Görlitzer Park
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Görlitzer Park (nicknamed "Görli") is a major park and recreation area in the
Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...
district of
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. The 14-hectare park area contains, among other things, a
petting zoo A petting zoo (also called a children's zoo, children's farm, or petting farm) features a combination of domesticated animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, many general ...
, several sports and football fields, and a small lake. At its north-west end is the Görlitzer Bahnhof U-Bahn station.


History

The original Görlitzer Bahnhof (named after the
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
town of
Görlitz Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...
) suffered heavy damage during the
Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...
. The last passenger train services to operate through the station ended on April 29, 1951. Demolition of the site took place on 24 October 1962, at the behest of former Berlin Senator, Rolf Schwedler (
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...
), despite protests by many residents. In the postwar period, the site was used as a coal depot. Until 1985, freight trains still operated through the Görlitzer Bahnhof train lines, supplying nearby storage sheds and a junkyard on the station grounds. During the division of Berlin, a border crossing was erected on the bridge over the Landwehr canal to control the passage of these freight trains. The remains of this border crossing are still visible today, as are a short piece of track to the east of the canal bridge and two former freight sheds still remain from the former station. Görlitzer Park is widely known as a hotspot for purchasing
cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
.


Park conception

In the early 1980s, a civil and
squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...
movement began pushing for the creation of a "Görlitzer City Park" on the site of the old Bahnhof. In the spring of 1983, a program of "greening" of the area was scheduled: At this time, the soil at the site of a former scrap metal compactor was heavily contaminated with oil and needed to be replaced, and an area of the future park was still being used as a coal depot. However, the
Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' (), also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the re ...
management proved to be supportive of the park plans and "Cheerfully developed a children's petting zoo on the southern track. Material and feed donations from surrounding industries flowed in abundantly, and bulldozers from a local cement plant came by occasionally to donate topsoil. Only the money to lease the land was still lacking. Final approval from the Environment and Finance Senators was still pending at that time.


Children's playground

According to the ''Südost Express'', "the district office of Kreuzberg had already rented the 4000 square meter site," by 1979, as part of the initiative by Verein SO 36, a local civic group. However, the building authorities wanted to use the site to construct a Spreewald-Bad
swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...
complex. "More than 1000 signatures have been collected so far for this playground. ..(After negotiations) the district office will seek to find a solution that makes both the building project and a children's playground possible on the Görlitzer Bahnhof site."


The park today

At the end of the 1980s, a district park was built on the former railway site to the plans of the Freie Planungsgruppe Berlin. Today, only remnants of tracks, the pedestrian tunnel, the former enclosure wall, and three freight sheds exist of the former station. In the south of the present park, several railway bridges connected the station area with the district of Treptow, one of which is still preserved, that leads pedestrians over the Landwehr Canal. A green corridor on the former railway line runs parallel to Kiefholzstraße and deep into Alt-Treptow so that cyclists and pedestrians can access
Treptower Park Treptower Park (, with a silent ''w'') is a park alongside the river Spree (river), Spree in Alt-Treptow, in the district of Treptow-Köpenick, south of central Berlin. History It was the location of the Great Industrial Exposition of Berlin i ...
through Görlitzer Park. Until the fall of the Wall, the Berlin Wall ran along the
Landwehr Canal The Landwehr Canal (), is a canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné. It connects the upper part of the Spree at the eastern harbour () in Friedrichshain with its low ...
. Also, in the southern part of the area, in the corner formed by Görlitzer Ufer and Wiener Straße, a railroad wheelhouse used to exist. Today, there is a hill with a slide and an toboggan run. The park borders Wrangelkiez on the north/northeastern side. The Görlitzer Tunnel was still walkable until at least the end of 1989, the removal of which gave the park a large hollow in the middle, which forms a kind of natural arena. The former walls of the tunnel were included as a design element and are still recognizable today. On the west side of the basin is a steel-beam sculpture, ''Schreitender Mensch'', by Rüdiger Preisler.


Location

The park is bounded to the northwest by Spreewaldplatz, the former station forecourt which now houses the ''Wellenbad am Spreewaldplatz'' swimming pool complex. The swimming pool complex was built between 1984 and 1987 according to plans by architect Christoph Langhof. In the north, Lausitzer Platz flanks the area with the , which was built between 1890 and 1893 according to plans by August Orth. They are separated from the park by the
viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...
of the
Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the Berlin S-Bahn, S-Bahn, a network of ...
lines U1 & U3 along Skalitzer Straße. In the south, the area borders the
Landwehr Canal The Landwehr Canal (), is a canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné. It connects the upper part of the Spree at the eastern harbour () in Friedrichshain with its low ...
and the district of
Alt-Treptow Alt-Treptow (, literally ''Old Treptow'') is a German locality in the borough of Treptow-Köpenick in Berlin. Known also as Treptow it was, until 2001, the main and the eponymous locality of the former Treptow borough. History The locality, first ...
.


Former Pamukkale Fountain and plans for redesigning the park

The Pamukkale fountain, created by the sculptor Wigand Witting from 1994 to 1997 and completed in 1998, was one of the main design elements in Görlitzer Park. It was inspired by the travertine terraces of
Pamukkale Pamukkale, () meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish language, Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey. The area is famous for a carbonate mineral left by the flowing of Hot spring, thermal spring water. It is located in ...
,
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
and became a special place of remembrance for the many citizens of Kreuzberg with
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...
. Due to a faulty substructure and lack of drainage for the foundations, as well as problems with the Portuguese limestone used, the construction was so badly damaged by its first winter that it had to be closed to visitors for security reasons. For a long time, there was a dispute over the restoration. In October 2000, the artist was sentenced to pay damages in the amount of 1.1 million euros. This sentence was confirmed again in November 2008. In autumn 2009, the crumbled fountain construction was removed along with the sculptures that were still intact at the time. The demolition was not without controversy, and led to demonstrations. Unknown activists poured large amounts of red paint down the terraced landscape as a sign of the bleeding out of a significant work of art for the integration and diversity of Berlin's cultures. The remaining concrete terraces were laid out with
artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...
and now are used for seating. After the demolition of the fountain and the dissatisfaction of many park visitors with the condition of the park, the district office of
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg () is the second Boroughs of Berlin, borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former East Berlin borough of Friedrichshain and the former West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg. The historic Oberbaum Bridge, formerly ...
organized an "ideas workshop" in 2009 to beautify the park.


The orchard

Since 2011, in the middle of the park, an orchard with apple, pear and greengage trees was created. In total, there were 26 trees after the third planting in early April 2013. As a memorial to deceased Kreuzberg actor Eralp Uzun, family and friends planted another tree in the meadow in May 2013. This orchard was created by the Kiezwandlern, a local
Transition Town The terms transition town, transition initiative and transition model refer to grassroots, grassroot community projects that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, Global warming, climate destruction, and eco ...
group, with the support of the district's green area office. Committed residents habitually cultivate the orchard meadow. The later harvest from the trees is available to the public.


Drug trafficking

Görlitzer Park is one of the largest drug transfer centers in Berlin. The park has been the site of multiple violent incidents resulting in injuries and even death. The
drug dealing The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types ...
originated in parts of the park during the 2000s. Since May 2012, the park area has been subject to constant police patrols. The problems, however, have remained. In November 2014, the "Task Force Görlitzer Park" was established to curb drug-related crime around Görlitzer Park. This task force consisted of the
Berlin Police The Berlin Police (; formerly , ) is the force for the city-state of Berlin, Germany. Law enforcement in Germany is divided between federal and state () agencies. The Berlin Police is headed by the ('Chief of Police'), Dr. Barbara Slowik. ...
, the public prosecutor's office, the administration of justice, the immigration office, and the
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg () is the second Boroughs of Berlin, borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former East Berlin borough of Friedrichshain and the former West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg. The historic Oberbaum Bridge, formerly ...
district office. The task force effected several changes to Görlitzer Park, such as removing hedges and shrubs that could serve as drug stashes, as well as greatly increasing the police presence. Interior Senator
Frank Henkel Frank Henkel (born 16 November 1963) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a Mayor and Senate of Berlin, Senator of the Interior and Sports of the German state of Berl ...
introduced a
zero tolerance A zero-tolerance policy is one which imposes a punishment for every infraction of a stated rule.zero tolerance, n.' (under ''zero, n.''). The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. 1989. Retrieved 10 November 2009. Italy, Japan, Singapore China, I ...
rule in March 2015 which enabled the police to prosecute consumers and dealers for small amounts of drugs. However, this did not eliminate the drug problem, instead causing many drug dealers to move to other streets, parks and neighborhoods. On October 16, 2017, the Red-Red-Green Coalition rescinded the rule, and the purchase, transportation, and consumption of up to of cannabis in Görlitzer Park has resumed with relative impunity.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorlitzer Park Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Parks in Berlin