Christel Krueger pressed her face close to the thick glass at the Berlin Zoo, peering through the hazy water at a mother hippo and her calf dozing together on a sandy bank. For the 86-year-old, the moment was nothing short of mesmerizing.
Krueger and her daughter had joined a tailored zoo tour last month, designed specifically for people living with dementia. The program was run by Malteser Deutschland, a branch of the global Catholic charity Malteser Order of Malta.
Alongside Krueger, Ingrid Barkow sat in her wheelchair watching elephants lumber across their enclosure, while Monika Jansen stretched up onto her toes to catch a clearer glimpse of a rhino.
“This will stay with me once I’m home,” said Jansen, 85. “Maybe even at night, while I’m asleep, dreaming about it.”
According to Germany’s National Dementia Strategy office, the three women are among roughly 1.6 million people in the country living with dementia. By 2050, that number is projected to climb to 2.8 million.
Specialised tours on the rise worldwide
In recent years, museums and cultural venues around the globe have introduced accessible, barrier-free tours and guides, some made possible by new technologies. Offerings now include sign-language tours for visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, tactile experiences for blind or low-vision guests, and programs tailored to people on the autism spectrum.
Last year, Malteser Deutschland’s Berlin chapter launched a cultural series in the capital specifically for individuals with dementia.
“People with dementia are often invisible in our society. It’s still a huge taboo, yet it touches so many lives. It’s vital that they remain part of the community,” said project coordinator Christine Gruschka. “They have every right to participate, just like anyone else.”
Globally, millions live with some form of dementia, a condition marked by progressive decline in memory, reasoning, language, and other cognitive abilities. Personality shifts, emotional changes, and altered visual perception can also occur. Alzheimer’s is the most commonly known type, but many other forms exist, each with unique symptoms and biological underpinnings.
Malteser Berlin currently offers dementia-friendly tours at the zoo, the Museum of Natural History, Britzer Garden, and Charlottenburg Palace, with plans to expand to more venues.
“Regular tours—what people call normal tours—are often too fast, too loud, too crowded, and overstimulating,” Gruschka explained. “That’s why we set out to create programs specifically for people with dementia: spaces where they still feel recognized, comfortable, and capable of showing that they’re still here and still part of things.”
Why dementia-specific tours matter for caregivers and families
Krueger, Jansen, and Barkow followed Malteser Berlin tour coordinator Carola Tembrink through the zoo, joined by their daughters and a caregiver. Rather than overwhelming the group, Tembrink kept the focus on the hippo, rhino, and elephant areas, skipping most of the zoo’s vast grounds so participants wouldn’t tire out or feel overloaded.
“The zoo is ideal for this kind of tour because nearly everyone who grew up in Berlin visited as a child,” Tembrink said. “For people with dementia, childhood memories often remain vivid—they just need a gentle prompt. That happens naturally when they see the animals, smell the zoo air, or step into the rhino house and notice a different scent.”
For caregivers and families, these tours offer a vital lifeline. On long, difficult days spent caring for a loved one with dementia, a specialized outing provides connection with others who truly understand the experience.
Krueger received a formal dementia diagnosis last year, but her daughter, Kerstin Hoehne, said signs had been present for more than two years.
“What’s really nice is being with people who get it—you’re not alone. There’s a sense of belonging, because everyone else is facing similar challenges,” Hoehne shared.
Manuela Grudda, daughter of Ingrid Barkow, said the tour deepened their bond. As she pushed her mother’s wheelchair through the zoo, Grudda gently massaged Barkow’s shoulders and pointed out the animals.
“Of course, I can’t communicate with her normally anymore, but I see that when I show her something, she looks at it, she pays attention, and that matters,” Grudda said. “It honestly makes me happy that she’s not completely lost in her own world—she’s still present in this one, too.”
