Marchenbrunnen Fairy Tale Fountain (1913) in the Volkspark Friedrichshain Park, Berlin, Germany; Shutterstock ID 220555540; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: 65050/7529/Josh Vogel/LP.com Destination Galleries

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Volkspark Friedrichshain

Top choice in Friedrichshain


Berlin’s oldest public park has provided relief from urbanity since 1840, but has been hilly only since the late 1940s, when wartime debris was piled up here to create two 'mountains' – the taller one, Mont Klamott, rises 78m high. Diversions include expansive lawns for lazing, tennis courts, a half-pipe for skaters, a couple of handily placed beer gardens and an outdoor cinema.

Kids in tow? There are imaginatively themed playgrounds and the enchanting 1913 Märchenbrunnen fountain, where turtle and frog sculptures frolic in terraced water basins flanked by Cinderella, Snow White and other Brothers Grimm stars.

If you have a soft spot for revolutionaries, visit the park’s communist-era memorial sites. Along Friedenstrasse, the Denkmal der Spanienkämpfer pays respect to the German members of the International Brigades who died in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). Just off Landsberger Allee is the Friedhof der Märzgefallenen, a cemetery for the victims of the revolutionary riots of March 1848; an exhibit provides historical background. Finally, on the park's northern edge, the Denkmal des Polnischen Soldaten und des deutschen Antifaschisten honours the joint fight of Polish soldiers and the German resistance against the Nazis.