Rainbow Benches for Berlin

Group photo in the Helene-Weigel-Hof in front of the Neues Haus of the Berliner Ensemble: a large crowd, some holding small rainbow flags, stands behind a bench painted in rainbow colours.
© Moritz Haase

Berlin’s cultural institutions install rainbow benches in solidarity with the queer community

Berlin’s cultural institutions champion a diverse and vibrant city. They are places of peaceful coexistence and open dialogue.

In memory of the victims of the attack at this year’s Berlin Christopher Street Day, the district of Mitte installed a rainbow bench and planted a tree at the site in the Tiergarten during the summer. This memorial, a peaceful symbol of diversity and mourning, has repeatedly been damaged, painted over and destroyed in recent months.

We condemn these attacks on peaceful civil society and want to take a stand against the repeated destruction of this memorial and against hostility towards queer people.

Over the coming weeks, institutions including the Berliner Ensemble, Berliner Festspiele, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Komische Oper Berlin, Komödie am Kurfürstendamm, Kulturprojekte Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Sophiensæle and Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin will install rainbow benches on their premises or have existing benches painted in rainbow colours.

Together, we are demonstrating our support for and solidarity with the queer community. Above all, we are sending a clear message: diversity and queer visibility in Berlin cannot be suppressed through acts of violence.

We call on other institutions, businesses and individuals across Berlin to use the opportunities available to them to install rainbow benches on their premises!

Berliner Ensemble, Berliner Festspiele, Deutsches Theater Berlin, EUREF-Campus Berlin, Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Komische Oper Berlin, Komödie am Kurfürstendamm, Kulturprojekte Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Sophiensæle, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin

Would you like to take part in the initiative?
Please get in touch with us!

For press enquiries, please contact the Berliner Ensemble press office.

Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin

Two men sit on a rainbow bench in front of the façade of the Friedrichstadt-Palast.
Rainbow bench at the Friedrichstadt-Palast, corner of Friedrichstraße/Johannisstraße
Managing Director Guido Herrmann (left) and Artistic Director Berndt Schmidt© Levi Strauch/Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin

Berliner Ensemble

Rainbow bench in front of the timber façade of the garden house in the Helene-Weigel-Hof, next to a tree with yellow autumn leaves.
Rainbow bench in the Helene-Weigel-Hof of the Berliner Ensemble, Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1© Moritz Haase

Komödie am Kurfürstendamm

Staff members sit and stand around a rainbow bench in front of a brick façade with a wrought-iron gate and autumn leaves.
Staff of the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm on its rainbow bench at the Atelier Gardens, Oberlandstraße 26–35© Komödie am Kurfürstendamm

EUREF-Campus Berlin

A man and a woman sit on a rainbow bench bearing a plaque reading “Bank der Vielfalt”, with a brick rotunda and a green façade with a steel staircase behind them.
Rainbow bench on the EUREF-Campus, EUREF-Campus 3
Stefan Hadré, Member of the Executive Board / Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of GASAG AG, and Sarah-Maria Ameler, Member of the Executive Board of EUREF AG and Managing Director of EUREF-Event GmbH

Kulturprojekte Berlin

A large group of people stands in front of the yellow and white façade of the Podewil, jointly holding up a rainbow bench.
Staff of Kulturprojekte Berlin with the rainbow bench at the Podewil, Klosterstraße 68© Kulturprojekte Berlin