Accommodation for Exchange Students
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 provider Neon Wood.
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.
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
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.
You can use the website of Berlin’s public transportation service (www.bvg.de) to find the connection you need.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.