The public park Friedrichshain is Berlin's oldest park and a popular green oasis in the city. The best-known sight of the park is the fairytale fountain Märchenbrunnen.
The public park Friedrichshain is a heavily populated oasis of leisure, which is often visited by young families. No wonder, the offer for children and adolescents is huge - on countless sports and playgrounds and on wide meadows, they can let off steam without any restrictions. The adult city audience visits the garden cafés with pleasure. But also culturally, the park has much to offer.
Walk through the public park Friedrichshain
A walk through Friedrichshain resembles a tour through the history of democracy in Germany. Starting from the March Revolution of 1848 over the aberrations of the 20th century to the peaceful revolution in the GDR in 1989, many monuments and design elements are reminiscent of significant chapters in German history.
Hippodrome in the public park Friedrichshain
In the new area, Meyer, a garden director of Berlin, has created an oval space, surrounded by linden trees, of 250 meters long and 100 meters wide, which should serve as a playground: the Hippodrome. After strong changes in the post-war period, the facility has been rebuilt in a modern form according to the model of Meyer. Thereby a horticultural design element was revived, which was a part of the repertoire of both Lenné and Meyer, but had completely disappeared in Berlin.
The renewed Hippodrome serves particularly for the sport activity. A running track of 820 meters long and a fixed track for skaters form the outer ring. Today oak trees line the course instead of the historic linden trees planting. In the center there is a meadow area according to the example of antique phases. There are also playing areas with sand, where the young players are training beach volleyball. Next to this area stands a blocky climbing rock.
Between Old and New Friedrichshain
On the Danziger street under the oak trees the so-called Finn path runs along, which is also suitable for jogging. A runout zone for dogs is located on the southern Virchowstraße. The new Friedrichshain is crossed by an illuminated main way that leads directly to the Old Friedrichshain. Behind the Virchowstraße lies a so-called "Duft- und Behindertengarten". In the enclosed area herbs and flowers are planted in raised beds, so you can smell and touch them well. Eye-catcher is the larger-than-life-size statue "Mother with Child" from 1898, an oeuvre of the sculptor Edmund Gomansky.
Detritus hills and Rolling hill
Along the way, approaching the center of the old park, rises a very dense overgrown hill. From the Little Bunkerberg on the Virchowstraße with 48 meters high leads down a popular toboggan run. The Big Bunkerberg with a height of 78 meters divides the park on the Friedenstraße into two sections.
Swan pond and shrub gardens
At the swan pond with fountains there was a restaurant with a summer terrace. A shrub garden with the burbling "water bell" by Achim Kühn (1973) is right next door. Two monuments on the edge of the park, dedicated to the resistance struggle against fascism in Europe, date back to the GDR era.
World Peace Bell at the big pond
On the banks of the Swan Pond, which is located in a valley between the two debris hills, stands the World Peace Bell, which was installed on the initiative of the Japanese World Peace Bell Association.
Fairy tale fountain in public park Friedrichshain
The best-known and at the same time the most pleasant of all artworks in the Friedrichshain is the fairy tale fountain built by city architect Ludwig Hoffmann. The grandiose building in the style of Italian water theater was built between 1902 and 1913 on the western tip of the park and was intended as a gift to the working-class children which have been threatened by typhus and rickets.
Credit: image of dpa
Credit: image of Franziska Delenk
Opening hours
Mon–Sun 00:00–00:00.
Tickets
Free
Address
BerlinFriedrichshain 1, 10407 Berlin
How to get there?
Bus:
200, 142
Tram:
21, M10, M5, M6, M8