Posts Tagged ‘Tiergarten’

Berlin Zoo – Most Visited Zoo in Europe

Sunday, April 17th, 2022

 

The Berlin Zoo (Zoologischer Garten Berlin) opened in 1844 and is located in the district of Tiergarten. It houses one of the most comprehensive collections of species in the world. The first animals were donated by Frederick William IV, King of Prussia. After the division of Berlin, the Berlin Zoo became part of West Berlin, and a second zoo, the Tierpark Berlin, was subsequently built in East Berlin. Visitors can either enter the Berlin Zoo through the Elephant Gate on Budapester Straße or through the Lion Gate on Hardenbergplatz.

Berlin Zoo - Elephant Gate on Budapester Strasse. www.walled-in-berlin.com. Photo © J. Elke Ertle

Berlin Zoo – Elephant Gate on Budapester Strasse. www.walled-in-berlin.com. Photo © J. Elke Ertle

Berlin Zoo Badly Damaged During World War II

The first Allied WWII bombs hit the zoo area in September of 1941. The damage was relatively minor. But two years later, bombardments resulted in horrific damage. In less than 15 minutes on the first day, 30% of the zoo animals were killed. Of the eight elephants, only one survived. He lost his entire harem. The 2-year-old hippo bull, Knautschke, was saved by teenage boys who helped him escape from his enclosure. But the most damage was done during the Battle of Berlin between 22 April and 30 April 1945 when the Berlin Zoo was under constant Red Army artillery fire. On 31 May 1945, following German capitulation, zoo personnel counted the animals that had survived the war. Only 91 of the 3,715 animals had survived.

WWII Survivor – Knautschke the Hippo

Knautschke became the darling of the public and produced 35 offspring during his lifetime. He was born in the middle of the war and trapped in his hippo shelter – a building made of bricks – when the zoo was bombed. Debris blocked the exits, and the young hippo tried in vain to escape. He was already a fairly large animal, and his head got stuck in the exit. Glowing tinder and burning pieces of the roof were falling on him when several teenage boys saw what was happening and managed to work some boards free so that Knautschke could fit through the opening. They were successful. Knauschke jumped into the water basin and survived.

Knut – Famous Polar Bear Cub at the Berlin Zoo

The Berlin Zoo became known around the world when Knut, a polar bear, was born in captivity on 5 December 2006. He and his twin were rejected by their mother at birth and were subsequently raised by zookeeper Thomas Doerflein. Only the size of a guinea pig, Knut spent the first 44 days of his life in an incubator. Then Dörflein began to hand-raise the cub. The baby polar bear required 24-hour care, and Dörflein sleep on a mattress next to Knut’s sleeping crate at night. He played with, bathed, and fed the cub daily. When Knut was almost one year old and too strong for his human companion, the Berlin Zoo decided it was time for Doerflein to stop physical contact with the cub.

Berlin Zoo - Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein with Knut, the Polar Bear Cub. www.walled-in-Berlin.com. Image licensed under Creative Commons- Share Alil a2.5 generic license

Berlin Zoo – Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein with Knut, the Polar Bear Cub. www.walled-in-Berlin.com. Image licensed under Creative Commons- Share Alila, a 2.5 generic license

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

 

Berlin’s Tiergarten – From Hunting Ground to Public Park

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

 

The German name Tiergarten translates to “animal garden,” but despite the name, it is not a zoo. Instead, it is Berlin’s second-biggest inner-city park. Only Tempelhofer Freiheitthe former Tempelhof Airport expanse, is larger. The 520-acre Tiergarten serves the same “green lung” function as London’s Hyde Park (310 acres) or New York’s Central Park (825 acres).

Relaxing in Berlin's Tiergarten. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2019. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Relaxing in Berlin’s Tiergarten. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2019. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Friedrich I of Prussia (Frederick I), Elector of Brandenburg and later first King of Prussia, laid out the park in the 17th century. At that time, the land was located just outside of Coelln’s city wall, Berlin’s twin city. Today – redesigned and expanded several times – the Tiergarten is bordered by the River Spree to the northeast and the zoo to the southwest. It’s ideal for recharging. Small streams pass through grassy areas dotted with groups of trees and small lakes. Countless pathways cross the park and make it a popular place for jogging, cycling, boating, walking, family picnics and winter skating.

Royal History of the Tiergarten

Until 1881, the Tiergarten was owned and controlled by the various kings and emperors in power. Friedrich I (Frederick I) created the park to serve as his royal hunting ground. His successor, Friedrich Wilhelm I (Frederick William I of Prussia) began to transform the Tiergarten into a forested park. His son, Friedrich II, also known as Frederick the Great, (Frederick the Great) opened the area to the public. He commissioned many sculptures and created a pheasant house. The latter eventually became the core of the Berlin Zoo.

The Beethoven-Haydn-Mozart Memorial - one of many statues in Berlin's Tiergarten. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2019. www.walled-in-berlin.com

The Beethoven-Haydn-Mozart Memorial – one of many statues in Berlin’s Tiergarten. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2019. www.walled-in-berlin.com

The Tiergarten in the 20thCentury

WWII brought significant changes to the Tiergarten. Many statues were destroyed, and surviving monuments lay badly damaged on their sides. Berlin’s citizens even buried some of them near Bellevue Palace to protect them from destruction. In 1993, the statues were recovered, several years after German reunification.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Tiergarten became part of the British Occupation Zone of West Berlin. Because coal was in extremely short supply at the time, many of the park’s trees were turned to firewood. Every bridge in the park was destroyed, and there were plans to fill the small lakes with war debris. Only 700 trees survived.  For a time, the deforested fields were turned into 2,550 plots of farm land to grow potatoes and vegetables. The once beautiful forest of over 200,000 trees had nearly disappeared.

Replanting the Tiergarten

In March 1949, Berlin’s first post-war major, Ernst Reuter, planted the first tree, a linden. Between 1949 and 1959, 250,000 young trees were planted. Most of them were donations from all over Germany. Thanks to those efforts, the Tiergarten is once again a green oasis in the middle of bustling Berlin.

 

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

 

Siegessaeule – Berlin’s heftiest Lady

Monday, May 22nd, 2017

 

The Siegessaeule (victory column) is a prominent monument in Berlin, Germany. Including the sculpture on top, it measures 220 feet. A 285-step spiral staircase inside the column takes visitors to a viewing platform with spectacular views of the Reichstag http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/the-reichstag-prominent-berlin-landmark/, the Brandenburg Gate http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlins-brandenburg-gate/, the Berlin Television Tower http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-television-tower/ and the Soviet War Memorial. In 2008, then US presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke in front of the monument. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/president-barack-obama-to-visit-berlin/

History of the Siegessaeule

The Siegessaeule was designed by Johann Heinrich Strack and constructed to commemorate the Prussian victory over the Danes. But by the time the column was inaugurated in 1873, Prussia had also won the so-called liberation wars with Austria and France. Therefore, the original plans for the column were revised, and the monument was elongated and crowned with a 25-foot statue of Victoria, the Goddess of Victory.

The Siegessaeule sits on a four-sided base of polished red granite, which is decorated with glass mosaics and large bronze panels depicting the Prussian victories over Denmark, Austria and France of the late 1900s. In 1945, the French removed those reliefs and took them to Paris in an effort to erase those memories. But in 1987, on the occasion of Berlin’s 750th anniversary, France returned the panels to be reinstalled. A circular portico tops the base of the monument and supports four (originally three) fluted columns.

 

Berlin's Siegessaeule, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Berlin’s Siegessaeule, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

The Siegessaeule once stood in the Koenigsplatz (now Platz der Republik) in front of the Reichstag. In 1939, the Nazi government removed the monument to its current location in the Tiergarten, a large public park. Since each of the three columns already represented previous victories, Hitler had a fourth column added, anticipating his own impending victory. The relocation was part of a plan by Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, to transform Berlin into Germania, Hitler’s vision of a Berlin that is the capital of the world. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/germania-hitlers-utopian-quest/ Speer’s plan was never realized, of course, but because of its relocation the Siegessaeule survived World War II with very little damage. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/albert-speer-designed-for-ruin-value/

The statue of Victoria at the top of the monument was designed by Friedrich Drake and weighs 38 tons. Berliners affectionately call her Goldelse (Golden Lizzy) or the “heftiest lady in Berlin.” Five major roads cut through the Tiergarten and intersect at an immense roundabout that is known as Grosser Stern (Great Star). The Siegessaeule stands in the middle of this roundabout and is accessible to pedestrians through four tunnels.

 

The "Goldelse" on top of the Siegessaeule. Photo © J. Elke Ertle. www.walled-in-berlin.com

The “Goldelse” on top of the Siegessaeule. Photo © J. Elke Ertle. www.walled-in-berlin.com

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.