Three soft x-ray monochromators at the Berlin electron storage ring BESSY are described: a plane grating monochromator (SX-700) for the photon energy range 9 eV to about 2000 eV at high resolution, a high energy toroidal grating monochromator which delivers high photon flux up to - 1000 eV at medium resolution and a double crystal monochromator for the range 800 eV to about 4000 eV. The first experimental results obtained with these instruments are presented: resonant photoemission from europium intermetallic compounds, SEXAFS spectra of oxygen on copper and Cls photoelectron spectra from gaseous CO including satellite structure up to 20 eV excitation energy.