Altglienicke: Discover Architectural History and Landscapes

Altglienicke combines distinctive architectural history with a landscape park where Berlin’s past meets open countryside. For families and other travelers who want to fill their stay with special discoveries, the area offers various points of interest: You can explore architecture, learn about local history at the museum, or let your gaze wander across the meadows, pastures and hollow of the landscape park.

Architectural history with distinctive features

One of the most visible landmarks of southeastern Berlin is the Altglienicke water tower on Falkenberg hill. It was built in 1905/06 in Gothic Revival forms and is 38.55 meters high. At Schirnerstraße 17/19, the water tower is listed as a historic monument. The Tuschkastensiedlung provides its own architectural accent: Bruno Taut designed it in 1913/15; today, it is protected as a garden monument and a unified complex. Those interested in residential development and urban planning will therefore find two different historical points of reference here.

Discover Altglienicke at the museum

Since the beginning of 2016, the Altglienicke Museum has been housed in the Altglienicke community center at Ortolfstraße 182. The exhibition covers not only the history of the district, but also devotes sections to the volunteer fire department, Altglienicke’s sporting history, the former tram line 84 and Kosmosviertel, which was still under construction at the end of the GDR era. These topics provide several ways of approaching the area’s history: technology and transport stand alongside community life, sports and the development of a residential neighborhood.

Memorial sites of special significance

The historical character of Altglienicke also includes places that call for quiet and reflective engagement. The ceremonial hall at Altglienicke Cemetery has a coffin-lifting system. A manual pump uses water pressure to move a platform and lift the coffin into the ceremonial hall. There is also a communal urn grave for the urns of concentration camp victims buried there in the area to the left of the entrance. Both details make the cemetery a place where architectural and technological history meet a culture of remembrance.

Landscape park and the history of Berlin’s division

At Rudow-Altglienicke Landscape Park, an information stele and three panels with illustrations explain the Berlin spy tunnel. It ran from a radar station operated by the US armed forces in Rudow, in what was then West Berlin, to Schönefelder Chaussee in Altglienicke, in the Soviet sector of the city. In addition, the so-called “Glienicke Window” offers views of the meadows, pastures and hollow of the landscape park. It is a slope up to five meters high, planted with Virginia creeper. For a shared outing, this landscape can therefore combine nature observation and urban history, without requiring both interests to be included in separate travel plans.

Which accommodation suits your travel plans?

When searching for a holiday apartment in Altglienicke, it helps to first decide on the main focus of your stay. Those who primarily want to discover architecture and local history can use the water tower, Tuschkastensiedlung and museum as a thematic selection. Those who prefer to alternate between information and landscapes can include the landscape park and the “Glienicke Window” in their personal itinerary. Families can take different interests into account without having to derive a fixed route from the places mentioned.

For further destinations to help with orientation, see Rahnsdorf, Friedrichshain, Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, Friedenau, Ruhlsdorf, Weißensee and Bohnsdorf.

For the overarching travel overview: Berlin.