Treptower Park: the Soviet War Memorial and the banks of the Spree

Treptower Park covers about 88 hectares on the banks of the Spree, in the Treptow-Köpenick district, east of central Berlin. People come for the Soviet War Memorial, the largest in the city, where the statue of the liberating soldier towers over a wide avenue of sarcophagi, but also for the lawns, the riverside promenade and the Archenhold Observatory. The park and the memorial are open every day, with free access. The park was laid out between 1877 and 1889 to plans by Gustav Meyer, Berlin's first director of gardens, as a public garden. It remains a well-preserved example of a 19th-century landscape park, alternating large meadows and groves, with a carp pond and a four-row avenue of plane trees.

Highlights

The Soviet War Memorial

Built from 1946 to 1949 and inaugurated on 8 May 1949, the Sowjetisches Ehrenmal honours the Red Army soldiers killed in the Battle of Berlin in 1945. More than 7,000 of them are buried here, according to Grün Berlin, which manages the site; other official sources give a lower figure. On top of a mound, the bronze statue by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich, 11.6 metres high, shows a soldier carrying a German child, sword in hand, trampling a broken swastika. Beneath the plinth, a memorial hall is decorated with a mosaic.

The avenue of sarcophagi

From the entrance you pass the statue of the grieving Mother Homeland, then an avenue lined with birch trees leads to two monumental flags in red granite, with kneeling soldiers. Beyond lies the central cemetery, framed by sixteen stone sarcophagi carved with war reliefs and Stalin quotations, in Russian and German. The whole complex covers some ten hectares.

The Spree riverside and boats

A promenade follows the river along the whole length of the park. At Hafen Treptow, the landing stage at Puschkinallee 15, the Stern und Kreis company runs seasonal cruises towards the city centre and the Müggelsee. On the river side you will also find the rose garden and other themed gardens created between 1959 and 1969, in the GDR era.

Insel der Jugend and the Spreepark

At the eastern end of the park, the Abtei bridge (Abteibrücke), built in 1916, leads to the Insel der Jugend, a small island home to the Kulturhaus Insel Berlin, with concerts and a beer garden. Further south-east, in the Plänterwald, the former GDR amusement park, the Spreepark, is under construction: its reopening as an art, culture and nature park is announced for 2027. The Eierhäuschen, a restored former inn on the waterfront, already houses a restaurant, a seasonal beer garden and exhibitions.

The Archenhold Observatory

In the south-eastern part of the park, at Alt-Treptow 1, the Archenhold-Sternwarte houses the great refractor built in 1896: 21 metres of focal length and 130 tonnes, billed as the longest movable refracting telescope in the world. Albert Einstein gave his first public lecture on general relativity here in 1915. The astronomy museum is free; guided tours, observations, lectures and planetarium shows cost €12, or €8 reduced.

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