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Franka Potente, smiling, her hair pinned up, talking in profile
Franka Potente at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2005, seven years after the film; no free photograph of her from 1997 or 1998 has been found. Franka Potente Frankfurt-CN: Smalltown Boy, derivative work by kaʁstn · CC BY-SA 3.0
Franka PotenteLola · photographed 2005
Tom Tykwer in a dark jacket, holding a microphone
Tom Tykwer talking to an audience at the Sternenpalast cinema in Biberach, September 2006, eight years after the film; no free photograph of him from 1998 has been found. Dierk Andresen · CC BY-SA 3.0
Tom TykwerWriter, director · 2006

Lola rennt · Berlin · shot summer 1997

RunLolaRun

One front door, three runs. Kick the ball to start one.

The ball is round

Kick off.

The film opens on a line from the football coach Sepp Herberger: the ball is round and the game lasts ninety minutes. A football flies up into the air, and then the same twenty minutes are played three times. Lola needs 100,000 marks for Manni. Kick the ball to start a run.

Before the whistle

0 runs played

The ball is on the spot.

Where we read it

Every run

Whatever happens, these come round each time.

  1. A pale corner building on Albrechtstraße with café tables and parked cars
    Albrechtstraße at the Schiffbauerdamm corner, a few doors from the house where Lola lives, April 2012. The house itself is not shown. Kvikk · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Lola’s house, Albrechtstraße

    Lola runs out of the same house at the start of every run.

  2. A long straight street of tall plastered houses under a blue sky
    Linienstraße in Mitte in March 2026; the corner with Gormannstraße is a short walk east. Nylki · CC0

    Linienstraße and Gormannstraße

    Lola brushes past a woman with a pram, and the film flashes through the stranger’s future.

  3. The red-brick Oberbaum Bridge across the Spree with its two towers and a yellow train on top
    A yellow U-Bahn train crossing the Oberbaum Bridge on its upper deck, June 2008. Sarah Jane at Flickr · CC BY 2.0

    Oberbaum Bridge

    Lola runs past the yellow train on the overpass and through the arcade of the Oberbaum Bridge.

  4. A fenced-off U-Bahn stair entrance with a blue station sign in the middle of a wide city street
    The closed entrance of Französische Straße U-Bahn station in the middle of Friedrichstraße, July 2022. Lukas Beck · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Friedrichstraße at Französische Straße

    She crosses Friedrichstraße by the station entrance and meets the nuns in Mauerstraße.

  5. A golden bear sculpture holding a Wallstreet sign outside a hotel door
    The entrance of the Park Plaza Wallstreet hotel at Wallstraße 23–24, with two Buddy Bears, March 2011. Lotse · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Herr Meier’s garage, Wallstraße

    Herr Meier drives out of his garage as she passes, in all three runs.

  6. A wide paved square with a columned concert hall and a domed church
    Gendarmenmarkt in March 2011: the paved square, the Konzerthaus and the French Church. Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Gendarmenmarkt

    She runs across the chequered paving of Gendarmenmarkt.

  7. A cobbled side street of old apartment houses with parked cars
    Greifenhagener Straße in Prenzlauer Berg, April 2015. Fridolin freudenfett · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Greifenhagener Straße

    Lola and an ambulance meet two men carrying a pane of glass across the road.

Where we read it

No run yet. The places that decide each ending show up here.

Deutsche Transfer Bank

The vault is a pool now.

Pool and spa

Hotel de Rome, in the old bank vault

In run two Lola robs her father’s bank. The door is shut.

A long stone palace front on a paved square with people walking past
Hotel de Rome on Bebelplatz, March 2019: the former bank building that played the Deutsche Transfer Bank. Matti Blume · CC BY-SA 4.0

Behrenstraße 37, on Bebelplatz, Mitte

The bank, Behrenstraße

Lola’s father works at the Deutsche Transfer Bank. Its outside is Behrenstraße 37, on Bebelplatz.

The bank scenes used the empty former headquarters of the Dresdner Bank.

It is now the Hotel de Rome, one of the most expensive hotels in Berlin.

The building was also the seat of the GDR’s central bank. The hotel has 146 rooms, and its pool and spa are in the old vault.

Now the Hotel de Rome, a working hotel. Its front on Bebelplatz is open to look at.

Where we read it
A grand six-storey building with arcades along the Kurfürstendamm
Haus Cumberland on the Kurfürstendamm, April 2013. Fridolin freudenfett (Peter Kuley) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Across town · Kurfürstendamm 193–194, Charlottenburg

Haus Cumberland

The bank’s lobby and counter were filmed in the lobby of Haus Cumberland; the security door was a prop.

The listed building dates from the start of the twentieth century and has been a hotel and government offices; since 2011 it has been shops and flats.

Where we read it
Rocco Forte Hotels

Hotel de Rome

Mitte

The bank Lola robs: the old Dresdner Bank building at Behrenstraße 37, on Bebelplatz. 146 rooms, a bar terrace, and a pool and spa in the former vault.

See the hotel

Linienstraße to Wallstraße

Mitte at a run.

Most of the run is Mitte: a corner with a pram, a station entrance in the middle of Friedrichstraße, a line of nuns, a square of black and white paving, a man backing his car out of a garage.

  1. 01 · Off the doorstep
    A long straight street of tall plastered houses under a blue sky
    Linienstraße in Mitte in March 2026; the corner with Gormannstraße is a short walk east. Nylki · CC0

    Corner of Linienstraße and Gormannstraße, Mitte

    Linienstraße and Gormannstraße

    Lola meets the woman with the pram on the south-west corner of Linienstraße and Gormannstraße.

    The long straight street she runs down after leaving home is Gormannstraße, south of the corner.

    After each brush with a passer-by the film flashes forward in a run of still photographs through that stranger’s life, and the futures change from run to run.

    A street corner in Mitte. The south-west corner is the one in the film; new flats and signs have changed it, but the yellow brick pattern along the top of the wall is still there.

    Where we read it
  2. 02 · Station in the road
    A fenced-off U-Bahn stair entrance with a blue station sign in the middle of a wide city street
    The closed entrance of Französische Straße U-Bahn station in the middle of Friedrichstraße, July 2022. Lukas Beck · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Friedrichstraße at Französische Straße, Mitte

    Friedrichstraße at Französische Straße

    The U-Bahn entrance in the middle of the road is the south entrance of Französische Straße station, on Friedrichstraße. Lola’s exact path across it changes from run to run.

    Round the corner she meets the nuns at Mauerstraße and Französische Straße, beside the old Deutsche Bank buildings.

    The station opened on 30 January 1923 and closed on 4 December 2020, when Unter den Linden station opened next door.

    Public streets. The station entrance in the middle of Friedrichstraße is still there but closed; Mauerstraße is a block west.

    Where we read it
  3. 03 · The chequered square
    A wide paved square with a columned concert hall and a domed church
    Gendarmenmarkt in March 2011: the paved square, the Konzerthaus and the French Church. Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Gendarmenmarkt, Mitte

    Gendarmenmarkt

    The chequered paving Lola runs across is Gendarmenmarkt; in run three the building behind her is the Konzerthaus.

    The square was laid out at the end of the seventeenth century and named after the Gendarmen, a Prussian cuirassier regiment that kept its stables here until 1773.

    The Konzerthaus was built as a theatre, the Schauspielhaus; it became a concert hall after the Second World War and took its present name in 1994.

    An open square between the Konzerthaus and the French and German churches.

    Where we read it
  4. 04 · Herr Meier
    A golden bear sculpture holding a Wallstreet sign outside a hotel door
    The entrance of the Park Plaza Wallstreet hotel at Wallstraße 23–24, with two Buddy Bears, March 2011. Lotse · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Wallstraße 23–24, Mitte

    Herr Meier’s garage, Wallstraße

    Herr Meier drives out of his garage and driveway at Wallstraße 23–24 in all three runs.

    The building is now a four-star hotel, the Park Plaza Wallstreet, with the same three outside lights.

    The hotel calls itself design-led and close to Alexanderplatz; its own car park holds 27 cars.

    Now the Park Plaza Wallstreet hotel. The three outside lights are still there; Lola runs off east along Wallstraße.

    Where we read it
A stone bridge arching over Mauerstraße between two sandstone office blocks
Mauerstraße under the bridge that links the old Deutsche Bank buildings, October 2011. Blunt. · CC BY-SA 3.0

Mauerstraße, a block from the station: the nuns come round the corner here, by the old Deutsche Bank buildings.

Park Plaza

Park Plaza Wallstreet Berlin Mitte

Mitte

Herr Meier’s garage at Wallstraße 23–24, with the same three outside lights. A design-led hotel near Alexanderplatz, with its own car park.

See the hotel
The red-brick Oberbaum Bridge across the Spree with its two towers and a yellow train on top
A yellow U-Bahn train crossing the Oberbaum Bridge on its upper deck, June 2008. Sarah Jane at Flickr · CC BY 2.0

Oberbaumbrücke

Over the river.

Lola runs through the bridge’s brick arcade; parts of her running were filmed here.

It was not the most direct way to anywhere she was going.

Tykwer kept the whole bridge out of the frame: he did not want famous landmarks, so the story could be set in any German city.

The yellow train she races past on the overpass at Oberbaumstraße and Falckensteinstraße is meant to be the same each run; in run two its carriages carry advertising.

Open to walk across at any hour. The arcade under the U-Bahn deck is on the bridge itself; the overpass shot is at Oberbaumstraße and Falckensteinstraße, by the Kreuzberg end.

Where we read it
The Oberbaum Bridge's brick arches and turrets reflected in the river
The Oberbaum Bridge from the Spree in November 2013. Arild Vågen, cropped by Tomer T · CC BY-SA 3.0

Otto Stahn’s Brick Gothic bridge opened in 1896. The upper deck carries the U1 and U3; after the Wall it reopened in November 1994, with a steel middle span by Santiago Calatrava.

Run one ends
A straight Kreuzberg street of old apartment houses with parked cars
Cuvrystraße in Kreuzberg, March 2011. Assenmacher · CC BY-SA 3.0

Cuvrystraße, Kreuzberg, between Schlesische Straße and the Spree

Cuvrystraße

Run one ends here. The getaway from the supermarket and the shot that kills Lola were filmed at the north end of Cuvrystraße.

The edit makes the street look shorter than it is.

A public street in Kreuzberg. The scene uses its north end: the dead end by the Spree and the crossing with Schlesische Straße.

Where we read it
Run three: wait for me
A fountain in front of tall pale apartment blocks crowned by a tower
Strausberger Platz and its fountain at the western end of Karl-Marx-Allee, August 2011. Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0

Karl-Marx-Allee 56, Friedrichshain

Karl-Marx-Allee at Strausberger Platz

In run three Lola runs south-east down Karl-Marx-Allee, wishing Manni to wait, with Strausberger Platz behind her.

East Germany built the boulevard between 1949 and 1960 as a showcase; until 1961 it was called Stalinallee.

A public boulevard. Stand on the pavement by number 56 and look west to Strausberger Platz and its U-Bahn station.

Where we read it
Every run: the glass
A cobbled side street of old apartment houses with parked cars
Greifenhagener Straße in Prenzlauer Berg, April 2015. Fridolin freudenfett · CC BY-SA 4.0

Greifenhagener Straße at Buchholzer Straße, Prenzlauer Berg

Greifenhagener Straße

The ambulance and the pane of glass carried across the road were filmed where Greifenhagener Straße meets Buchholzer Straße.

Lola and the ambulance come up Greifenhagener Straße from the Gneiststraße junction to the crossroads.

A residential crossing in Prenzlauer Berg; stay on the pavement.

Where we read it
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Run three

Twenty, twice.

With nothing left to try, Lola runs into a casino and puts her one 100-mark chip on 20. It wins. She leaves everything on 20, and it wins again.

The wheel is still. One chip, 100 marks, is all she has.

Where we read it
A pale neoclassical palace with a colonnade on a wide boulevard
The Kronprinzenpalais on Unter den Linden, August 2024. Bahnfrend · CC BY-SA 4.0

The outside · Unter den Linden 3, Mitte

Kronprinzenpalais

Win twice to open it.

Where we read it
A long wood-panelled hall with a chequered stone floor and hanging lamps
The entrance hall of Rathaus Schöneberg in 2009, with its patterned floor and lamps. Manfred Brueckels · CC BY-SA 3.0

The floor · John-F.-Kennedy-Platz, Schöneberg

Rathaus Schöneberg

Win twice to open it.

Where we read it

Start list

Who made it.

  • Franka Potente, smiling, her hair pinned up, talking in profile
    Franka Potente at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2005, seven years after the film; no free photograph of her from 1997 or 1998 has been found. Franka Potente Frankfurt-CN: Smalltown Boy, derivative work by kaʁstn · CC BY-SA 3.0
    Franka PotenteLola · photographed 2005
  • Tom Tykwer in a dark jacket, holding a microphone
    Tom Tykwer talking to an audience at the Sternenpalast cinema in Biberach, September 2006, eight years after the film; no free photograph of him from 1998 has been found. Dierk Andresen · CC BY-SA 3.0
    Tom TykwerWriter and director · photographed 2006
  • Moritz Bleibtreu smiling, in an open white shirt
    Moritz Bleibtreu at a film premiere in Essen in October 2004, six years after he played Manni. Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 3.0
    Moritz BleibtreuManni · photographed 2004

Tom Tykwer wrote and directed it for X Filme Creative Pool, Frank Griebe shot it and Mathilde Bonnefoy cut it. Around Potente and Bleibtreu are Herbert Knaup as her father, Nina Petri as Frau Hansen, Joachim Król as the tramp, Armin Rohde as Schuster the guard, Heino Ferch as Ronnie, Suzanne von Borsody as Frau Jäger and Ludger Pistor as Herr Meier. The score is by Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil; Potente sings Believe, and Wish (Komm zu mir) with Thomas D.

Potente says she did not train for it, and ran in boots rather than trainers because they sounded different on the street.

  1. 7 weeksShooting in Berlin, 18 June to 4 August 1997
  2. 1,000Extras, 500 of them for the opening
  3. 3.5mDeutschmarks, the budget
  4. 7German Film Awards
Where we read it
An underground platform with green iron columns and white tiles
The U2 platform at Deutsche Oper station, November 2014. Sebastian Rittau · CC0

Where it starts · Bismarckstraße, Charlottenburg

Deutsche Oper station

Manni leaves the bag of money on the U-Bahn at Deutsche Oper station. Everything else follows from that.

The station is on the U2 in Charlottenburg and takes its name from the opera house above.

A working U2 station under Bismarckstraße, open to anyone with a ticket.

Where we read it

Go there.

Where it is now

14 places you can visit, all in Berlin. Lola’s house on Albrechtstraße is a private home: named here, not on the map.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A street corner in Mitte. The south-west corner is the one in the film; new flats and signs have changed it, but the yellow brick pattern along the top of the wall is still there.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Public streets. The station entrance in the middle of Friedrichstraße is still there but closed; Mauerstraße is a block west.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open square between the Konzerthaus and the French and German churches.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now the Park Plaza Wallstreet hotel. The three outside lights are still there; Lola runs off east along Wallstraße.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now the Hotel de Rome, a working hotel. Its front on Bebelplatz is open to look at.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. On Unter den Linden; the palace is used for events and exhibitions. Look at it from the boulevard.

  1. A long straight street of tall plastered houses under a blue sky
    Linienstraße in Mitte in March 2026; the corner with Gormannstraße is a short walk east. Nylki · CC0

    Corner of Linienstraße and Gormannstraße, Mitte

    Linienstraße and Gormannstraße

    Lola meets the woman with the pram on the south-west corner of Linienstraße and Gormannstraße.

    A street corner in Mitte. The south-west corner is the one in the film; new flats and signs have changed it, but the yellow brick pattern along the top of the wall is still there.

    Where we read it
  2. A fenced-off U-Bahn stair entrance with a blue station sign in the middle of a wide city street
    The closed entrance of Französische Straße U-Bahn station in the middle of Friedrichstraße, July 2022. Lukas Beck · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Friedrichstraße at Französische Straße, Mitte

    Friedrichstraße at Französische Straße

    The U-Bahn entrance in the middle of the road is the south entrance of Französische Straße station, on Friedrichstraße. Lola’s exact path across it changes from run to run.

    Public streets. The station entrance in the middle of Friedrichstraße is still there but closed; Mauerstraße is a block west.

    Where we read it
  3. A wide paved square with a columned concert hall and a domed church
    Gendarmenmarkt in March 2011: the paved square, the Konzerthaus and the French Church. Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Gendarmenmarkt, Mitte

    Gendarmenmarkt

    The chequered paving Lola runs across is Gendarmenmarkt; in run three the building behind her is the Konzerthaus.

    An open square between the Konzerthaus and the French and German churches.

    Where we read it
  4. A golden bear sculpture holding a Wallstreet sign outside a hotel door
    The entrance of the Park Plaza Wallstreet hotel at Wallstraße 23–24, with two Buddy Bears, March 2011. Lotse · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Wallstraße 23–24, Mitte

    Herr Meier’s garage, Wallstraße

    Herr Meier drives out of his garage and driveway at Wallstraße 23–24 in all three runs.

    Now the Park Plaza Wallstreet hotel. The three outside lights are still there; Lola runs off east along Wallstraße.

    Where we read it
  5. A long stone palace front on a paved square with people walking past
    Hotel de Rome on Bebelplatz, March 2019: the former bank building that played the Deutsche Transfer Bank. Matti Blume · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Behrenstraße 37, on Bebelplatz, Mitte

    The bank, Behrenstraße

    Lola’s father works at the Deutsche Transfer Bank. Its outside is Behrenstraße 37, on Bebelplatz.

    Now the Hotel de Rome, a working hotel. Its front on Bebelplatz is open to look at.

    Where we read it
  6. A pale neoclassical palace with a colonnade on a wide boulevard
    The Kronprinzenpalais on Unter den Linden, August 2024. Bahnfrend · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Unter den Linden 3, Mitte

    Kronprinzenpalais

    The casino Lola runs into in run three is the Kronprinzenpalais from outside; nothing inside was filmed here.

    On Unter den Linden; the palace is used for events and exhibitions. Look at it from the boulevard.

    Where we read it

Stay

Sleep in the bank.

The bank Lola robs and the garage Herr Meier backs out of are both hotels now.

Rocco Forte Hotels

Hotel de Rome

Mitte

The bank Lola robs: the old Dresdner Bank building at Behrenstraße 37, on Bebelplatz. 146 rooms, a bar terrace, and a pool and spa in the former vault.

See the hotel
Park Plaza

Park Plaza Wallstreet Berlin Mitte

Mitte

Herr Meier’s garage at Wallstraße 23–24, with the same three outside lights. A design-led hotel near Alexanderplatz, with its own car park.

See the hotel

Go there

On foot.

Walking tours of Mitte and of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain.

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What’s on

On the square.

A concert in the Konzerthaus, the building behind Lola on Gendarmenmarkt.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

The script and the record.

Tykwer’s screenplay and the 1998 soundtrack on CD.

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Lola rennt

Tom Tykwer · Rowohlt

Tykwer’s screenplay, published in German by Rowohlt in August 1998, the month the film opened.

Find the book
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Lola rennt (soundtrack)

Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil · CD, Ariola, 1998

The score by Tykwer, Klimek and Heil, with Franka Potente singing Believe and Wish (Komm zu mir) with Thomas D. Released in Germany on 10 August 1998.

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Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

Match report

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

15 of 15 places · 15 of 15 Moments

  • Lola’s house, Albrechtstraße

    Albrechtstraße, Mitte, north of Friedrichstraße station

    • Out of the door

      Lola runs out of the same house at the start of every run.

  • Linienstraße and Gormannstraße

    Corner of Linienstraße and Gormannstraße, Mitte

    • The woman with the pram

      Lola brushes past a woman with a pram, and the film flashes through the stranger’s future.

  • Oberbaum Bridge

    Oberbaumbrücke, between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg

    • Through the arches

      Lola runs past the yellow train on the overpass and through the arcade of the Oberbaum Bridge.

  • Friedrichstraße at Französische Straße

    Friedrichstraße at Französische Straße, Mitte

    • The station and the nuns

      She crosses Friedrichstraße by the station entrance and meets the nuns in Mauerstraße.

  • Gendarmenmarkt

    Gendarmenmarkt, Mitte

    • The chequered square

      She runs across the chequered paving of Gendarmenmarkt.

  • Herr Meier’s garage, Wallstraße

    Wallstraße 23–24, Mitte

    • Herr Meier

      Herr Meier drives out of his garage as she passes, in all three runs.

  • The bank, Behrenstraße

    Behrenstraße 37, on Bebelplatz, Mitte

    • Her father’s bank

      Lola reaches her father’s bank; in run two she robs it.

  • Kronprinzenpalais

    Unter den Linden 3, Mitte

    • The casino door

      In run three she runs in front of a lorry and into the casino.

  • Cuvrystraße

    Cuvrystraße, Kreuzberg, between Schlesische Straße and the Spree

    • Run one ends

      Run one ends with Lola shot at the end of the street.

  • Karl-Marx-Allee at Strausberger Platz

    Karl-Marx-Allee 56, Friedrichshain

    • Wait for me

      In run three Lola runs down Karl-Marx-Allee wishing Manni to wait.

  • Greifenhagener Straße

    Greifenhagener Straße at Buchholzer Straße, Prenzlauer Berg

    • The pane of glass

      Lola and an ambulance meet two men carrying a pane of glass across the road.

  • Deutsche Oper station

    Bismarckstraße, Charlottenburg

    • The bag

      Manni leaves the bag of 100,000 marks on the U-Bahn at Deutsche Oper.

  • The supermarket and the phone box

    Osnabrücker Straße at Tauroggener Straße, Charlottenburg

    • The supermarket

      Manni robs the supermarket by the phone box.

  • Haus Cumberland

    Kurfürstendamm 193–194, Charlottenburg

    • The lobby

      Inside the bank, the lobby and the counter.

  • Rathaus Schöneberg

    John-F.-Kennedy-Platz, Schöneberg

    • Twenty, twice

      She puts one 100-mark chip on 20; it wins, and wins again.

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