Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
9
From here you can wander to other arterial roads beside Alt-Marzahn: Landsberger Allee,
to take in the immensity of all the high-rises and bus #195 to the
Gärten der Welt
, a large
park with a collection of ornamental gardens. his bus goes on, though very indirectly, to
the
Gründerzeitmuseum Mahlsdorf
,
a museum that brings together a fine collection of late
nineteenth-century furnishings from the beginning of the German Empire.
Gärten der Welt
Eisenacher Str. 99 •
Park and Chinese Garden
Daily: March & Oct 9am-6pm; April-Sept 9am-8pm; Nov-Feb 9am-4pm • Free
Japanese Garden
April-Sept Mon-Fri noon-8pm, Sat & Sun 9am-8pm, Oct Mon-Fri noon-6pm, Sat & Sun 9am-6pm • €3 •
W
erholungspark-marzahn.de • U-Cottbusserplatz, then bus #195
Opened in 1987 as part of the city's 750th birthday celebrations,
Gärten der Welt
(Gardens of the World) forms an attractive oasis amid Marzahn's high-rises. he park is
dotted with decorative features, pleasant nooks and playgrounds, but its star turns are
the trio of exotic gardens. he sprawling and ornate
Chinese Garden
is the biggest in
Europe, with a restaurant, snack bar and a teahouse (see p.204), while the
Japanese
Garden
is much more regimented, with water and rock features competing for space
with shrubs and bonsai trees. he park also boasts several other themed gardens,
including a
Balinese Garden
in a warm damp greenhouse where you'll find a traditional
rural family home amid the ferns and orchids.
Gründerzeitmuseum Mahlsdorf
Hultschiner Damm 333, Mahlsdorf • Wed & Sun 10am-6pm; guided tours only - call ahead to arrange one in English • €4.50 •
T
030 567 83 29,
W
gruenderzeitmuseum.de • Tram #62 to Alt-Mahlsdorf from S-Mahlsdorf
he suburb of
Mahlsdorf
, about 5km southeast of Alt-Marzahn, is no cultural
centre, but it does boast one of the city's most notable museums, the excellent
Gründerzeitmuseum Mahlsdorf
, a collection of furniture and household gear from
1880-1900, the period known as the
Gründerzeit
or “foundation time”, when the
newly united Germany was at its imperial peak. he founder of the museum, Lothar
Berfelde (one of Berlin's better-known transvestites, better known as a writer with the
pseudonym
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf
), put the collection together during GDR days
when such an undertaking was by no means an easy task, creating a representative
Gründerzeit
apartment by taking the complete contents of rooms and relocating them
in this eighteenth-century manor house. Depending on your tastes the result is either
exquisite or over the top, but either way the museum is fascinating and certainly worth
the long haul out to the suburbs - don't miss the basement, filled with furnishings
from the
Mulack-Ritze
, a famous early twentieth-century Berlin
Kneipe
(pub) that
originally stood on Mulackstrasse in the Scheunenviertel.
Berfelde was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz, Germany's equivalent of the OBE,
in 1992 for his services to the preservation of the city's cultural and social heritage. He
died in 2002; the following year he became the subject of the Pulitzer Prize-winning
Broadway theatre piece,
I Am My Own Wife
by Doug Wright.
Köpenick
A slow-moving little place on the banks of the River Spree near the southeast edge of
Berlin,
Köpenick
, easily reached by S-Bahn from Alexanderplatz, is an ideal escape from
the city centre and a convenient base for exploring Berlin's southeastern lakes, in
particular the
Müggelsee
, with its appealing shoreline towns of Friedrichshagen and
Rahnsdorf. Also easily accessible are the
Müggelberge
, Berlin's 150m-high “mountains”.
Köpenick was a town in its own right during medieval times, and though it has since
been swallowed up by Greater Berlin, it still retains a distinct identity. he presence of
a number of major factories meant that it always had a reputation as a “red” town. In
March 1920, during the Kapp putsch attempt, workers from Köpenick took on and
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
CLOCK TOWER, KÖPENICK RATHAUS
P.149
; SCHLOSS KÖPENICK
P.149
; STASI MUSEUM BERLIN
P.143
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