Student apartments in Berlin
Photo: Unsplash
Berlin is Germany's largest student city — TU Berlin, Humboldt-Universität, Freie Universität, Charité, and a dozen smaller institutions together host roughly 200,000 students. Rent in Mitte and Friedrichshain has roughly doubled since 2015; the affordable belt is now Wedding, Lichtenberg, and Neukölln.
City agent guide
Living in Berlin — what to do, what not to do
Loud, layered, surprisingly bureaucratic. The international student playbook for Berlin's particular rules.
Top neighborhoods for international students
Mitte
Mitte is central Berlin and home to HU's Unter den Linden campus. Densest part of the city — museums, government, gastronomy. Almost no affordable apartments left for students; most live here in WGs or studio buildings.
$600 – $1,500 /mo
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg houses TU Berlin's main campus. Bourgeois pre-war architecture, Kurfürstendamm shopping, the Schloss Charlottenburg. The classic TU student neighborhood.
$550 – $1,400 /mo
Friedrichshain
Friedrichshain is east of Mitte — Boxhagener Platz, Simon-Dach-Straße, the longest-surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall. Very dense student/twenty-something population. Rent rising fast since 2018 but still affordable vs Mitte.
$550 – $1,300 /mo
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg is Berlin's classic alternative neighborhood — Görlitzer Park, Bergmannkiez, the Turkish market. SO 36 (the eastern half) is grittier; 61 (the western half) is gentrified.
$550 – $1,350 /mo
Wedding
Wedding is Berlin's most affordable inner-ring neighborhood. Working-class history, large Turkish + African communities, leafy Volkspark Rehberge. Gentrification began ~2018 but rent remains far below Mitte/Kreuzberg.
$400 – $1,000 /mo
Prenzlauer Berg
Prenzlauer Berg is post-gentrification Berlin — Helmholtzplatz, Kollwitzplatz, families with strollers, organic supermarkets. Pretty but pricey for students. Mostly PhD/postdoc territory.
$600 – $1,400 /mo
Dahlem
Dahlem is southwestern Berlin — villas, embassies, and Freie Universität's main campus. Quietest neighborhood on this list. 25-minute U-Bahn ride from Mitte, but you walk to FU from your front door.
$500 – $1,200 /mo
Steglitz
Steglitz sits between Dahlem (FU) and central Berlin. Schloßstraße shopping, calm residential streets, S-Bahn ring access. The most under-rated FU neighborhood.
$500 – $1,200 /mo
Universities in Berlin
TU Berlin
Berlin
TU Berlin — Germany's largest technical university by international enrolment. Engineering, computer science, and urban planning draw the largest international graduate cohorts. Main campus sits in Charlottenburg.
HU Berlin
Berlin
Humboldt-Universität — the historic university of Berlin. Strong humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and an outsized PhD-level international population. Campus runs along Unter den Linden in Mitte.
FU Berlin
Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin — humanities, political science, and natural sciences powerhouse. Main campus sits in Dahlem in the south-west — a 30-minute U-Bahn ride from Mitte.