Berlin's cultural institutions have started putting rainbow benches on their own grounds, as a public answer to the repeated vandalism of a memorial bench in the Großer Tiergarten. The Berliner Ensemble set up the first one in its courtyard at Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1, and the Friedrichstadt-Palast has one at the corner of Friedrichstraße and Johannisstraße. The campaign was launched on 26 October 2026 under the name Regenbogenbänke für Berlin.
Who is taking part
Besides the Berliner Ensemble and the Friedrichstadt-Palast, the campaign site names the Deutsches Theater, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Sophiensæle. They plan to put up new benches or repaint existing ones over the coming weeks, according to dpa on berlin.de. Oliver Reese, artistic director of the Berliner Ensemble, condemned the damage to the memorial and called on other institutions, companies and private people to place rainbow benches on their own premises anywhere in Berlin. Anyone who wants to join can write to the address given on the campaign site with the planned location of their bench. There is no map of the benches yet.
The attack the bench remembers
On the evening of 25 July 2026, at the edge of Berlin's Christopher Street Day, a 21-year-old man drove a car into a group of people in the Tiergarten and then attacked others with a machete before fleeing. One woman was killed and 31 people were injured, some of them seriously. Police shot the attacker the following day. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt classified the act as an Islamist terrorist attack, as the taz reported on 26 July.
A memorial damaged again and again
On 6 August 2026 a rainbow bench and a young tree were placed in the Tiergarten close to where the car came to a stop. Since then the site has been attacked at least four times:
- On 1 September police found the bench wrecked: the coloured slats had been torn out and the backrest broken off. The tree was pulled out of the ground in the same period. We reported on that first attack at the time. Both were replaced, and the bench has stood since 14 September between Bellevueallee and Kleiner Querallee.
- On the evening of 24 September one slat had been removed and two more damaged, the Tagesspiegel reported.
- A few days later several slats were taken off during the night.
- Early on 2 October officers found the bench sprayed with black paint near the Ahornsteig and cleaned it on the spot, according to a police statement quoted by t-online.
The state security department of the Berlin State Criminal Police Office is investigating, among other things for damage to an object of public value. A police spokesperson said in mid-October that an 18-year-old suspect had been identified for two of the four incidents and that whether the acts were motivated by hostility to queer people is part of the ongoing investigation. The bench is included in the daily patrols of the local police station.
Visiting
The memorial bench stands in the eastern Tiergarten, a short walk from the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, between Bellevueallee and Kleiner Querallee near the Ahornsteig path. The theatre benches are on the theatres' own grounds, so they are easiest to see on a visit to a performance or by daylight from the street. For bars, clubs and events in the city, see our Berlin city guide and the Germany country page. On 26 October 2026 we reported on two men stabbed outside a queer-friendly bar in Neukölln.