As if once wasn’t enough, I rode the last 60 kilometers of the Berlin Wall bike trail TWICE! The first time around I met my goal of completing the trial before school was out. I’m not sure if it was because I was out of shape or on an old bicycle, but I was dying by the end. It was difficult to enjoy the Mauerweg racing to the end just to be finished. The second time around was much more pleasant with Bikey Mikey, my new touring bicycle, which took me 1000 km across France this summer.
Staaken Bahnhof (Spandau) to Hennigsdorf – 19 km
Getting out at Staaken, I wondered if I should have worn a third layer because the morning air was so chilly. A quick cycle through the Spandau suburbs and I was in the Spandauer Forst (forest). It was a beautiful stretch of ten kilometers, and the early hours allowed me to have the leafy forest practically to myself. The way is mostly flat and well-paved, but there are a few strangely steep, but short, hills.
In Falkensee, I passed by a group of signs with a lot of information about the Berlin Wall. They depicted the times before, during, and after the wall was erected as well as how the wall was built. What I didn’t know was that the wall was literally built overnight. People who lived too close to the wall in the border zone had to get special permits well in advance for visitors – anyone from family and friends to repairmen and house doctors! In Falkensee people were cut off from their neighbors right next door in Spandau. I knew it must have been difficult to live with the wall, but many of these details were things that hadn’t even crossed my mind.
Also along the way are more signs with additional information as to what was there, what is there now, and how things functioned with the existence of the Mauer (for example, border control on the water and access to cut-off exclaves of West Berlin). One such region is the Eiskeller (ice basement – thus named because it’s the coldest area of Berlin). You can read the interesting and amusing story below.
Out of the forest, I reached the shore of the Havel at the Bürgerablage beach. From here I traveled along the edge of the Havel until it became the Nieder Neuendorfer See and then the Oder-Havel Canal. Along the shore of the Nieder Neuendorfer See, I encountered a former border tower. Luck would have it, it was open! Just 3 stories high, the tower has been turned into an informational museum about the border and region of Nieder Neuendorf during the time of the Berlin Wall.
Henningsdorf to Hermsdorf – 16 km
Crossing the Oder-Havel Canal, I continued along the Ruppiner Chaussee bumping into my friendly, little blue dot on the 66-Lakes-Trail. After the Kletterwald (high ropes course), don’t miss the turn into the woods near the farm stand – I missed it last time around! This section is paved but poorly maintained. It then becomes small sections of unpaved forest trail connected by large sections of cobblestones – a biker’s bum’s nightmare!
Finally out of the woods, I pedaled through the Invalidensiedlung (disabled settlement). In 1748, the Prussian King Friedrich II had a house built for his disabled soldiers in Berlin Mitte. The foundation which developed thereof moved out here to Frohnau in the 1930’s and built all of the two story brick buildings, which are still able to be used as housing for disabled persons.
Just beyond the settlement is an informational sign for Marienetta Jirkowsky, an 18 year old woman who was killed attempting to cross the border. All of the other people who lost their lives at the wall that I had read about were men, although most of them were also Marienetta’s age (between 18 and 22, and almost all were younger than 30).
Reading her story made me more introspective. How would I have handled the wall being built? Would I have felt my freedoms disappearing beforehand? Or would I have felt that something like that couldn’t happen to me? Would I have accepted the wall and gone on with life? Or would I have tried to get to the other side? Would I have been brave enough to attempt such a thing?
Hermsdorf to Wollankstraße – 13 km
In Hermsdorf/Glienicke, I stumbled upon something I had missed the first time around. A section of wall was hidden in the hedges between neighboring houses. Here I chatted with another woman I had seen a few times earlier in the day. She was also biking the Mauerweg and all of it this weekend. She said for her it was interesting to see the history she had lived, but that for me it wasn’t something I would have even known. It was an interesting contrast to be standing there in front of a piece of the wall with someone who was remembering it as part of her own past instead of looking at it as a piece of history.
Next, I rode through the fields and marshes along the Tegeler River before the city began again.
Wollankstraße to Nordbahnhof to Potsdamer Platz – 11 km
The second time around I managed the route much better than the previous time. During my first journey, I got more lost on these last 11 kilometers through the city than I had the entire way around. From Reinickendorf into Berlin, there’s a great view of the Fernsehturm (TV tower) at Alexanderplatz. Being Saturday, going through Mauerpark in Prenzlauer Berg was easy this time around. On the preceding trip, I had to walk my bike through the Sunday crowds, getting confused and losing my way before reaching Bernauer Straße.
Shortly thereafter is a monument to the wall. Maybe park is a better word. The area spans a few blocks and is recognizable by the metal sculpture running a long stretch of the former wall. In the park there are information stations and small exhibits about the history of the Mauer. In particular, the monument represents the inner city separation of Berlin. Across the street is the Documentation Center about the background of building the wall as well as dramatic stories of escape.
The end of the tour rides by some famous Berlin attractions – the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), the Reichstag building, Brandenburger Tor, and Holocaust Memorial before returning to Postdamer Platz.
Having completed the same section of the journey a second time, I could hardly say I found it boring. So much of the trail is through quiet areas or completely out in the woods, which I love and need after I get tired of the city. I’ll definitely be repeating parts of the trail in the future. The Berlin Wall bike trail is unique in that it’s not only a great cycling trail offering a varied course through multiple cities and landscapes, but a trip through history. It’s a good trail for seeing sights in and near Berlin, for getting out into nature, and for learning about Berlin’s and Germany’s recent history. How special that the Mauerweg is all of that at once!
