Emma Mykytyn David Hasselhoff Museum Berlin: a guide to the city’s quirkiest attraction
Berlin is filled with world-class museums, powerful memorials and historic landmarks. It is also home to a tiny basement shrine dedicated to David Hasselhoff.
Hidden inside The Circus Hostel in Berlin-Mitte, the David Hasselhoff Museum, also known as The Hoff Museum, celebrates the actor, singer and unlikely German pop-culture icon. It is small, wonderfully silly and exactly the sort of unusual Berlin attraction that makes a city break more memorable.
Why is there a David Hasselhoff Museum in Berlin?
David Hasselhoff may be best known in the UK for Knight Rider and Baywatch, but his singing career also made him enormously popular in Germany.
His version of Looking for Freedom became a number-one hit in West Germany in 1989. On New Year’s Eve that year, several weeks after the Berlin Wall had opened, Hasselhoff performed the song beside the Wall near the Brandenburg Gate. Wearing a flashing leather jacket and a piano-key scarf, he sang from a platform suspended above the crowds.
The performance became one of the more surreal pop-culture images associated with the end of the Cold War. Hasselhoff has never seriously claimed that he brought down the Wall, but the running joke has followed him ever since.
Inside the David Hasselhoff Museum
Calling it a museum may be slightly generous. It is closer to a compact shrine, tucked into a corridor in the basement of The Circus Hostel.
The collection includes photographs, murals and memorabilia covering the different stages of Hasselhoff’s career.
You will not need hours to explore it. Allow around 5 to 10 minutes, depending on your dedication to the Hoff and how many photographs you take and how long you want to chuckle.
Where is the David Hasselhoff Museum?
The museum is inside The Circus Hostel, directly beside Rosenthaler Platz in Berlin-Mitte.
The Circus Hostel
Weinbergsweg 1A
10119 Berlin
Germany
Enter through the main hostel entrance and ask at reception for the Hoff Museum. The display is downstairs in the basement, so it is not immediately visible from the street.
Be careful not to confuse The Circus Hostel with The Circus Hotel, which is another property operated by the same group nearby.
How to get there
By U-Bahn
The nearest station is U Rosenthaler Platz, served by the U8 line.
The Circus Hostel stands beside the junction, so the walk from the station takes only a minute or two. From Alexanderplatz, take the U8 northbound towards Wittenau and leave at Rosenthaler Platz.
By tram
Rosenthaler Platz is also served by the M1 and M8 trams. The M8 is particularly useful when travelling from Berlin Hauptbahnhof, as it connects the central railway station with Rosenthaler Platz.
From Berlin Brandenburg Airport
Take a regional train or airport service towards central Berlin and change at Alexanderplatz. From there, use the U8 to Rosenthaler Platz.
Routes can change during engineering work, so check the BVG journey planner before travelling.
Walking
The museum is within walking distance of several central Berlin attractions:
Hackescher Markt: around 10–15 minutes
Museum Island: around 20 minutes
Alexanderplatz: around 20 minutes
Berlin Wall Memorial: around 20 minutes
Admission and opening hours
Admission is free, and you do not have to be staying at the hostel to visit.
As the display is inside working accommodation rather than a conventional museum building, access arrangements can occasionally depend on hostel operations. Ask at reception when you arrive and check directly with The Circus Hostel before making a special journey.
The hostel’s basement is also home to its microbrewery bar, which currently opens in the evening.
Is the David Hasselhoff Museum worth visiting?
Absolutely, provided you arrive with the right expectations. This is not a large, serious exhibition. It’s silly and something to tick off when in the area.
Food and drink nearby
Rosenthaler Platz is surrounded by cafés, bars and restaurants, making the Hoff Museum easy to include in a longer wander through Mitte.
The Circus Hostel has its own microbrewery bar, while nearby Torstrasse, Rosenthaler Strasse and Weinbergsweg offer plenty of choices for coffee, breakfast, cocktails and dinner. The area is particularly lively in the evening, so you could combine your visit with drinks nearby or raise a glass to the man who spent so long looking for freedom.
Nearby attractions
Berlin Wall Memorial
The memorial on Bernauer Strasse explains how the Wall divided Berlin and includes preserved sections of the border fortifications. Click here for our page about the Berlin Wall Memorial.
Hackesche Höfe
This collection of interconnected Art Nouveau courtyards contains shops, cafés, restaurants and a cinema.
Museum Island
Five major museums sit together on an island in the River Spree, including the Neues Museum and Alte Nationalgalerie.
Alexanderplatz
One of Berlin’s best-known squares, home to the Fernsehturm television tower and the World Clock.
Looking for more cold war sights? Click here or the image below.
It is kitsch, compact and completely unnecessary—and that is precisely why it is worth visiting. You may arrive for a quick photograph, but you will leave knowing far more than expected about Knight Rider, Baywatch, flashing jackets and Germany’s enduring affection for the Hoff.
