In one form or another, shopping malls have been around for centuries. In their earliest form as bazaars in the Middle East, the largest ones were thematically organized. If a shopper was after spices, they could visit one bazaar. Another might specialize in fabrics.
That’s rarely true today, where at your local mall you might find a Build-A-Bear Workshop tucked in between a Gucci store and a Lids.
But for car enthusiasts, such a mall does actually exist—you just have to travel to Berlin, Germany, to visit it.
Classic Remise Berlin is difficult to describe. From the outside, the beige brick structure that dates back to the late 19th century is well-kept but innocuous. It’s tucked into a leafy mixed industrial-residential area called Moabit just north of the Spree River and within a half-hour walk of the elegant Charlottenburg Palace. The building is one of few in the area to have survived World War II, though there are hints of bomb damage from the Allied assault on Berlin.
For most of its functioning life, the building served as a tram depot in what was once an area largely zoned for manufacturing and, subsequently, houses an inland port that eventually connects Berlin to the Baltic Sea. The building’s four long halls, which are open to one another, were clearly designed to accommodate large vehicles. As West Berlin built up under joint American-British-French control in the 1950s, the tram system needed a more modern facility. As a result, the brick building fell into disuse. It spent much of the Cold War largely abandoned, no doubt a relatively rare bit of blight in West Berlin. Investors swooped in in the early 2000s and refashioned it into a gathering point for car enthusiasts in what may be Germany’s most unexpectedly car-crazy city.
Berlin has plenty of traffic, but it is far more spread out than most European cities. The German capital is about nine times the size of Paris, and yet its population density is about a fifth the size of the City of Light. For perspective, Berlin is about as dense as Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles. Its city center boasts wide-open boulevards, and on a sunny day, you can’t go more than a few minutes without seeing something cool zipping by.
In short, Berlin is perfect for an automotive shopping mall.
The facility doesn’t announce itself with the big, bright letters you might expect. Humans enter through a pair of glass doors largely obscured from the road by a tree that’s probably as old as many of the cars inside.
Once inside, it’s a veritable concours event. You’ll wonder why you bother tempting the weather at outdoor events when you could be ensconced in a climate-controlled environment with this many cars.
Small glassed-in cubicles in the center of the facility serve as offices for a variety of car-centric businesses like club headquarters and the specialist dealers who will sell you just about every car you see in the facility—except those hidden within glass boxes.
And then there are the picturesque repair shops, which present as full-scale dioramas from behind glass. You’ll find shops that specialize in Alfa Romeos, French cars, Mercedes-Benz models, and a nearly unending list of others.
Vehicle owners can rent a storage spot in big glass cases, which has the effect of making Classic Remise look like a big version of a model car shop. The cars are on display for everyone to see, and yet only the vehicle’s owners can access them.
There are also two restaurants and an outdoor beer garden, plus a large space that can be rented out for corporate events—or perhaps birthday parties, for those car enthusiasts with hundreds of close friends.
One of the best parts of Classic Remise is the sheer breadth of cars—and the occasional motorcycle or boat.
The display is ever-changing, too. Though it may feel like a museum, Classic Remise is a combination storage facility and shopping center, which means that the gleaming Citroën DS you lust over one day may find a buyer in Finland and never visit again.
Highlights from my visit in mid-April 2025 included perhaps the finest Irish Green “long hood” Porsche 911 I’ve ever seen, which was parked in front of a white BMW 507 roadster and a muted gray BMW 502 sedan, a rare example of the automaker’s Baroque Angel range that nearly drove it into postwar ruin.
A gorgeous red Citroën DS 21 Cabriolet conversion tempted me, at least until I saw its 131,500-euro price tag. The same seller had a powder blue Citroën DS 20 Commerciale station wagon, which at just under 32,000 euros is far more palatable.
Getting to Classic Remise isn’t difficult, at least once you’ve reached Berlin. The S-Bahn Buesselstrasse station is a short 10-minute walk, or you can stay at the nearby Alfa Hotel—which, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to have any connection to Alfa Romeo. The immediate area doesn’t offer much for tourists otherwise, though it is clean and safe.
Classic Remise is free to visit, and the facility itself keeps relatively long hours seven days a week, which makes it a great way to wind down a long day. However, the repair shops and handful of retail establishments are far less likely to be open after 5 p.m. or on a weekend, so plan accordingly.
You certainly don’t need a guided tour, though Classic Remise offers a 45-minute English language walk for an eyebrow-raising 150 euros.
Don’t forget to visit the small outdoor parking lot near the beer garden, which has a small selection of cars seemingly in progress.
Notably, there’s also a Classic Remise in Düsseldorf, which is in a fan-shaped former warehouse. It’s a bit flashier in its presentation, as it probably needs to be given that city’s comparatively limited tourism.
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