Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Landwehrkanal
and left down Maybachufer. From here, the walk east along the leafy
canal at the southern edge of the district passes along Berlin's most attractive stretches
of water through a residential district: more reminiscent of Amsterdam than Berlin.
Museum der Dinge
Oranienstr. 25 • Mon & Fri-Sun noon-7pm • €4 •
T
030 92 10 63 11,
W
museumderdinge.de • U-Kottbusser Tor
Despite its nebulous mission, the
Museum der Dinge
(Museum of hings) successfully
presents an interesting array of mostly everyday items. Housewares, furniture and
knick-knacks and much more, from the nineteenth century to the present day, range
from Manoli ashtrays and Art Deco fondue sets to World War II memorabilia. It's a
design-fiend's dream, exhibited in a modern, well-organized space on the top floor of
an apartment block. A star attraction is the modular “Frankfurt Kitchen” designed by
Viennese architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in 1926 - the forerunner of today's
fitted kitchen. he exhibition text is in German, but a brochure in English is available.
7
Treptower Park
S-Bahn Treptower Park, or bus #265 from Schlesisches Tor
Now chiefly of interest for its large and sobering
Soviet Memorial
to troops killed in the
Battle of Berlin,
Treptower Park
was originally built as a park for Berlin's nineteenth-
century tenement-dwellers. By 1908 it had more than thirty dance halls and restaurants;
later, during the interwar years, it became a well-known assembly point for revolutionary
workers about to embark on demonstrations or go off to do battle with the Brownshirts.
Until the
Wende
most park visitors were either East Berliners out for a day at
Spreepark
, a GDR-era amusement park, or Soviet citizens arriving by the busload to pay
their respects at the memorial. But since the 1990s increasing numbers of former West
Berliners have discovered the place, and it has become a popular Sunday destination for
the space-starved inhabitants of Neukölln and Kreuzberg. he pleasant harbour area
close to the Treptower Park S-Bahn station is one attraction, but the main hub of
activity is now on and around the Insel der Jugend, further south along the Spree.
The Soviet Memorial
At the heart of Treptower Park, the
Soviet Memorial
(Sowjetisches Ehrenmal)
commemorates the Soviet Union's 305,000 estimated casualties during the Battle of
Berlin in April and May 1945 and is the burial place of five thousand of them. It's best
approached from the arched entrance on the south side of Puschkinallee. A little way
to the south of here is a sculpture of a grieving woman representing the Motherland, to
the left of which a broad concourse slopes up towards a viewing point flanked by two
vast triangles of red granite, fashioned from stone bought from Sweden by the Nazis
to furnish Berlin with projected victory monuments. From the viewing point, a long
sunken park of mass graves of the Red Army troops is lined by sculpted frescoes of
stylized scenes from the Great Patriotic War and quotes from Stalin with German
translations. hese lead the way to the centrepiece: a vast symbolic statue and typical
piece of Soviet gigantism, built using marble from Hitler's Chancellery. More than
11m high, and set on top of a hill modelled on a
kurgan
or traditional warriors' grave
of the Don region, it shows an idealized Russian soldier clutching a saved child and
resting his sword on a shattered swastika. Inside the plinth is a memorial crypt with a
mosaic in true Socialist Realist style, showing Soviet citizens (soldiers, mother, worker,
peasant and what looks like an old-age pensioner) honouring the dead.
The rest of the park
he rest of the park conceals a couple of low-key attractions, including the
Karpfenteich
,
a large carp pool just south of the memorial, and, a little to the east of here, the
Archenhold Sternwarte
(Alt-Treptow 1; Wed-Sun 2-4.30pm; tours hurs 8pm, Sat &
