Cafe Kyiv

Tobias Koch

Café Kyiv takes place once a year, usually in February or March, in Berlin.

What is Cafe Kyiv?

Cafe Kyiv is a series of events initiated by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and carried out with numerous partner organizations, combining politics, science, culture, innovation, and networking in an all-day festival format. The aim is to bring Ukraine to life through its own voices, perspectives, and culture.

Why are we doing this?

The series sends a clear message of solidarity and creates spaces for substantive debates on freedom, security, and the reconstruction of Ukraine, always in direct dialogue with Ukrainians. This brings together engagement from civil society, politics, and business and translates it into concrete support.

Why is this important to us?

The war against Ukraine is not a distant event, but a direct attack on Europe's security, freedom, and values. Ukraine will determine whether the peace and security order that has sustained our continent since the end of the Cold War will endure. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is clearly committed to peace and freedom in Europe. A violent shift of borders and the erosion of the European security architecture would be a turning point in recent European history and cannot be accepted. Cafe Kyiv makes these connections visible, focuses public attention on them, and keeps them alive.

When did the event series begin?

The event series began in 2023 with the temporary renaming of Café Moskau on Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin to Cafe Kyiv and has been held annually ever since. Cafe Kyiv has established itself as a key event that highlights the significance of Ukraine's fight for Europe's freedom, connects politics, culture, and civil society, and creates synergies. Cafe Kyiv has become the most extraordinary event in support of Ukraine and is known beyond the borders of Europe.

How is the format structured?

Cafe Kyiv is a unique place where politics and culture naturally belong together. Between pointed discussions and practical workshops, between exhibitions, film screenings, Ukrainian cuisine, and the pop-up market “Skrynya,” an open house is created that appeals to people personally and invites them to participate. This diversity lowers barriers, creates genuine encounters, and forges resilient networks between actors from Germany and Ukraine.