One day Rose and I were wondering around without a plan but to just explore. We came across a garden colony which is a community of small plots of land and all have tiny unique little gardens and houses. They are found all over Germany but the one we visited that day is one of the largest in the country. Kolonie Sonnenbad occupies an area that is about half a kilometre wide and just under one kilometre from top to bottom.

After spending hours looking at hundreds of these little dollhouses and relaxing in parks we came to the southern end of the kolonie and saw this giant red water tower in the distance and decided to investigate.  We came upon Natur-Park Südgelände:

“Just south of the bustling streets of Berlin is an unusual park filled with decaying railway cars and art installations. The site originally housed the Tempelhof railway switchyard, constructed in the late 19th-century and completed in 1889. Throughout the early 20th century, the area boomed with industrial growth and the roar of steam engines. 

Following World War II, the railyard was gradually decommissioned and finally closed in 1952.  Decades of non-use allowed nature to reclaim the site.  Local citizens, inspired by the area’s wondrous ecology, pressured the city to preserve it.  Designated a Nature and Landscape Conservation Area in 1999, the park, known as Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände, opened in 2000.

Today, the park is home to a variety of animals, plants, and insects, including the endangered blue-winged grasshopper. Many relics of the switchyard dot the grounds, including a 1927 water tower, an administrative hall known as the Bruekenmeisterei, and a DRB Class 50 German locomotive from the 1930s. A restored 100-year-old  administrative hall today houses a gallery and performance space. Throughout the park, the sculptor group Odius also completed several steel art installations, like lookout points, footbridges, and even tree houses.”

-Atlas Obscura

I returned to this site a few weeks later to take more photos. As I walked in the bright yellow entry gate which is unmanned I turned left and went through a train tunnel that is a free graffiti wall. There was a group of 2 and of 3 that were painting so I hung around and watched for a bit.

I kept following the old line coming straight up north from the tunnel to the top of the park when it comes to a point as the park is shaped like a tall triangle. There is an abundance of metal sculpture, metal benches and swings out amongst the trees growing freely between the rails and the ties.

About halfway back down the length of the park there was a turntable which would have been used to turn engines around in the other direction.

From here you enter the sculpture garden which incorporates parts from old equipment as well as the installation of modern, contemporary works.


Around the side of the sculpture garden and past the cafe in a service shed was one old steam engine. It reminded me of a night out in Berlin 12 years before when an engine like this came blowing through the underground station we were waiting at. It was doing about 80km and filled the station with steam. We could hear it coming for about a minute as it started as a low rumble and became the most powerful thing I’ve ever felt. I could feel my organs rattling even before it entered the station.

 

The day I took these photos inside the Natur-Park Südgelände I had previously came across the Bierpinsel (interesting abandoned brutalist tower) and Mäusebunker (abandoned brutalist animal testing facility).