The park is located in the city center. It is green, huge, you can ride a bicycle, a boat on the lake, walk and lie down on the grass. Birds sing loudly, squirrels jump, flowers bloom. Oasis! There are also city attractions.
Tiergarten, photo by Florian
Tiergarten is a park in the very center of the German capital, the green heart of Berlin. It occupies a vast territory of the former eponymous district - about 210 hectares. The length of the hiking trails of the Greater Tiergarten is more than 30 km.
From hunting grounds to the city park
Until the end of the XVII century, on the site of today's magnificent park were the hunting grounds of the Brandenburg Electors. The territory was called Tiergarten - "menagerie". Frederick III commanded to make the hunting forest open to the public, adding it to Berlin. To this end, the Under the lime trees boulevard was initially expanded.
Flowerbeds in Tiergarten, photo by olgerdviz
The hunting forest did not immediately turn into a well-groomed park complex. In 1740, the fence that separated the Tiergarten from Berlin's residential quarters was demolished. The first stages of the reconstruction were carried out by the master of Frederician Rococo and early classicism - architect Georg von Knobelsdorf. Swamps were drained on the territory, luxurious baroque flowerbeds were laid out, tea houses, statues, esplanades were erected. The center of the park was the Big Star Square, alleys were laid from it with rays. Since 1840, the project was transferred to the famous Peter Joseph Lenna. The wild woodland gradually turned into a well-groomed landscape, sustained in the English landscape style.
View from the observation deck of the Victory Column, photo by Patrick McGrath
In the years 1865-73. Johann Strack installed the 67-meter Victory Column on Königsplatz - a symbol of Prussia's military accomplishments. The Golden Elsa, as the Berliners call it, since 1938 was transported to the Großer Stern - to the center of Tiergarten (there was a fountain there before).
Since 1937, the Bismarck-Nationaldenkmal sculptural group, the Bismarck National Monument, has appeared at the northern end of Big Star Square. Along the Victory Alley (Siegesallee) 32 monuments to the Prussian rulers were erected - from Margrave Albrecht the Bear to William I (later the alley was demolished, the monuments were transferred to the Lapidarium collection).
At the end of World War II, the Tiergarten became the last outpost of Berlin: ground-based air defense systems were deployed there. When the red flag rose above the Reichstag, the luxurious metropolitan area was completely destroyed.
November 11, 1945 in the eastern part of Tiergarten opened the Soviet memorial dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the Red Army. The large-scale restoration of the park under the program adopted by the magistrate of Greater Berlin began in 1948.
Tiergarten - the largest park in Berlin
View of the Reichstag from the Tiergarten, photo by hbkost
Tiergarten remains a favorite vacation spot for Berliners and visitors. Playgrounds have been built here, in warm times there is a beer garden, pleasure boats glide along the surface of Lake Neuer. The central axis of the park complex is June 17th Street. A ring motorway runs along the main square. In the northern part of the massif is Bellevue Palace - the presidential residence, the former palace of Augustus Ferdinand, built in 1786 by Michael Philippe Bowman. Next to it is the Brandenburg Gate.
On the banks of the Spree is the Reichstag with a glass dome - a viewing platform.
On the embankment, in the enchanting building of the Congress Hall of the GDR, the House of Cultures of the World has been opened since 1989.
Nearby is a black 42-meter granite tower with 68 bells - Berlin Karyon.
You can also recall the "love parades" that were held here annually, and the speech of the first black US President Barack Obama, who gathered more than two hundred thousand listeners at the Triumphal Column on July 24, 2008.
You can go boating in the park, photo by Scott Johnson
Working hours
The park is open around the clock. Entrance to the park is free.
How to get there
Take the U55 line to Bundestag or Brandenburger Tor,
U-2 Potsdamer Platz,
U-9 Hansaplatz.
by city train S1, S2, S25 to the Brandenburger Tor station.
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