements of modern science.
The discovery of nuclear fission │ Campus tour with preparatory workshop in the exhibition in the Harnack House │ Duration: 2.5 hours, incl. break │ Cost: 150 € │ Suitable for upper secondary school physics & history, as well as inter-class groups. The discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 by the research team Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Straßmann was revolutionary in several respects. As a milestone in the history of modern physics and radioactivity research, and as a turning point for humanity’s approach to technology. That the discovery raised enormous ethical and political questions became clear at the latest after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. With a view to the lives of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn, social-historical questions about equal opportunities for men and women in the scientific community of the past and present can also be addressed and criteria for evaluation developed.
Meet a scientist │Free additional module can only be booked in conjunction with a campus tour │ Duration: 60 minutes │ English or German │ Suitable for secondary schools. Doctoral students introduce themselves and their work and answer questions about science as a profession. How do researchers work in Dahlem today? What is everyday life like at university and in a research institute? How much work is involved in studying and what comes afterwards? Depending on the topic of interest, we try to invite young scientists from the relevant disciplines
Open Sunday tours for individual visitors
During the summer months, we also offer the DahlemTour on the first Sundays of the month for anyone interested in taking part in a guided tour individually. (German only) We regularly update the dates on our website.
Dates: April/May - October, every first and third Sunday of the month, 11 a.m.
Prices: 8 € per person, 5 € reduced (pupils, students, unemployed)
Only with confirmed registration at: dahlemtour@gv.mpg.de
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