Virtual tours: Experience the HZB in 360 degrees!

Unfortunately, due to Corona, we are currently unable to receive groups of visitors at HZB and guide them through our centre. Despite Corona, we would like to provide you with insights into HZB. Simply follow our 360-degree tours and experience how we conduct research at the BESSY II accelerator. Further tours are being planned.

"Make yourself comfortable and start your own virtual tour through our world of research! We invite you to move through the 360-degree worlds and pause at one station or another to discover something new," says Sandra Fischer from the Communications Department. She designed and realised the tours together with an external partner.

The first tour is through the BESSY II accelerator facility. Further tours, also at the Wannsee site, are being planned. "With this offer, we want to remain open to interested people even in times of a pandemic and arouse curiosity about the world of science."

Tour through the BESSY II accelerator: Follow the path of light

Have you always wanted to walk through an accelerator? The tours "The Path of Light" and "The Experiment" both start in the heart of BESSY II, the control room. Go to the place where electrons race through and emit light at almost the speed of light - the storage ring tunnel. There you will see the effort that has to be made to generate the coveted light. You can experience all the things we can explore with this light in the tour "The Experiment".

Here you get to the tour.  We hope you enjoy it!

Note for our cooperation partners at BESSY II:

360-degree views ("spherical panoramas") of various beamlines are available in the media library. You are welcome to use these to explain your work at BESSY II (e.g. in lectures or for groups of visitors). If you have any questions, please contact Sandra Fischer.

sz

  • Copy link

You might also be interested in

  • A New Era in Catalysis: ASCEND Launch in Berlin, €30 Million in Funding
    News
    12.06.2026
    A New Era in Catalysis: ASCEND Launch in Berlin, €30 Million in Funding
    On 11 June 2026, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) in Adlershof hosted the launch of ASCEND (Accelerated Solutions for Catalysis using Emerging Nanotechnology and Digital Innovation). The event took place in the presence of the Minister of Research, Dorothee Bär, President of the Helmholtz Association, Prof. Dr. Martin Keller, and President of the Max Planck Society, Prof. Dr. Patrick Cramer. Bringing together leading partners from industry and research, ASCEND is supported by BMFTR with €30 million in funding and officially started on 1 April 2026. The initiative aims to accelerate the discovery of next-generation catalysts and enable more sustainable chemical processes.
  • Magnon momentum microscopy: A new window into nanoscale spin-waves
    Science Highlight
    08.06.2026
    Magnon momentum microscopy: A new window into nanoscale spin-waves
    An international team lead by the Max Born Institute has developed a new type of momentum microscopy to image magnons — the quanta of collectively excited spins — directly in two-dimensional reciprocal space using soft X-rays. Measurements have taken place at BESSY II and PETRA III, first author ist the HZB physicist Steffen Wittrock. Owing to its remarkable sensitivity, simplicity, and access to nanometer-scale wavelengths, this novel technique establishes a powerful and versatile platform for exploring nonlinear magnon interactions, which are promising for future computing schemes.
  • X-ray analysis reveals overpainted fascist symbols
    Science Highlight
    08.06.2026
    X-ray analysis reveals overpainted fascist symbols
    Erich Mercker was a successful painter during the Nazi era and in the years that followed. After 1945, he covered up Nazi symbols in at least one of his paintings. With an interdisciplinary team, physicist Dr Ioanna Mantouvalou reports on this study in the Nature Journal Heritage Science.