Walk through the woods to the island built for Berlin’s rich & famous
Click here for an interactive map so you can follow this 60-90 minute walk out in the wild
What does a walking tour guide do for fun? He goes on walks!
I’d wanted to go and see the column from the Palace of the Tuileries for a long time, and it looked a bit tricky to get to with public transport. I decided to make a day of it.
If you’re a Berlin history nerd like me, it’s a fun day out, and you get to learn some of the fascinating history of the Schwanenwerder island.
Schlachtensee, my favourite lake in Berlin. This picture doesn’t do it justice at all!
The island was bought by a wealthy industrialist named Friedrich Wilhelm Wessel towards the end of the 19th Century. His plan was to sell off parcels of land and create a luxurious little district for Berlin’s wealthiest inhabitants. He died before his plan was realised, but his family carried it out for him.
One thing Wessel did manage to bring here though was this column, originally a part of the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris. After the palace was set alight in the wake of the Germany victory over France in 1871, the palace was never repaired. By the 1880s parts of it were sold off and what do you know, now you can see this little piece of history in Berlin.
Walking through the woods to reach the island is calming and beautiful
Once you pass the columns there are some information boards about the various residents of the island throughout history. It’s sad, if perhaps not surprising, to learn that in the 1930s the 9 Jewish landowners on the island had their property either taken from them, or they were forced to sell their homes to the Nazis and their friends at very cheap prices.
The Nazis would go on the build a house for Goebbels here, as well as a “Reich school for brides” at number 38. This is a place where the fiancés of SS men were trained in what was expected of a wife in Nazi society. To be honest, this was the first that I’d heard of such places. I would like to find out more about them and what happened there.
There are many stories to discover on this tiny island. This is just an introduction, and a suggestion for an interesting off-the-beaten-path place to visit. I will definitely be coming back myself to learn more so I can tell more stories about all of this.
I shot a short video about this which you can find on my Instagram page.
