Mauerpark

Situated in what was once the militarized “death strip” of the Berlin Wall (or Mauer) that divided East and West, Mauerpark is now a social, cultural, and artistic center of the city. Today’s Mauerpark is on land that ran between the two parallel walls separating East and West Berlin. With its observation towers, attack dogs, trip wires and armed guards primed to shoot anyone trying to escape to the West, it was known as the “death strip.” The park dates back to the early 1990s when local residents, noticing the rapid spread of self-seeded vegetation on the sandy strip of land, began planting trees and calling for the creation of a park. As a result, the city’s politicians included Mauerpark in the city’s bid to host the 2000 Olympics. Although Berlin’s bid for the Olympics was not successful, the plea to build Mauerpark was. In Mauerpark you can take a stroll, lie around, read, play on the swings, play boules and basketball, picnic in the birch grove, get involved in community gardening, go to the Rainbow Playground with the kids, watch musicians and performers in the amphitheatre, have a drink and a bite to eat in the outdoor cafes or hunt for bargains at the Sunday flea market.