Tiergarten

The Großer Tiergarten spreads across 210 hectares between the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Zoo, forming the city's most important urban green space. Originally a Hohenzollern hunting ground, it was redesigned as an English landscape garden by Peter Joseph Lenné in the 19th century, then almost entirely stripped bare during World War II — Berliners felled the trees for fuel and turned lawns into emergency vegetable plots. Replanting began in earnest in 1949 through a citizen initiative that saw hundreds of thousands of new trees planted. Today the park is threaded with cycling paths, ponds, and shaded allées; the Victory Column, relocated to its current position by the Nazi regime in 1939, offers a panoramic viewing platform over central Berlin. Beyond the main paths, the Tiergarten is openly known as a longstanding cruising area, a reality acknowledged rather than hidden by the city.

520 acres of urban forest in central Berlin — walks along the Landwehr Canal, picnics on the Große Sternallee, the Victory Column as the central axis.