Best BJJ Gyms in Berlin: What Reddit Actually Says
Reddit-ranked BJJ gyms in Berlin with honest community data, drop-in info, cost breakdowns, and district picks for visitors and locals.
Berlin has one of the more active BJJ scenes in Europe, with more than fifteen gyms spread across its districts. This guide ranks them by Reddit community mentions, pulled from r/bjj, r/berlin, r/Kampfsport, and related subreddits. One gym stands out by a wide margin. The rest cluster tighter than the numbers suggest, for reasons explained below.
Verdict at a Glance
| Gym | Reddit mentions | Pos / Neg | Drop-in | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BJJ Akademie | 8 | 7+ / 0- | contact first | Travelers, gi and no-gi |
| Spitfire Academy | 8 | 4+ / 1- | yes (tagged) | Beginners, kids, no-gi |
| BJJ Fightzone Checkmat | 8 | 4+ / 1- | yes (tagged) | Competitors, open mat |
| Gracie Berlin | 8 | 4+ / 1- | contact first | Large mat space, gi and no-gi |
| BJJ DOJO Berlin | 8 | 4+ / 1- | no | Kreuzberg locals |
| Hilti BJJ Berlin | 8 | 4+ / 1- | contact first | Wedding district |
| MMA Berlin | 8 | 4+ / 1- | contact first | Schöneberg, multi-discipline |
| Sports School Tao Berlin | 8 | 4+ / 1- | contact first | High-level, kids |
| Gracie JJ Team Berlin | 8 | 4+ / 1- | contact first | Beginners, women’s classes, affordable |
| 10th Planet Berlin | 8 | 4+ / 1- | yes (confirmed) | No-gi, Neukölln |
| Sports Club Lurich | 8 | 4+ / 0- | yes (tagged) | High-level, affordable, Urban Sports Club |
| Sports School Randori-Pro | 8 | 4+ / 0- | contact first | Charlottenburg/Wilmersdorf |
| Modern Martial Arts Group | 7 | 3+ / 1- | contact first | Kids, Pankow |
| Ringside Gym | 5 | 1+ / 0- | contact first | Multi-discipline, Lichtenberg |
| HOLY GROUND SQUAD | 4 | 2+ / 0- | contact first | Charlottenburg, tight community |
| Sportschule Rahn | 3 | 1+ / 0- | contact first | Historical significance |
A note on the numbers: most gyms share identical counts because they appeared in the same batch of Reddit threads. Many of those threads are only tangentially related to the gyms listed. BJJ Akademie’s 7+/0- is the only rating earned across five separate, BJJ-specific recommendation threads. All other gym-level commentary below comes from the actual quotes in those posts, not the aggregate counts.
“Drop-in confirmed” = explicit field in directory data. “Yes (tagged)” = community-reported tag. “Contact first” = not confirmed in current data.
BJJ Akademie
The community consensus pick for Berlin, and the only gym in the dataset called out explicitly as traveler-friendly.
“As for bjj akademie there are very traveler friendly, just contact them and hf in berlin.” - r/bjj, 2024
It is also the gym named when Redditors sketch out a European BJJ road trip:
“Germany: BJJ Akademie Berlin” - r/bjj, 2024
And it appears consistently in local recommendation threads:
“there are serveral good gyms in Berlin… BJJ Akademie Berlin: bjjakademie.gymdesk.com” - r/berlin, 2023
“Fenriz, Spitfire, BJJ Akademie, GFTeam (Tegel)” - r/bjj, 2023
German-language forums agree: “Spitfire, BJJ Akademie Berlin, Hilti BJJ sind alle ganz gut.” (r/Kampfsport, 2023)
8 Reddit mentions, 7 positive, 0 negative. Contact ahead to confirm drop-in availability.
Hauptstraße 103 | bjjberlin.de | Gi + No-gi | Drop-in: contact first | Full profile
Spitfire Academy Berlin GmbH
Spitfire appears in nearly every Berlin BJJ list and carries one of the richer tag profiles in the directory: high-level, kids classes, affordable, friendly atmosphere, open mat, beginner-friendly, MMA training, drop-in.
It also carries negatives from community reviewers: expensive, poor instructors, overcrowded, unfriendly, unsafe. That contrast is worth taking seriously before committing. Trial class first.
8 Reddit mentions, 4 positive, 1 negative.
Bülowstraße 56 (Hinterhof 2.OG) | spitfire.berlin | Gi + No-gi | Drop-in: yes (tagged) | Full profile
BJJ Fightzone Checkmat Berlin
Fightzone shows up across the same community lists as Akademie and Spitfire, including this 2020 price overview that named it in the 60-80 EUR bracket:
“Gyms like GFT, Fightzone, Ringside Gym and Fenriz for example are in the range of 60-80€” - r/bjj, 2020
Directory tags: high-level, friendly atmosphere, open mat, good instructors, beginner-friendly, drop-in, clean. One tag also reads disorganized.
It has a Checkmat affiliation, which matters if you train under that flag elsewhere and want continuity on the road.
8 Reddit mentions, 4 positive, 1 negative.
Coppistraße 17, Lichtenberg | fightzone-berlin.de | Gi + No-gi | Drop-in: yes (tagged) | Full profile
HOLY GROUND SQUAD
Fewer total mentions than the gyms above, but one of them carries genuine weight. A member of four years wrote:
“Holy Ground friendly team, good atmosphere, and the level of BJJ is pretty decent. After 4 years of training here, i can recommend it.” - r/berlin, 2023
Kaiserdamm 113 puts it in Charlottenburg, one of the more expat-dense western districts and well-connected by U-Bahn. No confirmed drop-in; contact before visiting.
4 Reddit mentions, 2 positive, 0 negative.
Kaiserdamm 113, Charlottenburg | bjj-in-berlin.de | Gi | Drop-in: contact first | Full profile
Gracie Berlin (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Schule)
Gets credit for mat space. From the same 2021 thread that reviewed several Berlin gyms:
“Fenriz / Gracie Berlin has probably the best and biggest actual gym space. BJJ Akademie is smaller but pretty tight knit I think. Mostly Gi though.” - r/bjj, 2021
This is from 2021; conditions may have changed. The directory tags are genuinely mixed: high-level, women’s classes, no-gi, open mat, good instructors, beginner-friendly sit alongside poor instructors, unfriendly, disorganized. A trial class is the right call before signing up.
8 Reddit mentions, 4 positive, 1 negative.
Lobeckstraße 36, Kreuzberg | gracie-bjj-berlin.com | Gi + No-gi | Drop-in: contact first | Full profile
Ringside Gym
A multi-discipline setup running Muay Thai, MMA, boxing, BJJ, and Eskrima. The BJJ program has run under Cicero Costa and earned a simple but genuine line from the community:
“Ringside/Cicero Costa also a bit on the smaller side but ran by some good dudes.” - r/bjj, 2021
The most recent positive mentions are from 2020-2021. Verify the current schedule before making a trip.
5 Reddit mentions, 1 positive, 0 negative.
Herzbergstraße 87-99 / Siegfriedstraße 65, Lichtenberg | ringsidegym.de | Drop-in: contact first | Full profile
Other Gyms in the Directory
BJJ DOJO Berlin - Bergmannstraße 5, Kreuzberg. Gi + no-gi. Drop-in explicitly not offered per directory data. Full profile
Hilti BJJ Berlin - Oudenarder Str. 16, Wedding. Gi + no-gi. Named alongside Akademie and Spitfire in two separate recommendation threads. Full profile
MMA Berlin - Crellestraße 19-20, Schöneberg. A German-language review from 2023: “Die bieten Grappling, Jiu Jitsu und Kickbox Kurse an. Ich hab dort ein Probetraining gemacht, was mir gut gefallen hat. Der Preis ist halt hoch.” Price flagged as high. (r/berlinsocialclub, 2023) Full profile
Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Team Berlin - Bernhard-Bästlein-Straße 22, Lichtenberg. Directory tags: women’s classes, affordable, friendly, beginner-friendly. A 2020 community post placed it in the 50 EUR/month range as a club with almost daily training. (r/bjj, 2020) Full profile
Sports School Tao Berlin - Frankfurter Allee 71-77, Friedrichshain. Tags: high-level, kids classes, good instructors, MMA training, clean. Also: expensive, disorganized. Full profile
Sports Club Lurich - Köpenicker Str. 154, Treptow. Tags: high-level, affordable, open mat, kids, MMA, drop-in confirmed. A 3-year Urban Sports Club user noted being able to combine gym, BJJ, and climbing on one USC membership in Berlin (r/indiehackers, 2024). Worth checking if USC covers your target gym. Full profile
10th Planet Berlin - Cautiusstraße 42, Neukölln. Gi + no-gi. Drop-in confirmed. The 10th Planet system is no-gi focused by design. Full profile
Sportschule Rahn - Nicolaistraße 13-15. The Reddit mentions for Rahn are almost entirely about the school’s founder, Erich Rahn, who started the first German jiu-jitsu school in Berlin in 1906. The directory tags for the current gym are mixed: high-level, kids, good instructors alongside dirty, poor instructors, overcrowded, unsafe, disorganized. Full profile
Modern Martial Arts Group - Prenzlauer Promenade 149, Pankow. Gi, kids classes. Northernmost option in the directory. Full profile
Training Costs in Berlin
Two data points from community posts:
“If you go to gyms in cities like Munich or Berlin with several classes a day, it is more like 80-120 Euros to be fair.” - r/bjj, 2023
From 2020 (older; verify against current pricing):
“Gyms like GFT, Fightzone, Ringside Gym and Fenriz for example are in the range of 60-80€, while IMAG Berlin e.V. (an institution in Berlin) and Gracie Jiu Jitsu Berlin are as clubs with almost daily training in the range for around 50€.” - r/bjj, 2020
BJJ in Berlin is noted by community members as a niche sport in a market dominated by football, which influences what gyms can charge.
Berlin for Expats and Visiting Grapplers
BJJ Akademie is the one gym the community names directly for visitors. Contact them ahead of arriving to confirm a drop-in slot rather than showing up cold.
For the broader scene, one expat thread from 2022 captured the city’s BJJ environment well:
“there’s a decently large Brazilian community in Berlin. They are incredibly friendly… the sport is big enough, and Berlin is cosmopolitan enough, that I have no doubt you’d be able to find a group in Berlin to roll with.” - r/germany, 2022
Geography matters in Berlin. Western options include Akademie and Spitfire in Schöneberg, Holy Ground in Charlottenburg, Randori-Pro in Wilmersdorf. Kreuzberg has BJJ DOJO and Gracie Berlin. East of the center: Fightzone and Gracie JJ Team in Lichtenberg, Tao in Friedrichshain. Further out: Lurich in Treptow, Modern Martial Arts Group in Pankow.
Note: “Fenriz” appears in several recommendation threads as a top Berlin gym but is not listed in the current directory. If you see it mentioned in community posts, search separately for current contact details.
Best for You
Visiting / drop-in: BJJ Akademie (contact first, traveler-friendly by community consensus). 10th Planet Berlin (drop-in confirmed). Fightzone Checkmat also carries the drop-in tag.
Beginners: BJJ Fightzone Checkmat, Spitfire Academy, Gracie JJ Team Berlin (all tagged beginner-friendly).
Competitors: BJJ Fightzone Checkmat (Checkmat affiliation, high-level tag). Spitfire Academy also tagged high-level.
No-gi: 10th Planet Berlin, BJJ Akademie (both gi and no-gi), Spitfire Academy.
Women’s classes: Gracie Berlin, Gracie JJ Team Berlin.
Affordable: Gracie JJ Team Berlin, Sports Club Lurich. Urban Sports Club memberships may cover some Berlin gyms on a multi-sport plan.
Browse all Berlin gyms with schedule and style filters at the Berlin BJJ gym directory.
Data compiled from 16 gyms across r/bjj, r/berlin, r/Kampfsport, r/berlinsocialclub, and related subreddits; 82 total mentions scored for sentiment. Counts and rankings update as new threads are indexed.
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