‘Off The Beaten Track’ Archives
Gartenstadt Falkenberg
Elizabeth Childers profiles Bruno Taut's Gartenstadt Falkenberg housing estate... Image by Ryan Hursh Take the S-Bahn twenty kilometers southeast from the Middle of Berlin to the Grünau stop and you will end up at a small and intriguing housing estate called Gartenstadt Falkenberg (“Falkenberg Garden City”). Clustered around three streets — Akazienhof, Am Falkenberg, and Gartenstadtweg — are 128 dwellings. These simple but colourful buildings sit in what looks like an almost [...]
The Hidden Watchtower
Marcel Krueger meets the man who turned a GDR watchtower into a memorial for his murdered brother... „Gegen Verräter und Grenzverletzer ist die Schußwaffe anzuwenden. Es sind solche Maßnahmen zu treffen, daß Verbrecher in der 100-m-Sperrzone gestellt werden können. Beobachtungs- und Schußfeld ist in der Sperrzone zu schaffen.“ "Firearms are to be used against traitors and those attempting to violate the border. Measures should be taken with the aim of halting the criminal inside [...]
Tegel’s Abandoned Boeing 707
Ian Hawkins uncovers the curious tale of Tegel airport's abandoned Boeing 707... Tegel Airport’s Boeing 707. Photo by Ian Hawkins. If there’s anything I’ve learned about Berlin, it’s that everything has a history. Everything. And if something looks a little out of the ordinary, that’s because it is. We’re trying to explore as much of Berlin as we can. A few weeks ago we went for a walk around Rehberge and Tegel Airport. The walk took us to the far western end of the [...]
Images of Berlin, 2012
Paul Sullivan selects some of his favourite images of Berlin taken in 2012... I've never photographed as much as I did in 2012. My camera was barely out of my hands for most of the year, even though I probably travelled less (internationally speaking) than any year in the previous decade. I cycled and walked day and night through the centre and fringes of the city, exploring everything from lakes and woodlands to abandoned buildings and residential estates. I never knew quite was I [...]
Beelitz Heilstätten: The Phantom Sanatorium
Catherine Lupton explores Beelitz's abandoned Sanatorium and the history left behind... Image by Catherine Lupton The vast abandoned sanatorium / hospital complex Beelitz Heilstätten, southwest of Berlin, is surely one of the city’s most flagrantly open secrets. Easily reached by train from Wannsee, Beelitz is a mythical destination for aficionados of urban exploration (urbex): the clandestine visiting, photographing and filming of abandoned buildings, as well as being an oddly [...]
Berlin Plants
Berlin Plants give a heads up on some of the city's urban foliage... Visitors to Berlin are bound to discover the multifaceted nature of the city, which openly manifests itself in the architectural imprints of its recent divided history and the thriving nocturnal hipster scene. Summer visitors might also be struck by the lushness of its green spaces and impressive tally of nearly half a million trees – not to mention the abundance of other plants and shrubs springing up in between [...]
Café Lenné
Aarti Mehta-Kroll enjoys coffee and handmade pralines in a glass-walled coffee house... Berlin’s Königlichen Gartenakademie (Royal Gardening School) was originally built in 1823 by Berlin's most renowned landscape architect - official gardener to the Prussian royal family - Peter Joseph Lenné. Located adjacent to the Botanical Gardens, today it serves as a horticultural centre and gardening school where the green-fingered can take gardening courses, buy plants and accessories [...]
Haus am Waldsee
Lily Philipose jumps on her bike and discovers some Modernist treats at the Haus am Waldsee... The Haus am Waldsee is the kind of museum you may have missed if your art and culture forays tend to gravitate toward the state museums on the Museumsinsel or around Potsdamer Platz. A small, private museum and sculpture garden at the edge of the Grunewald in Berlin-Zehlendorf, the Haus am Waldsee is an important part of Berlin history. It was one of the first museums in West Berlin to open [...]
Berlin’s Olympic Village
Paul Scraton explores Berlin's abandoned 1936 Olympic Village and the legacy of Jesse Owens... What do you do with a building when it symbolises some of the darkest days of your country’s history? It's a common question in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, and one which was certainly asked of the various venues built for the 1936 Olympics. Of course, Germany was awarded the Olympics before Hitler and his National Socialist cronies took power, and indeed many of the designs were [...]
Restoring Halbe’s Kaiserbahnhof
Andre Gifkins cycles to Berlin's southern fringes to explore a soon-to-be-restored royal train station... I'm a big fan of the fact Berlin has so many old buildings that have been left to rack and ruin. They look cool and suggest a history far, far beyond my personal experience. Most decay slowly, before escalating land prices eventually entice developers into buying the property the building is on. The structure itself, perhaps an old wood mill or a water processing facility, is then [...]
