Out of all the beautiful, cool and popular Berlin parks, Natur-Park Südgelände is the most unusual and fascinating. Get away from the crowds and be awed…
The Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände was once a train yard, more specifically a classification or marshalling yard from the steam engine era.
Today, it’s a captivating mixture of nature, abandoned train remnants and art. You can walk along old train tracks covered in moss and pierced by birch trees. An old train, equipment and buildings can be found throughout the park. Metal sculptures and creative walkways cleverly connect the old and new environment: train yard and nature reserve. And there is even a designated area that permits graffiti and other street art!
It’s amazing to see nature take back over human achievement… and then see art grow throughout nature. The quote by Karl Ganser found twice in the park says it all: “Die Kunst ist der nächste Nachbar der Wildnis”. This means: “art is the closest neighbor to wilderness”. By the way, Südgelände just means “south area”.
If you are in Berlin (or will be here in the future), we highly recommend visiting the Südgelände Nature Park. The best time is probably right now in autumn, as the leaves change and add to the beautiful color display of the rusted metal, the red squirrel and the colorful urban art.
The main entrance is at the S-Bahn station Priesterweg (southern exit). It’s open every day from 9 a.m. dusk. The admission is 1 Euro – or you can get an annual pass for 30 Euros.
All photos in this post were taken by Luci Westphal. The song in the video is the instrumental version of “I’m Letting Go” by Josh Woodward.
This was one of my favorite one-minute videos you ever made. Thanks for sharing it again!
Thank you so much for saying that, Dianne. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that someone is really watching, remembering and appreciating. This is definitely my favorite park in Berlin. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover it until shortly before I moved away – so I only got to go once. Putting this new video together was a wonderful way to re-explore it all… especially since I hadn’t seen some of the footage since the day I shot it.
xx Luci