Berlin Off The Beaten Path Tips by Nemorino

Moabit Prison

This is one of the more famous prisons in Germany.

It was built in the years 1877–1881 as the Royal Detention Prison in the District of Moabit and is now what the British would call a Listed Building, meaning a building that is protected from demolition because of its "special architectural or historic interest".

There have been times when the Moabit Prison was mentioned constantly in the German news media, for instance when suspected terrorists were detained there while awaiting trial, or in the 1990s after German reunification when two former leaders of the defunct German Democratic Republic, Erich Honecker and Eugen Krenz, were imprisoned there because of their role in ordering the many shootings at the Berlin Wall and the fortified border that used to divide East and West Germany.

Alt-Moabit 12 a, 10559 Berlin

GPS 52°31'27.63" North; 13°21'19.35" East

Phone: 030 / 90 14 - 0

Website: http://www.berlin.de/sen/justiz/justizvollzug/moabit/moabit_index.html

Cecilien House

The historic Cecilien House, or what's left of it after wartime destruction, now looks quite out of place among the surrounding nondescript buildings on the Otto-Suhr-Allee in Charlottenburg.

It was built from 1907 to 1909 in the then-popular "Youth Style" = Jugendstil or Art deco style, by the architects Walter Spickendorff und Rudolf Walter for an organization called the Patriotic Women's Society of Charlottenburg.

Until the Second World War this building served as the headquarters of several charitable institutions of Charlottenburg, including a women's clinic and birth house, a nursery school, a soup kitchen, the offices of the German Red Cross and a sanatorium with fifty beds.

The building was named after Crown Princess Cecilie (1886-1954), who in 1905 had married Crown Prince Wilhelm, the son of the then-reigning German Emperor Wilhelm II.

The whole complex was originally much larger, but after the Second World War only the facade and the first courtyard remained intact.

The Cecilien House is now used for commercial purposes, including an Asia Bistro on the ground floor, to the right of the gateway.

Otto-Suhr-Allee 59, 10585 Berlin

GPS 52°30'55.32"N; 13°18'43.52"E

Website: http://www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf/bezirk/lexikon/cecilienhaus.html

Stuttgarter Platz

This square, behind the Charlottenburg S-Bahn station, was in the news for a while in the late 1960s because the politically-oriented hippy commune "Kommune 1" was located here, in an old apartment building on Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße on Stuttgarter Platz. This commune was well-known in Germany at the time for its provocative lifestyle and bizarre political protest actions, and it really became famous when the model and super-groupie Uschi Obermaier moved in.

Stuttgarter Platz also used to be one of Berlin's more popular red-light districts, but starting in the 1970s residents of the area have formed citizens' action groups to push for traffic calming and the establishment of parks and playgrounds. The German Railway System has also helped out by planting trees here in compensation for trees that they cut down in other parts of the country to build new high-speed railroad lines.

While cycling around Charlottenburg in July 2009 I stopped off at Stuttgarter Platz for a cup of coffee at one of the outdoor cafés, and found it a very pleasant place full of young families with well-behaved young children.

GPS 52°30'18.13" North; 13°18'8.24" East

Lietzensee

There are around fifty lakes in Berlin, depending on what you count as a lake, and this is one of them.

For some reason I used to think the Lietzensee was a man-made lake, but actually it is one of a chain of lakes that were gouged out by a glacier during the Ice Age.

The Lietzensee is in Charlottenburg and has lots of buildings around it, but also a park that was designed in the years 1912 to 1920. The park covers about three-quarters of the shoreline, but the other quarter is not accessible because it is built up with buildings.

There is a 2.2 kilometer walking and jogging path going all around the park. This is route number 10 of the thirteen official routes that are listed by the city's Department for Urban Development as being the "most appealing jogging and walking routes in the centre of Berlin". They say that in devising these routes "special emphasis was placed on the city's landmarks to render the tours interesting especially for tourists."

This particular route seems to be quite popular because it is not far from Berlin's exhibition centre, the International Congress Centre (ICC) and the Central Bus Station (ZOB). They say the "short lap around the lake is perfect for a quick break from work" -- though actually the route doesn't go all around the lake, just all around the park. It is completely level -- no hills -- and is open 24 hours a day, but is not illuminated at night.

GPS 52°30'14.34" North; 13°17'20.10" East.

By Public Transportation:
S 4, 45, 46 to Messe-Nord / ICC
U 2, U 12 to Sophie-Charlotte-Platz
Busses No. 139, 149 to Kuno-Fischer-Straße

Website: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/umwelt/berlin_move/en/laufstrecken/laufstrecke10.shtml

Charlottenburg Old Town Path

Photos:
1. Nehringstraße in Charlottenburg
2. Charlottenburg Old Town Path, 10th stop

Charlottenburg is a district in the western part of Berlin. It is not very old, by European standards, but that doesn't stop it from having an "Old Town Path" with thirteen stops and a text panel (or sometimes two) at each stop.

The tenth stop on the Old Town Path (second photo) is at the corner of Christstraße and Nehringstraße. The text panel in German and English explains that the first building in the Christstraße "can be traced back to 1872 and was a reaction to the acute housing shortage in Charlottenburg at that time." Other buildings at this corner were built in the 1880s.

In 1972 this district was declared a development area, with the intention of demolishing the old buildings, but the tenants protested vigorously and as a result the old buildings were preserved and renovated, so that today the Christstraße "is a clear example of an old building quarter from the time of the founders."

GPS 52°31'1.86" North; 13°17'37.11" East

Website: http://www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf/bezirk/lexikon/altstadttour.html

Potsdam Outside Berlin Review

Potsdam is not just a suburb of Berlin, but a major city in its own right. In former times it was the summer residence of Friedrich the Great, whose palace and park "Sanssouci" are still major tourist attractions. Potsdam is now the capital of the Land of Brandenburg.

The Adult Education Center in Potsdam is named after Albert Einstein, who had numerous connections to this city. There has been an "Einstein Tower" in Potsdam since 1921, and an "Einstein Institute" since 1924. Einstein himself had a summer house in Caputh, near Potsdam, starting in 1929.

Website: http://www.potsdam-vhs.de/