Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
9
less true to the medieval town plan and remain slightly down-at-heel - it's not
hard to picture this area as it must have been a century or so ago. A number of
typical nineteenth-century Bürgerhäuser with restored facades on Grünstrasse and
Böttcherstrasse are worth a look, but the most prominent building is the early
twentieth-century neo-Gothic Rathaus on Alt Köpenick, a typically over-the-top
gabled affair with an imposing clock tower. A statue of one Wilhelm Voigt at the
entrance to the buildings commemorates the town's most famous incident, when
on October 16, 1906, unemployed shoemaker Voigt disguised himself as an army
o cer, commandeered a troop of soldiers, marched them to Köpenick's Rathaus
and requisitioned the contents of its safe. Having ordered his detachment to take
Köpenick's mayor and bookkeeper to the guardhouse in the city centre, he
disappeared. Voigt was soon caught, but the story became an example of the
Prussian propensity to blindly follow anyone wearing uniform. Later, playwright
Carl Zuckmeyer turned the incident into a play, Der Hauptmann von Köpenick
(“he Captain of Köpenick”) and the robbery is now re-enacted every summer in
the second half of June during the Köpenick summer festival.
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Schlossinsel • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • €6; €12 with the Kulturforum's Kunstgewerbemuseum (see p.95) • T 030 226 29 02,
W smb.museum
At the southern end of the Altstadt a footbridge leads to the Schlossinsel, the island
home of Schloss Köpenick , the seventeenth-century fortified Baroque manor that
houses the Kunstgewerbemuseum , another of Berlin's fine state museums.
Showcasing a collection of Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo furnishings from the
sixteenth to eighteenth century, it's perhaps less impressive than the Kulturforum's
Kunstgewerbemuseum (see p.95), but the Schloss has the advantage of being able to
display many pieces in situ. A first-class audio tour, included in the admission price,
greatly enhances a visit.
he exhibition begins with the Italian Renaissance, which sparked Europe-wide
stylistic change and was quickly bolstered by the French, whose grand pieces of
furniture inhabit the next room. hese form a preamble to the German Renaissance,
the museum's strong point, and on the first floor themes of love, marriage and
fertility are intriguingly explored by arrangements of sturdy Teutonic furniture. After
a brief foray into Dutch Baroque, the self-guided tour leads to a group of gigantic
beer mugs, strongly underlining the Germanic nature of the collection, followed by
a few Polish Renaissance pieces, which offer a distraction en route to the museum's
most famous exhibit: the silver buffet from the Berliner Schloss - one of its few
treasures to survive intact.
he second floor is replete with Chinese vases and commodes that seventeenth-
century Dutch and British traders brought back from the Orient, which helped inspire
the Rococo movement. Much of the sizeable collection belonged to Frederick II, who
was clearly a big fan of the style. he pièce de résistance - an excessively flamboyant
porcelain lampshade - was one of a series that Frederick liked to give as presents in an
era when gifts like these would win friends and influence people.
Frauentog and aound
Just beside the Schloss Köpenick and its attendant Schlossplatz are views out over the
Frauentog , a small bay where Köpenick's fishermen used to cast their nets; this becomes
the Langer See further south. he sheltered bay is now home to the Solarbootpavillon,
which rents out solar-powered boats ( Mon-Fri noon-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-8pm;
from €11/hr). On the east side of the bay, just to the southeast of the Altstadt, is the
Kietz , a cobbled street of fishing cottages dating back to the early thirteenth century.
Recent renovation has brightened up the shutters and whitewashed facades of most of
these cottages, making it a pleasant street for a stroll.
 
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