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 Freiheit, the 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
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 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.
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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.
