Welcome Period 2026 - Berlin Starts Here
179 exchange students, one new city: from Campus Tours to the Futurium, the Welcome Period at HWR Berlin turned newcomers into a community. Here's how it all began.
A semester abroad starts long before the first lecture. It starts with finding the right accommodation, figuring out how things work in a new country, and meeting the people who might soon become friends. For 179 incoming exchange students, that journey began at HWR Berlin with this year's Welcome Period.
Two Welcome Days set the stage. Alongside essential information about studying at HWR Berlin, the programme was designed to make settling into the new city easier: a Safe City Course, a Red Tape Day covering German bureaucracy, a German language course and two campus tours gave students the chance to handle practical matters while getting to know their new university and each other.
Berlin is not a city to be understood from a classroom alone, so the Welcome Period quickly moved off campus. Students explored different sides of the city through visits to rbb, the Futurium and the Humboldt Forum, and a guided tour of the Topography of Terror. An excursion to the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum offered space to engage with German history.
Along the way, students who had arrived from different countries and universities only days earlier were already forming their own international community.
The Welcome Period marks the beginning of their semester at HWR Berlin and for 179 students, the exciting part is only just getting started.More