Arsenal, Arthouse cinema in Wedding, Berlin, Germany

Arsenal is the cinema of the Arsenal Filminstitut e. V., now housed in the Westhalle of the silent green Kulturquartier, the former Wedding crematorium in Berlin. Its main entrance is at Plantagenstraße 30. From 2000 to the end of 2024 it screened in the Filmhaus in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, and before that, from 1970 to 2000, in Schöneberg. The Potsdamer Platz site had two halls seating 236 and 75, with screens of 9 by 4 and 5 by 2 metres.

The Friends of the German Kinemathek association, founded in 1962, opened its own cinema on 3 January 1970 in a former Schöneberg neighbourhood cinema on Welserstraße, bought for 25,000 DM. It was named after Oleksandr Dovzhenko's 1929 silent film "Arsenal". On 29 February 2000 the last screening took place there; the cinema moved to the Filmhaus in the Sony Center, and since 2026 it has been housed in the Westhalle of the former Wedding crematorium.

The cinema takes its name from Oleksandr Dovzhenko's 1929 silent film "Arsenal". Its programme has long championed Third World cinema, films from socialist countries, free documentary and independent film. During the Berlinale it is a venue for the International Forum of New Cinema and Forum Expanded, both of which grew out of the Arsenal.

The cinema is in the Westhalle of the silent green Kulturquartier, the former Wedding crematorium; the main entrance is at Plantagenstraße 30. It opened there on 3 May 2026 after leaving the Filmhaus at Potsdamer Platz, where screenings ended on 15 December 2024. The two Potsdamer Platz halls held 236 and 75 people.

The Arsenal name comes from Oleksandr Dovzhenko's 1929 silent film "Arsenal". The illuminated lettering from the old Schöneberg facade was reinstalled in the ground-floor foyer of the new cinema, where the first screening took place on 1 June 2000.