The accommodation options at the studierendenWERK and the Studentendorf Schlachtensee are only provided for international exchange and program students or participants in mobility programs of Freie Universität Berlin with a limited length of stay.

The other accommodation options we offer can be booked by the students mentioned above and enrolled international PhD students.

All other students from different programs (PhD, Bachelor, Master) can register directly at the studierendenWERK, Studentendorf or other letting agencies. Please check our list of alternative housing providers and/or the respective residence websites for more information.

Our accommodation service is primarily for exchange and program students who are studying at Freie Universität Berlin for one semester. International program students who stay in Berlin for a shorter period of time can only be accommodated if we have capacities available.

For those who cannot be accommodated through our services, we provide information about housing offers on the free market here.

We provide accommodation for exchange and program students of Freie Universität Berlin only.

For your independent housing search we can provide this list of further housing providers in Berlin.

We provide accommodation for exchange and program students of Freie Universität Berlin only.

Once you have been notified of your acceptance to a program of Freie Universität Berlin, you will generally also be informed about our accommodation service. For those starting in the winter semester, registration will open in mid-June. If you start in the summer semester, registration will open in mid-December of the preceding year.The registration period will be announced on the website in due time.

We advise all students to register as soon as possible.

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

Please register using the online form on our website. You will find further details regarding the registration process on our website.

We advise you to register as soon as the registration opens. As soon as an accommodation option is fully booked, it will be removed from the application form as soon as possible so that this option can no longer be selected, even if the application deadline has not yet been reached. All those who have registered for an accommodation option that is already fully booked will be put on the waiting list.

The dates of the registration period will be announced on our website before the registration period starts.

Registration procedure for accommodation in studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

Step 1

Please complete the registration form on our website and choose your preferred accommodation option. If your request is successfully submitted, you will receive an automatically generated email confirming your registration within an hour. Please contact us (accommodation@fu-berlin.de), if you do not receive a confirmation of registration.

Step 2

Within a week you will receive an official email confirmation including instructions to transfer the reservation fee. The full amount must be paid to our bank account within one week (date of receipt) to make the registration legally binding.

Step 3

We will send out a payment confirmation email to inform you once the payment has been received. Your registration will then be forwarded to the administration of the accommodation option of your choice. If your preferred accommodation option is already full, the ERG Universitätsservice GmbH will contact you immediately. The ERG Universitätsservice GmbH is not liable for the availability of selected accommodations.

Step 4

You will receive a placement email with all accommodation and arrival details about two weeks before your estimated move-in date.

Detailed information concerning the registration process can be found on our website.

At studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

Once you have submitted your registration, a brief confirmation email will be sent to the email address you provided on the registration form.

If you do not receive a confirmation email, your registration submission has failed. Please try again and be sure to enter your email address correctly.

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

For the accommodation options “studierendenWERK Berlin“ and “Studentendorf” a service fee is included in the reservation fee. Further information regarding the purpose of the reservation fee can be found in our General Terms and Conditions.

Your reservation becomes legally binding only after the reservation fee has been received. The reservation fee must therefore be paid in advance.

The reservation fee depends on the housing option you choose. Detailed information can be found in our General Terms and Conditions and on our website.

The reservation fee should be transferred within one week after you receive the payment request. Please bear in mind that transfers within the EU can take up to five workdays until the amount is credited to the recipient’s account.

We only accept bank transfers. Payments in cash, by cheque or by credit card are not possible.

Make sure that you enter the correct bank information (provided via the payment request). Please be assured that our bank account details are correct. We have used this information for years now, and we do receive the payments on our account. Please try again with your bank or if the problem persists, consider using another bank to transfer the necessary amount.

We will send you a confirmation as soon as we receive the reservation fee. Please bear in mind that transfers within the EU can take up to five bank workdays until the transferred amount is credited to the recipient’s account. It is not necessary to send us a proof of payment.

No. Your reservation becomes legally binding only after the reservation fee has been received. For this reason the complete reservation fee must be paid in advance. Payment by installments is not possible.

We will not process your housing request without the reservation fee. The receipt of the reservation fee completes the registration process. We can only finalize a reservation after we receive the reservation fee, which makes your reservation legally binding.

Detailed information concerning the registration process can be found on our website.

We communicate the registration deadline in advance on our website.

The reservation process regulations, including registration deadlines, are defined by our cooperation partners (i.e. the various accommodation providers), and therefore we have no influence over these policies.

Please note: the allocation of rooms and apartments is based on the “first come, first served” principle. This means, that all accommodation options can already be fully booked before the official deadline has passed.

Yes. Some accommodation options are very popular and get fully booked very quickly, which is why we advise you to register as soon as possible. Because capacities are limited, we may have to close registration before the deadline. We advise you to check our website for updates regularly.

No. If the demand for accommodation by program students is greater than the supply of rooms, students whose applications are complete and who have paid the reservation fee will be given priority.

In general, all applications are processed in the order in which payment is received, which is why we have to reject applications submitted after the maximum capacity has been reached.

Because housing capacities are limited, we cannot guarantee that all housing requests will be fulfilled. If all allocations are already fully booked, we provide you with information on alternative housing options here.

If the option you have chosen is fully booked already we will send you an email informing you about this. You will be put on a waiting list. We will contact you right away in case a room is available again at your requested option. Please bear in mind, that cancelations are quite rare and the chances to get a room when placed on the waiting list are low. We therefore recommend that you look independently for alternative accommodation options if you are placed on the waiting list.

If you have further questions which were not answered here, please feel free to contact us at accommodation@fu-berlin.de.

We closely work together with two different housing providers (landlords) who offer several types of accommodation:

• studierendenWERK Berlin is responsible for all public dormitories in Berlin. (It is also responsible for running the university cafeterias and aiding and advising students in social, health, economic and cultural needs and issues.)
• Studentendorf Schlachtensee was built on the initiative of Freie Universität Berlin students in southwest Berlin in the 1950s.

Moreover, we offer apartments and rooms from the housing providers Neon Wood, The Student Hotel and THE FIZZ.

Detailed information on each accommodation option can be found on our website.

Dormitories in Germany are generally not administrated by the universities. Therefore, Freie Universität Berlin does not have any on-campus housing. All accommodation options we work with are – for Berlin standards – as close as possible to the university campus, with a maximum travel distance of around 60 minutes by public transportation.

You will find general information about the various accommodation options on our website.

The German word “Wohngemeinschaft” (WG) refers to a living arrangement in which several tenants share an apartment. Every tenant has their own room. Common areas such as the bathroom, kitchen and living room (if existing) are shared. Sometimes there are WG options in the dormitories.
WGs are a great way to make friends, especially when you are in a foreign country. In a WG the tenants are responsible for the cleanliness of all the common areas themselves. Please note that we cannot always fulfil requests for same-sex WGs (women or men only).

This depends on the landlord of your accommodation. You can move into your room at the earliest on the day your rental contract starts. In general, moving in earlier is not possible because the room will usually still be occupied by the previous tenant. Therefore, if you arrive in Berlin earlier, you will have to stay in a hostel or hotel for the first days until your contract begins.
You will receive the complete details concerning the move-in procedure and times, as well as contact information of the on-site contact persons, in the placement email before your arrival.
You can stay in your room until your rental contract ends. Please contact your landlord for details about the move-out procedure.

No. All accommodation options are self-catering. Kitchens are equipped with cabinets, fridges and cooking facilities so that you can prepare your own meals.

The equipment of your room depends on the accommodation option you choose. Accommodations are simply but adequately furnished. A private bathroom is not included for all accommodation options! However, the accommodation price does include:

studierendenWERK Berlin

• Base rent
• Utility costs (gas, electricity, water)
• Internet access
• Use of common areas
• Bed, mattress, desk, chair, wardrobe and cupboard
• Kitchen equipped with a stove and a refrigerator.Crockery and cutlery is not provided in the kitchen. However, many students leave theirs at the dorm when they move out, so it might be reasonable and cheaper to first have a look at what is missing and buy individual missing parts afterwards.
• On-site laundry facilities (extra costs for laundry load)
• Residence supervisors or other on-site contact person

Studentendorf Schlachtensee    

• Base rent
• Utility costs (gas, electricity, water)
• Internet access
• Use of common areas
• Bed, mattress, desk, chair, wardrobe and cupboard
• Duvet, cushions, bedding, blinds
• Kitchen equipped with appliances such as stove, refrigerator, pots/pans, plates, cups and other cooking utensils
• On-site laundry facilities (extra costs for laundry load)
• Residence supervisors or other on-site contact person

In studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

No. Utility costs (gas, electricity, water) are included in the rent.

This depends on the landlord of your accommodation. Please check the rental contract, which you will sign upon arrival, for details. Usually, the rent has to be paid at the beginning of the month.

It is advisable to open a bank account in Berlin, as there are often fees for international transactions and it takes several days until the payment is processed.

Depending on your accommodation option, your landlord is either the studierendenWERK Berlin, the Studentendorf Schlachtensee eG., Neon Wood or The Student Hotel.

You can use the website of Berlin’s public transportation service (www.bvg.de) to find the connection you need.

All accommodation options are chosen so that you can reach the university within about 60 minutes (maximum) by public transportation.

Please keep in mind that Berlin is a large city where commutes of one hour are not unusual.

For historical reasons there is no conventional city center in the geographical center of Berlin as in other major cities. Rather, there are several smaller centers in the various districts as well as the bigger shopping areas around Bahnhof Zoo and Kurfürstendamm in the West and around Alexanderplatz and Hackescher Markt in the East. From your accommodation to both those larger centers you will need between 40-50 minutes by public transportation.

The center closest to the campus is in Steglitz around Schloßstraße. This shopping area can be reached by public transportation within 25-30 minutes (bus/U-Bahn/S-Bahn stop „Rathaus Steglitz“).

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

Accommodations are simply but adequately furnished. Each room has one bed with mattress, cabinet, desk and chair. The kitchens in the accommodation option Studentendorf Schlachtensee are fully equipped, including all necessary cooking utensils. The kitchens in studierendenWERK are equipped with a stove and a refrigerator. However, crockery and cutlery is not provided in the kitchen. You also have access to washing machines and laundry dryers which can be used against a small fee. The Studentendorf provides bed linen, but studierendenWERK Berlin does not. Please bring the appropriate bed linen with you or buy some in Berlin (for example at Ikea) before you move in. The beds in the accommodations are single beds (90 cm x 200 cm).

The dormitories of studierendenwerk offer the possibility to purchase a so called Sleep Well Package at the dormitories administration offices for an additional fee. This contains duvet, pillow, sheet and duvet and pillow covers. To inquire, please reach out to the Studierendenwerk administration. For Studentendorf and studierendenWERK please do not forget to bring your own towels.

Internet is available in all accommodation options.

In addition, all students have the opportunity to use the computer rooms and the WLAN network on the campus of Freie Universität Berlin. In addition, there are many internet cafes in Berlin where you can also access the internet at low cost. There are also numerous cafés and pubs in Berlin that offer WLAN free of charge to their customers.

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

Approximately two weeks before your rental contract starts, we will send you specific details, including the name, address, telephone, and email address of the on-site contact persons as well as a short description of the accommodation by email.

studierendenWERK - Halbauer Weg
Halbauer Weg 19-21
12249 Berlin

studierendenWERK - Goerzallee
Goerzallee 119-135
12207 Berlin

Studentendorf Schlachtensee eG
Wasgenstraße 75
14129 Berlin

Student residences in Berlin are not administrated by the universities themselves but by an independent organization - the studierendenWERK Berlin, which is responsible for 36 student dormitories in the various districts of Berlin. This means that we, the ERG Universitätsservice GmbH, are not in the position to personally allocate or guarantee international students a room.

Your application for studierendenWERK rooms will go through an in-house placement process at studierendenWERK which the ERG Universitätsservice GmbH is not involved in. Therefore, we cannot guarantee you a placement in the specific dorm of your choice. We only act as an intermediary between you and the studierendenWERK Berlin and have no influence on the placement process.

Exchange students of Freie Universität Berlin are placed only in the dormitory Goerzallee and the dormitory Halbauer Weg, as these dorms are not too far away from the campus. The commute from Goerzalle to the campus of Freie Universität Berlin averages 30 minutes by public transportation and from Halbauer Weg about 40 minutes. Usually, rooms are situated in shared apartments („Wohngemeinschaften“/ WG), which means that you have your own room, but share all common areas including kitchen and bathroom with other students of the apartment. Please note that there are no same-sex WGs at the studierendenWERK. The monthly rent depends on facilities, room size and type of dorm.

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

If you wish to live with or near friends, please clearly specify this by including their names in the comment field on the online application form. The friend(s) you wish to share an accommodation with should do the same on their application. Our cooperation partners try their best to fulfill these kinds of requests when possible.

A limited amount of single sex accommodation is available. Please state this request in the comment field on the online application form. Our cooperation partners try their best to fulfill these requests if possible.

Yes, upon request we will provide you with the contact details of the cooperation partner so that you can arrange a visit with them directly.

At the studierendenWERK and Studentendorf you will usualy have to share the bathroom with other students.

At Neon Wood, The Student Hotel and THE FIZZ you can rent a room with a private bathroom.

No.

If there is a problem concerning the accommodation itself (e.g. broken equipment), please contact your on-site contact persons or the caretaker directly. Details about your on-site contact person, including their email address, telephone number and office hours, will be provided to you before your arrival.
If an issue is not solved, you can always contact us, and we will try to find a solution for all parties.

If there is a major problem with your room, you should contact your landlord in order to solve the problem. You will have to work out a solution with the housing administration, as you signed your rental contract with them. In particularly difficult situations, you can also contact us and we will try to find a solution for all parties.

Yes, once you have moved in you are responsible for keeping your bedroom clean and tidy. You are also responsible for washing your own dishes and doing your own laundry. Please make sure that the common areas are kept clean as well.

In this regard, please check the withdrawal policy in our General Terms and Conditions.

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

All accommodation options we offer here are meant for one person and are therefore furnished with only a single bed. Because the bathroom and the kitchen are shared, any (even partial) use of the rental property by third parties without the prior consent of the landlord is prohibited. This includes in particular the not only short-term accommodation of family members (spouse, partner, and children). If you are unsure about the stay of your guests, please contact your landlord to avoid problems.

No. All accommodation options we offer are single-occupancy rooms and it is not permitted to share these rooms with other people. Unfortunately, we do not have any options available suited for families.

Pets of any kind are not allowed.

studierendenWERK und Studentendorf

The administrative fee is used to cover the administrative work.

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

The security deposit will be kept by your landlord until you move out. It will be refunded to you directly by your landlord up to 6 months after you moved out, as long as it is not needed to balance other outstanding costs caused by you. You can find further information in our General Terms and Conditions.

We cannot provide information about the receipt of your rental payment, as it is received by your landlord and only their finance department is authorized to check the account. If your landlord did not receive the payment and outstanding debts have occurred, you will be notified.

If there is a problem concerning the accommodation itself, please contact your on-site contact persons or the caretaker directly. Details about your on-site contact person, including their email address, telephone number and office hours, will be provided to you before you arrive.

If the issue is not solved, you can always contact us, and we will try to find an amicable solution for all parties.

studierendenWERK and Studentendorf

You will receive an email with detailed information about the move-in procedure about two weeks before your rental date.

You will be informed by the landlord about the move-out procedure.

Please know that you are not alone. You can always reach out, in person or in full anonymity, to your accommodation officer, your program administration, or the "NO means NO" initiative of the FU Berlin. You can inform yourself about the initiative on this page.

The rental agreements between the landlord and the tenant are concluded for a limited and fixed period of time. It is not possible or negotiable for the tenant to terminate the rental agreement before the end of the rental period agreed upon in the rental contract. Students must therefore check their study period carefully before registering.

Subletting is not permitted.

Extensions or renewals of the tenancy agreement in Studentendorf Schlachtensee, at Neon Wood and at The Student Hotel are discussed directly between the tenant and the landlord and are possible subject to availability.

Extensions of the rental contracts at Studierendenwerk are not possible.

The Requirements for our accommodation service are:

1. International guest

2. Invited by the Freie Universität Berlin

3. Doctorate degree-holder

4. Not yet arrived in Berlin (No residence in Berlin yet)

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Simply fill out this tenant questionnaire and send it to: accommodation-service@fu-berlin.de

As soon as we have received your request with all your details, we can start looking for suitable accommodation options for you and hopefully forward you a suitable offer afterwards, if available.

We will then contact you immediately when we have received a confirmation from one of the landlords.


^{* However, due to the very limited contingent of accommodation, suitable accommodation can not be guaranteed. Available accommodations will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis and on a temporary basis.}

We are looking for furnished accommodation for incoming visiting scholars of Freie Universität Berlin.

If you would like to offer a room or an apartment, you are welcome to register your accommodation with us via this link:

Documents for landlords • Accommodation • Freie Universität Berlin (fu-berlin.de)

Freie Universität Berlin does not have guesthouses.

The Accommodation Office arranges furnished accommodation options in Berlin for a temporary stay.

Guests of Freie Universität Berlin can also get a discount on their booking at some partner hotels.

Freie Universität Berlin offers this service free of charge.

However, successful accommodation placement cannot be guaranteed due to the tight housing situation in Berlin.

The landlords and landladies are responsible for the preparation and the content of the rental leases.

ERG Universitätsservice GmbH (Accommodation Service) acts as an intermediary between visiting scientists and landlords as a support service for scientists from abroad.

We would like to recommend you the following websites for your independent search: https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/unterbringung/individuell/index.html

Here are some additional links:

1. Bildungswerk Kreuzberg, http://bwk-apartments.de/
2. Ju-Li, https://www.ju-li.de/
3. Christ & Co. GmbH, www.christ-co.com
4. Tannhaus, https://tannhaus.com/de/city/berlin
5. GreyStay, http://greystay.com/
6. Uniplaces, https://www.uniplaces.com/de/accommodation/berlin

If you can imagine living in a shared apartment, I can recommend https://www.wg-gesucht.de/, www.wg-suche.de (with matching tool) and https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/ or different Facebook groups such as „WG Zimmer Berlin“. The best way would be to publish an advertisement yourself stating what you are looking for and describing yourself (hobbies, cooking abilities, etc.).

Unfortunately, among some housing providers there are also black sheep in the form of apartment scammers.

Here you can find some useful advice: https://www.wg-gesucht.de/artikel/fake-ads-what-people-searching-for-accommodation-need-to-know