Charité Hospital Walking Tour: Exploring Berlin’s Medical History

Discover more than 300 years of medical history on this walking tour of Berlin’s historic Charité campus. Founded as a plague house in 1710, the Charité became one of Europe’s most famous hospitals and a center of groundbreaking medical research. Explore the red-brick campus and hear about Robert Koch, Rudolf Virchow, and discoveries that transformed our understanding of diseases such as tuberculosis. Alongside these medical breakthroughs, examine the darker chapters of the Charité’s history, including its involvement in Nazi racial medicine and its later role in socialist East Germany. - Explore 300+ years of Charité history - Discover the historic red-brick campus - Hear about Robert Koch, Rudolf Virchow, and medical breakthroughs - Uncover the Charité’s history under the Nazis and in East Germany - See how medicine, politics, and society intersected across three centuries

1. 1

   Robert-Koch Denkmal

   20 min

   Discover why and how the Charité hospital - the oldest in Berlin - was established in the 18th century. See the monument of Robert Koch - the Nobel-prize winning scientist who discovered the cause of tuberculosis, anthrax and cholera, and was also responsible for the first pharmaceutical scandal in medical history.

2. 2

   Tieranatomisches Theater

   20 min

   Explore the oldest surviving academic building in Berlin, an 18th-century neoclassical gem where veterinarians studied animal diseases and hear the stories of how diseases were treated before the advent of science.

3. 3

   Denkmal Rudolf Virchow

   20 min

   Hear the story of Rudolf Virchow, the father of modern pathology and the founder of social medicine

4. 4

   Denkmal Albrecht von Graefe

   20 min

   See the first monument in Berlin dedicated to a scientist and hear the story of Albrecht von Graefe, a groundbreaking ophthalmologist.

5. 5

   Stop 5

   20 min

   Explore the beautiful neogothic red-brick campus. Find out how some doctors abused medicine during the Third Reich, while others helped everyone indiscriminately until the last days of WWII.

6. 6

   Stop 6

   20 min

   See the place where several East Berliners attempted escape to the West by swimming across the city canal just outside Charité campus and hear the stories of life in the hospital during the socialist era and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

• Wheelchair accessible
• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
• All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.