Visit : Around Berlin - Schwanenwerder on Wannsee

"Wannsee, Wannsee  - Wann seh ich dich endlich wieder?" goes the text of a song currently in the German pop charts  by the music group "Die Toten Hosen" evoking summer feelings and refreshing dives into this famous lake on the outskirts of Berlin. Famous for its water sports within the boundaries of the city of Berlin and also infamous for its connections in history.

I recently reread a book from one of my favourite authors Robert Harris : "Fatherland", a gripping novel and thriller set in the unusual backdrop of a Nazi-Germany in the 1950s and 60s assuming the Germans had won the war. The first murder victim  is found on Schwanenwerder,  a peninsula which protrudes into Wannsee. 
And as this whole area around Potsdam with its many lakes, castles and beautiful spots  is our favourite place to visit on weekends in Berlin, we decided to have a look what it was all about... 

Schwanenwerder, "Swan's Ait", is a settlement of villas and mansions,  built by wealthy industrialists at the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century to contrast the royal Pfaueninsel, "Peacocks' Island", close-by with its summer palaces of the Prussian kings. The residential very large plots reach down to the beaches of Wannsee with some old villas still left untouched and dilapidated, some renovated and in new ownership.

a boat house

Permanent exposition boards explain the history of Schwanenwerder, the villas and their inhabitants, and  their roles in the history of Nazi-Germany. 

Across the lake a large mansion can be seen: the House of the Wannsee-Conference, now a memorial and educational site, with an extensive exhibition about the Holocaust. It plays a central role in Robert Harris's book. 

The gardens are beautiful and lead down to the water. Who would have thought that in such beautiful surroundings such atrocious plans could be devised and discussed? 

the view across Wannsee from the garden

Boats on Wannsee in an artistic impression

"Abendstimmung"

The Bridge of Spies

Have you seen "The Bridge of Spies" ?

Glienicker Brücke, today

I visited the bridge last weekend, as a tourist, in bleak grey end-of-January-weather. During the Cold War spies were exchanged here: in 1962 the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in exchange for the US fighter pilot Gary Powers. This is the topic of the latest, immensely fascinating film directed by Steven Spielberg with Tom Hanks, one of my favourite actors, acting the lawyer who represented the spy and organized the exchange. The film has been nominated for six Oscars. It was filmed in the famous Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam; one of the nominations is for the production design. To recreate the original scenes and atmosphere, the studio's craftspeople even produced their own barbed wire to make it authentic...

in Filmpark Babelsberg

This is the view from the bridge across the Wannsee towards several old and disfunctional castles of the bygone era of Prussian kings. The area has been peacefully neglected over the past 70 years and is still in need of repair.

As it was an especially nasty and grey cold winter day, the rendering in Black&White seemed appropriate.  

Schloss Babelsberg in its large parkland area. 

Babelsberg studios are actually quite close to the original location of the exchange. 

out-buildings

 Another building with a gruesome history is the House of the Wannsee Conference, close-by. Nowadays it holds a museum with a chilling documentation of the path leading down towards the Holocaust and an extensive collection of written artifacts. 

the House of the Wannsee-Conference

Wannsee in winter