Festival of Lights 2025: An evening stroll through the Nikolaiviertel
From October 8 to 15, the 21st Festival of Lights invites visitors to experience Berlin in an enchanting atmosphere of color and light, daily from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. This year’s edition of the festival has the motto “Let’s shine together” and aims to send a message of greater unity, community, and solidarity that can be seen far and wide. At around 40 different locations, Berlin will once again become a place for encounters and shared experiences for Berliners and countless visitors from all over the world.
The Nikolaiviertel neighborhood is back again this year with several installations. It takes visitors into a world reminiscent of the Harry Potter films and presents a diverse, enchanting world of lights. These highlights are made possible by WBM Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Berlin-Mitte.
On days when the city is packed with tourists, it’s best to use public transportation, and the Nikolaiviertel is easily accessible via subway line 5. Simply ride to the “Rotes Rathaus” station and cross the street.
At the corner of Spandauer Strasse and Rathausstrasse, visitors are greeted by a video installation on the facade of the former Kaufhaus Israel department store. Entitled “Simply Enchanting,” it begins with a magician inviting visitors into the magical world of Harry Potter. To the left, you can enter the Nikolaiviertel via the Straße am Nussbaum, which is colorfully staged. After a few steps, you reach Nikolaikirchplatz, where the installation “Luminary” is presented towards Eiergasse. It consists of the luminous celestial bodies Sun, Earth, Moon, and Mars and is simply a great photo backdrop.
After walking around Nikolaikirchplatz, you reach the Wappenbrunnen fountain. The fountain itself, the trees, and of course St. Nicholas’ Church are illuminated—a wonderful atmosphere in which visitors gather evening after evening, many of them with a mulled wine, a crêpe, or a bratwurst in hand, which can be purchased around Nikolaikirchplatz.
From the church square, Propststraße with its colorfully illuminated arcades leads towards the banks of the Spree and the “St. George” monument. To the northeast, Poststraße leads out of the area again towards Rathausstraße. Here, the façade of the restaurant “Zur Gerichtslaube” is illuminated with colorful projections, and right next door, in the beer garden of the restaurant “Fischer & Lustig,” there is a light installation featuring a giant green caterpillar, which, as last year, is a favorite with most children.
Once you reach Rathausstraße, you can cross the Spree to the left and walk past the Humboldt Forum to Berlin Cathedral, and then discover the other highlights of the Festival of Lights in Berlin Mitte. Either head west along Unter den Linden, which is closed to cars, to the Brandenburg Gate, or of course to Alexanderplatz with its spectacular 3D video mapping show.
The locations of all the illuminations at this year’s Festival of Lights can be found conveniently on the festival’s program page, allowing you to plan your own personal tour: https://festival-of-lights.de/de/programm-2025/
