Stadtpark Steglitz
A typical neighbourhood park
It is said that Franz Kafka liked to go walking here.
Away from all the tourists, in Berlin’s southern district, we find Stadtpark Steglitz, a romantic garden memorial that is mostly visited by people who live nearby.
Between 1906 and 1914, Royal Garden Director Fritz Zahn and Horticultural Inspector Rudolf Korte transformed what was once marshy lowlands into a 17-hectare landscape park after the district Steglitz purchased the land from two families for half a million gold marks. At that time, Steglitz was the biggest district in Prussia, with a population of 80,000, and was not incorporated into Berlin until 1920. The planners designed the park as a recreation area for the people living in the nearby tenements. The music pavilion built in 1958 is still an attraction today and the venue for free, outdoor classical, jazz and song concerts on summer weekends.
The park opens with a central axis that leads to a splendid fountain and a rose garden surrounded by hornbeam trees. From here, you can discover lawns, ponds and, above all, the weeping willows. One special feature is Goebenteich, the only pond in the park that is completely sourced from groundwater. It is located in the part of the park that is west of Sedanstraße.
The section of the park between Albrechtstraße and Sedanstraße is a veritable paradise for children, with playgrounds, spacious grass play areas and ponds where children can watch the ducks and other water birds; there are hills to roll down and willow trees to hide under. There is also a traffic school and a mini-golf course in the shade of the high-rise building on Albrechtstraße.
When Stadtpark Steglitz celebrated its centenary anniversary in 2014, the park was given a new fence along with the renovation work that was already necessary. Soil was replaced and plants replenished in the magnificent rose garden, trees were replaced, paths were mended and the playground next to Goebenwiese was redesigned with a pirate theme.
