Grunewald: villas, pines, lakes

From forest area to tax haven

The city district of Grunewald lives up to its name: Most of it is forest land.
During the decades of the political division of the city, the extensive forest between the Avus and Havel rivers was the most important recreational area for West Berlin. Since Berlin’s surrounding countryside has been open for excursions again, the area around Grunewald Hunting Lodge and the Grunewald Tower has gone quieter. The Grunewald villa colony also feels far removed from the big city. Magnificent villas and gardens between pine trees and lakes, interspersed with smaller post-war residential buildings and plenty of places on streets that are deserted on Sundays: This is how you experience the neighbourhood while strolling around. Grunewald is the most sparsely populated city district in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The district had only 11,258 registered residents in 2023.

The villa colony was created in 1889 as a tax haven for high income earners who moved from Berlin and Charlottenburg ‘into the greens’. The parcelling out and marketing of 234 hectares of forest as building land was a lucrative additional business for the same banking consortium that had Kurfürstendamm turned into a boulevard at the time – something that the poet Ludwig Fulda commented on in verse:

Wenn nimmersatt
Die Riesenstadt Ins Herz der Forste bricht
Dann sieht man bald
Den Grunewald
Vor lauter Villen nicht. (When the megalopolis comes bursting into the heart of the forest, Soon you won’t be seeing the Grunewald for all its villas.)

The area of the new settlement in Grunewald was larger than Berlin’s Tiergarten. The developers refinanced a large part of the land and construction costs by having to pay much lower municipal taxes outside of Berlin and Charlottenburg.

Ten years after its foundation in 1899, the villa colony was granted the status of an independent rural community, which it retained until it was incorporated into the Wilmersdorf district of Greater Berlin in 1920. The wealthy and upper middle classes who lived here until the Second World War were also the educated middle classes, often of Jewish origin. Scientists and artists who could afford it also liked to live in the area and were invited to the villas of the rich. This made the villa colony a cultural centre of the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, which became desolate after the National Socialists seized power in 1933. At least a third of the population was affected by racial and political persecution, repression and expropriation or murder.

In the post-war period, West Berlin’s cultural celebrities lived in villas that had often been converted into tenement houses with luxury apartments. New apartment blocks were built on large garden plots, as building land was scarce in West Berlin. With reunification and the relocation of the government from Bonn to Berlin, the demand for prestigious residences soared, especially for diplomats. Many listed villas have been restored to their former splendour and occasionally serve as atmospheric settings for receptions or house concerts.

Grunewald station

Grunewald railway station

A long tunnel under railway tracks and the Avus connects the wooded area in the west with the villa colony in the east of Grunewald suburban railway station. Since 1879, the new development area for millionaires has been connected to Berlin’s city centre by the suburban railway station. Twenty years later, the picturesque station building was built, which was modelled on a castle gate by the architect Karl Cornelius. In the station and around its forecourt, those on an excursion can while away the day with a Berliner Weisse or coffee, stock up on provisions for a hike through the Grunewald forest or rehydrate after a jog. When the weather is nice, there is a relaxed holiday atmosphere on the station forecourt and you feel as if you are a long way from the big city.
If only there wasn’t a sign pointing to platform 17 in the station tunnel! It was from here that the first train carrying Jews from Berlin to the Nazi extermination camps departed on 18 October 1941. The last of 186 transports left Berlin on 27 March 1945. A total of 55,696 people were deported to make the Reich capital ‘judenrein’ (cleansed of Jews), most of them from Grunewald railway station.

Track 17 Memorial

A multifaceted topography of commemoration and remembrance has grown up around the station in recent decades. A sculpture by the Polish artist Karol Broniatowski has stood on the ramp leading from the station forecourt to platform 17 since 1991. The outlines of human bodies are cut out of a concrete wall. In 1998, Deutsche Bahn, the successor to Deutsche Reichsbahn, which carried out transports to the extermination camps and made money from them, donated the ‘Track 17 Memorial’, created by the architect Andrea Wandel and the architects Nicolaus Hirsch and Wolfgang Lorch. Metal plaques along the platform list all the deportation trains that departed from Berlin since 1941 in chronological order, with their destinations and the number of deportees.

Birkenwäldchen station forecourt

In 2012, Polish artist Łukasz Surowiec planted 15 birch trees from Auschwitz-Birkenau on the station forecourt with trainees from the Urban green space planning office. The grove is part of a larger memorial project: The artist moved a total of 320 young birch trees that had grown around the former extermination camp in Poland to various locations in Berlin. In the same year, a discarded telephone box on the station forecourt was converted into an exchange booth for used books. The initiator, Konrad Kutt, regularly enriched the exchange booth with specialised literature on the topics of National Socialism and the Holocaust. He installed a solar system for an audio box that played songs by the Jewish cantor Tal Koch or passages from the diary of Anne Frank.

In August 2023, the phone booth went up in flames. An anti-Semitic letter of confession left no doubt as to the arsonist’s motives. Money was collected in the neighbourhood and a benefit concert was organised to replace the destroyed book booth. Bonn’s House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany acquired the ruins of the book booth as an exhibit.

Villa Sudermann Bettinastrasse 12

Bettinastraße

The red brick villa at Bettinastrasse 3 gives an impression of the earliest building phase in the Grunewald villa colony. The architect Otto March designed it in 1894 in the style of English country houses for the engineer Hermann Rietschel. The designer of model heating and ventilation systems was rector and vice-rector of the Technical University in Charlottenburg. In 1910, the house was bought by Hermann Sudermann, who was Germany’s most frequently performed playwright at the time.

Villa Hildegard Knef residence

On the other side of the street, at Bettinastrasse 4, the publisher Hans Ullstein, senior partner of the largest German media group in the Weimar Republic, resided in a palatial villa from 1913 to 1935. After the National Socialist takeover, the editorial offices were brought into line, Jewish employees were fired, the publishing family was driven into exile and deprived of their property. The Ullstein Villa was only demolished in 2013 to build luxury apartments on the attractive property with access to Lake Diana.

Memorial plaques commemorate Hermann Sudermann and Hans Ullstein, although there is no memorial to the popular actress and singer Hildegard Knef, who moved into Bettinastrasse 12 in 1977. The diva soon had to vacate her large 14-room apartment, however, as she was in financial difficulties after her tour didn’t sell and she owed 4,000 marks in rent.

Harteneck Park

Douglasstraße und Park Harteneck

Bettinastrasse branches off into Douglasstrasse, where almost every house has a story to tell. The huge Villa Erxleben (nos. 24-28) was built in 1907 for the banker Julius Erxleben. In the 1950s, it served as a backdrop for Edgar Wallace films. At Douglasstraße 22, the flag of the student fraternity Corps Borussia Berlin catches the eye at first, followed by a memorial plaque to the film director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, who lived there from 1919 to 1926. Murnau was one of the most creative film directors of German silent cinema (‘Nosferatu’) until he went to Hollywood, where he died in 1931. The curved façade of Villa Epstein (No. 15), a creation of Berlin theatre architect Oskar Kaufmann for the lawyer and author Max Epstein, is theatrical and playful. In contrast, the residence of the Irish ambassador on the opposite side of the street appears austere and closed off. The former Villa Flechtheim (no. 12) was built in 1928 for Julius Flechtheim, one of the leading representatives of the German economy in the Weimar Republic. Flechtheim hired the architect Otto Rudolf Salvisberg for the project, whose neo-objective design language provided a sober counterpoint to the historicist ostentatious buildings in the neighbourhood.

Kerr's villa

A memorial plaque to the much admired and much dreaded theatre critic Alfred Kerr hangs on the fence of the neighbouring property (no. 10). It was his last address before he fled abroad to escape the National Socialists in 1933. His daughter Judith Kerr described the painful separation from his familiar surroundings from the perspective of a child in her book ‘Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl’ (When Hitler stole the pink rabbit). Despite their forced emigration, Alfred Kerr’s children remained closely connected to the city of Berlin. They founded the Alfred Kerr Actors’ Prize, which is awarded every year during the Theatertreffen (theatre festival). A primary school in Schmargendorf was named after Judith Kerr during her lifetime.

Villa Carl Harteneck Douglasstrasse 7-9

The plots in the Grunewald villa colony were originally so large that they were only affordable for wealthy buyers, especially as only a small part of them could be built on. They had large private parks laid out around the villas. One of these estates was declared a garden monument in the 1980s, protected from development, reconstructed and transformed into a public green space: the extensive park of Villa Harteneck at Douglasstrasse 7-9. The architect Adolf Wollenberg designed the house and garden in 1911/12 for the chemical manufacturer Carl Harteneck. The strictly classicist villa is centred on a garden with geometric rose borders, fountains and a pergola. Walkers need not be deterred by the latched gate to the park! It is merely intended to keep the wild boar from the Grunewald forest away from this oasis of peace. The adjacent villa is in private ownership. During the Nazi era, it was the official residence of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. The head of military intelligence had links to resistance groups and was executed for this in April 1945.

European Academy

European Academy

The largest property in the Grunewald villa colony was acquired around 1900 by the Berlin newspaper publisher August Scherl through the purchase of several plots of land on Bismarckallee. He is said to have built a grandiose dream castle there for his wife. When she didn’t like it, he immediately had it demolished.
The former Scherl estate can be accessed through the open gate of the European Academy (Bismarckallee 46/48). This conference centre is run by an association that has been promoting political education on European issues since 1963. In addition to conference rooms and a garden, the villa offers 32 guest rooms: It is the perfect place for seminars lasting several days with international guests.

Grunewald Church

Grunewaldkirche (Grunewald Church)

The Grunewald villa colony is not a historically grown city district. It does not have an old village green with a village church around which the village life coalesced. The impression of a village centre emanates from the Grunewaldkirche, whose neo-Gothic architecture simulates a medieval origin. It was built at a bend in Bismarckallee between 1902 and 1904 and was badly damaged during the Second World War. Thanks to its fine acoustics, the church was also popular as a recording studio in the post-war period. The first stereo recordings of the Berliner Philharmoniker were made there in 1956.

Löwenpalais

Löwenpalais (Lion's Palace)

The Löwenpalais stretches along Koenigsallee 30-32 like a baroque palace, built in 1903/04 for the brewery owner Emilie Habel. The two majestic lion figures on the outside staircase lent it its title. Its architect Bernhard Sehring, who also built the Theater des Westens, loved grand gestures. In 1930, the palace was divided into luxurious apartments, where film stars such as the actors O. W. Fischer and Horst Buchholz, the publisher Ernst Rowohlt and the conductor Sergiu Celibidache stayed in the 1950s. Today, the house hosts artists’ studios, exhibitions and concerts. The Starke family, who acquired the house in 1961, founded the non-profit Starke Foundation in 1988 and turned the house into a place for artists.

Lake Hertha

The lakes

At Hasensprung and Koenigsalleebrücke, green spaces open up to Koenigssee and Herthasee, which, like Dianasee and Hubertussee, are of artificial origin – unlike Halensee in the north and Hundekehlesee in the south of the villa colony. The building ground was very swampy. In order to remedy this, four artificial lakes were dug out and the land was filled in all round. This gave birth to particularly attractive lakeside properties for a wealthy clientele. There were even plans to connect the artificial chain of lakes to the Havel and allow steamers to sail on them. The lakes are not very deep and were filled by artesian wells. As they are not flowing waters, it is a particular challenge for the district to maintain good water quality in the lakes in times of climate change.

Bismarckalee Palais Mendelsohn

St Michael's home

The Jewish banker Franz von Mendelssohn acquired an extensive plot of land on Lake Hertha. The imperial court architect Ernst von Ihne built a palace for him in the English country house style until 1908. The charity concerts in the house, at which outstanding musicians performed, were legendary. As treasurer of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the landlord promoted the sciences, and as president of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, he sought dialogue with business associations abroad after the First World War. His memory is honoured by the Franz von Mendelssohn Medal, an annual award for companies in Berlin that are committed to social causes.
After Franz von Mendelssohn’s death in 1935, Palais Mendelssohn was forcibly sold to the German Reich by the Jewish heirs, severely damaged during the Second World War and used as a school by the British occupying forces after the end of the war. After it was restituted to the Mendelssohn heirs, they offered the half-ruins for sale. In 1957, the current social welfare organisation of the Johannische Kirche acquired Palais Mendelssohn and converted it into a youth hostel and hotel. Since then it has been called St Michael’s Home. It is an open house in which something of the pre-war atmosphere can still be felt. A social centre, a day care centre and a children’s home, doctors’ surgeries, a beer garden and an organic food shop have found a place on the large estate, where you can walk around freely.

Walther Rathenau memorial plaque

Rathenau monument

On 24 June 1922, several shots rang out at the bend in Koenigsallee near the junction with Erdener Straße, and then a hand grenade exploded in an open car. The assassination attempt was aimed at the industrialist, aesthete and then Reich Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, who died immediately. Rathenau was on his way from his (preserved) villa at Koenigsallee 65 to the ministry without a bodyguard when right-wing extremists ambushed and murdered him. Due to his wealth and Jewish background, he had long been a target of anti-Semitic agitation. There had already been a memorial plaque at the site of the assassination before 1933, but it was removed by the Nazis. A memorial stone has been standing there again since 1946.

Stele on German colonialism in Baraschstraße

Baraschstraße and Erdener Straße 8

The street name is quite new: On 26 February 2022, the former Wissmannstraße was renamed Baraschstraße. The reason for this was the district councillors’ growing unease about honouring the African explorer and governor of the colony of German East Africa Hermann von Wissmann. On behalf of the German Empire, Wissmann put together a mercenary force in 1888 that used brutal force to break the resistance against the German colonial rulers. In the German Empire, Wissmann was celebrated as a hero and elevated to the nobility. Before his appointment as governor, Wissmann lived in the Grunewald villa colony at Hagenstraße 39 for a few months in 1895. Wissmannstraße was named after him during his lifetime. In the search for a new name, the choice fell on the Jewish Barasch family. Arthur Barasch built up a chain of department stores with his brother Georg and lived in a villa at Wissmannstraße 11 from 1921. He was forced to sell the house in 1939 and was murdered in the Auschwitz extermination camp in 1942. His wife and children survived in exile.

At Erdener Straße 8, a portrait relief pays tribute to the publisher Samuel Fischer, who lived there with his family from 1905 until his death in 1934. He founded the most important publishing house for literary modernism in Germany, bringing together authors such as Gerhart Hauptmann, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse and Alfred Döblin. Walther Rathenau’s writings were also published by S. Fischer. The cultural celebrities of the Weimar Republic frequented Erdener Strasse 8. In 1933, many authors had to flee abroad. While Peter Suhrkamp continued the publishing house in Germany, Samuel Fischer’s son-in-law founded a new one abroad. This constellation gave rise to today’s Suhrkamp and S. Fischer publishing houses in the post-war period.

Wissenschaftskolleg

Wissenschaftskolleg (a research institution whose core task is to support visiting academics)

The Wissenschaftskolleg at Wallotstraße 19 has been a place of unbridled intellectual freedom since 1981. Every year, 45 fellows work on a project of their choice without having to justify themselves afterwards for what they have (or have not) achieved. Most of them come from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences; here they interact with composers, writers, journalists, directors or diplomats of both sexes. The Wissenschaftskolleg enables the fellows to concentrate on their own work without the burden of everyday academic commitments and at the same time offers inspiring exchange beyond their own specialism. The hustle and bustle of Berlin may seem far away, but it is only a few bus stops away. At its founding, the Wissenschaftskolleg was criticised as a hotbed of elitism, but today it is one of the beacons of national and international academia.

Garden Villa Linde

The small campus of the Wissenschaftskolleg includes the Villa Linde (Wallotstraße 19) as the main building, the White Villa (Wallotstraße 21), the Villa Walther (Koenigsallee 20), the Villa Jaffé (Wallotstraße 10) and a new building from the 1980s (Wallotstraße 21). A public side path leads behind the Villa Linde to an idyllic green area where you can end your walk with a view of Lake Halensee. Due to the poor water quality, swimming in the lake was prohibited for twelve long years, but thanks to a new filter system, it has been made possible again since 2016 at the Halensee lido at Koenigsallee 5B.

Route Grunewald

The city walk is also available on komoot. Further information can be found on the komoot website.