Join us for the star-shaped bike ride on june 1st 2025 © ADFC Berlin / Deckbar
ADFC-Sternfahrt 2025 - information in english
The ADFC-Sternfahrt (transl: star-shaped ride) is a huge bicycle demonstration with 20 starting points. Cycling routes more than 2,000 kilometers long lead to the Großer Stern in the central square of Berlin’s Tiergarten.
"Alle aufs Rad!" - everyone on your bike!
As the cycling highlight of the year, the ADFC Sternfahrt rally has since long been recognised beyond the Berlin-Brandenburg region. If you start in Brandenburg, you take a carefree and leisurely ride on small roads into Berlin.
Neighbourhood after neighbourhood, crossing by crossing, more and more cyclists join the 20 routes. Finally, tens of thousands of cyclists cycle along Berlin’s inner-city motorways, including the famous AVUS, to the Großer Stern.
Anyone who takes part in the Sternfahrt can experience the transformation of mobility up close and feels embolded in the the desire for further change. Together, we are committed to making fear-free, safe and comfortable cycling possible for all every day, 365 days a year.
Just join us at one of the meeting points - we recommend arriving 15 minutes before the published time. The meeting points are usually near train or metro stations. Or you estimate the progress of the rally between adjacent points and join us along the route (interactive map). On the day of the Sternfahrt, you can see where the cyclists are live in the app CriticalMaps.
Motorway
Once a year, making use of Germany’s constitutional right of assembly, the rally rides across motorways, demonstrating for better conditions for cycling in the very place that is otherwise reserved for high-speed motorised traffic. The enormous amount of space taken up by the motorway infrastructure inside the city of Berlin can thus be experienced at first hand.
Participants of all ages ride along at a comfortable, approx. 15 km/h speed, without being stopped by traffic lights, free of the everyday harassment normally experienced by cyclists, even on designated cycle lanes and bicycle tracks.
This contrast represents a memorable experience for all participants, and easily cycling some 40 kilometres, even as an averagely trained cyclists, serves as an inspiration to get on your bike in everyday life.
Everybody on a bike can take part in the Sternfahrt-route on the motorway – but keep in mind: only as a participant in the demonstration organized by us! For riding on the motorway, line up in Alt-Tempelhof at 12:45 h, in Wannsee at 12:20 h or in Treptower Park at 12:25 h at the latest!
Routes, numbers and more information
- The popular night tours start in Szczecin / Poland, Leipzig and Dessau as well as guided multi-day tours from Melle near Osnabrück or Hanover.
- The routes (including feeder tours) have a total length of around 2,000 kilometres.
- Highlights are the motorway sections via the AVUS and the A100 city ring.
- Two children's routes from Jannowitzbrücke and Heidelberger Platz in Berlin are particularly suitable for primary school-aged children, their families and accompanying adults.
- After the Großer Stern, the route ends at the environmental festival Umweltfestival organised by the Green League on Straße des 17. Juni, near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin Mitte.
- 250 ADFC Berlin-volunteers ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible. During the Sternfahrt, you can recognize the volunteers by their white “Ordner:in” – armbands. A small volunteer core team coordinates the organisation; members of the ADFC regional office take care of the public relations work.
Since 1977
The first Sternfahrt bicycle rally was organised by the Westtangente citizens' initiative on 5 June 1977 to mark Environment Day. In the following years, it was organised by various cycling and environmental initiatives, limited to routes within the then divided and walled city of West Berlin. Since 1993, the rally has been organised entirely by the ADFC Berlin.
Meanwhile, the idea has caught on throughout Germany, with Sternfahrt-style bicycle rallies taking place annually in various metropolitan regions (e.g. Hamburg, München).
