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What If Berlin

Graphic diagram of the Berlin underground and suburban rail network on a purple background.
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28 August to 20 September 2026

What If Berlin

The Ringbahn as a Stage for 27 Forgotten Visions of the Future

While we traverse the built reality of the city, we are constantly surrounded by unrealised building plans, lost artistic designs and visions of a different way of living together. To mark the 75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele the Japanese artist Akira Takayama invites the public to take six guided tours on the Berlin Ringbahn that will enable them to encounter these ghosts of alternative futures. The ideas for these unrealised projects have come from the archives of the Berliner Festspiele, other Berlin cultural institutions and individual architects and artists. Takayama transposes them to the present and asks which visions we want to make reality in future. On four weekends the 27 stations of the Ringbahn will be turned into locations for forgotten plans for the future whose stories will be retold in new ways by experienced tour guides. The guided tours will be conducted in German and English.

About the project
Graphic diagram of the Berlin Ringbahn, featuring circles connected by lines on a purple background.

What If Berlin: Trailer

© Berliner Festspiele

The Tour Guides

The tour guides from twelve countries introduce themselves.

Meet the tour guides

Impressions

  • Angled glass walls with a view of modern buildings, traffic sign with arrows and symbols in the foreground.

    Film House Esplanade – Station Gesundbrunnen

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Train station square with green floor and a small building labeled "Haus," surrounded by people.

    House of Young Talents – Station Schönhauser Allee

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Brick wall with purple and yellow gasometer mural, window, door, and info display. Text: “Gasometer Museum of the GDR”.

    Gasometer / GDR Technological Museum – Station Prenzlauer Allee

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • People in a train station hall, some in motion. In the background, red glass walls with figure motif and a bakery counter.

    When Communists Dream … – Station Greifswalder Straße

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Platform with purple art installation, text "BERLIN 200", surrounding tracks and greenery.

    Olympia 2000 – Station Landsberger Allee

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Window façade with graffiti and green privacy screen, floor tiles, and metal roof.

    Flight of Icarus –Station Storkower Straße

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Platform area at Berlin Frankfurter Allee station with advertisement and signs.

    Frauen in Berlin – Station Frankfurter Allee

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • A round water tower under a cloudy sky. A railing with purple posters in the foreground.

    Berlin Plans. First Report – Station Ostkreuz

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Green map with purple genealogical diagram and the words Kolonialismus and Erinnern on a white wall.

    Central Site of Learning and Rememberance – Station Treptower Park

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Building on a platform painted with purple wall art, figures depicted in green paint.

    Building the Republic – Station Sonnenallee

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Brick walls with art image 'Dammwegschule', open door, people and buildings outside.

    Dammweg School – Station Neukölln

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Empty train station with purple poster saying „Ich bin Berliner“. Perücke for sale is visible in the supporting ad.

    I Am Berliner – Station Hermannstraße

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Bus stop or train station with greenish glass walls, floor tiles, and a yellow barrier.

    Citizens’ Forum –Station Tempelhof

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Archive with photograph of a person holding a fan and looking sideways. Text: LILI ELBE ARCHIV.

    Lili-Elbe-Archive – Station Südkreuz

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Train station with tracks, ad sign 'Radio 100,' modern architecture with glass walls.

    Radio Glasnost – Station Schöneberg

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Purple wall with inscription 'THE WALL' on top and text 'FROM USSR WITH LOVE' in graffiti style.

    The Wall – Station Innsbrucker Platz

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Brick wall with purple painted flames and green metal ladders.

    Secret Cooperation in the Cultural Sector – Station Bundesplatz

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Green door with a map and text “Kino-Geschichte des Berlinschen” on a train platform.

    A History of Berlin – Station Heidelberger Platz

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Train station with green cube, inscription: Freiheits und Einheits Denkmal.

    Monument to Freedom and Unity – Station Hohenzollerndamm

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Large round lettering University for Transcendence on glass wall.

    Meditation University – Station Halensee

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Green surface with purple technical drawing of trains and tracks, station in the background.

    Linear City Grunewald – Station Westkreuz

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Banner on railing with purple-green design, below railway tracks and city view.

    Overwritten. A Memorial for Europe’s Murdered Jews – Station Messe Nord/ICC

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Graffiti on brick wall with black text A Walk In Paradise and violet-green shapes.

    A Walk In Paradise – Station Westend

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Station area with elevator, column labeled Werkbundstadt, green floor markings.

    Werkbund City – Station Jungfernheide

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Green building with the text “THEATERCHEN” and writing, person on the left stands on the platform.

    Theaterchen – Station Beusselstraße

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Station platform with green ceiling panels, elevator shaft, and train on the left.

    EURASIA – Station Westhafen

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

  • Window design with purple and green illustrations of trains, text "AGIT TRAINS".

    Agit Trains – Station Wedding

    © Berliner Festspiele, Photo: Camille Blake

Voting Results

For more than a month, from 28 August through 30 September 2026, the public was invited to vote for up to three of the unrealised project ideas of What If Berlin that Akira Takayama has reimagined for the future.

Drawing on six thematic guided tours as well as additional information provided on this website, What If Berlin asked both long-time and newly arrived Berliners: Which of the 27 future visions are the most inspiring? Which projects does Berlin need for its future? And which idea should actually be realised?

The results are now in: The project that received the most votes was the Central Learning and Memorial Site with 14 % of all votes cast. Second place, receiving 10 % of all votes cast, is Lili Elbe Archive. Third place went to Women in Berlin, which received 9 % of all votes cast.

View the full voting results

Stories from the Ringbahn

At the invitation of Akira Takayama, the author and playwright Mohammad Al Attar has been developing short stories about all 27 stations of the Ringbahn. Drawing on the unrealized projects collected for What If Berlin, these stories add a fictional layer to the urban planning narrative of Takayama’s work. They enable the audience to explore the 27 stations through reading, thus granting the project a personal, intimate, and literary afterlife. The publication of Stories from the Ringbahn is scheduled for spring 2027. We are here publishing the prologue and two sample stories in advance. 

To the Stories from the Ringbahn