Discover Altglienicke

Altglienicke can be explored through several themes: architectural heritage, local history, landscape and remembrance. The water tower and Tuschkastensiedlung represent architectural history; the museum, landscape park and cemetery add other aspects. Setting your own priorities for your trip lets you consider buildings, local history and landscape separately.

Water Tower and Tuschkastensiedlung

Altglienicke’s water tower was built in 1905/06 on Falkenberg hill in Gothic Revival forms and stands 38.55 metres tall. It is considered a landmark visible across Berlin’s southeastern district. The tower at Schirnerstraße 17/19 is listed as a historic monument.

The nearby Tuschkastensiedlung offers a different architectural perspective: Bruno Taut designed it in 1913/15; it is protected as a garden monument and as a complete ensemble. Architecture enthusiasts can therefore compare the Gothic Revival forms of a single building with an entire ensemble designed by Bruno Taut, whose protection also includes the garden.

Local History at the Museum

The Altglienicke Museum has been housed in the Altglienicke community centre at Ortolfstraße 182 since early 2016. Check the location before your visit. Other exhibition sections cover the volunteer fire brigade, the history of sport in Altglienicke, the former tram line 84 and the Kosmosviertel, which was still under construction at the end of the GDR era.

These topics range from local history and sport to transport and urban development. The museum thus offers a different way to explore local history than looking at individual buildings: several chapters in the life and changing landscape of Altglienicke are presented side by side.

Landscape and the History of the Division

In the Rudow-Altglienicke Landscape Park, an information stele and three illustrated panels explain the Berlin Spy Tunnel. Its route ran from a US forces radar station in Rudow (West Berlin) to Schönefelder Chaussee in Altglienicke, in the Soviet sector of the city. The named endpoints and sectors make the tunnel’s route a tangible subject in the history of the divided city.

Another feature is the so-called “Glienicke Window”: an embankment up to five metres high, planted with wild vine, that opens up a view of the meadows, pastures and hollow of the landscape park. In the same park, a historical local reference and a view of the landscape thus appear as distinct themes.

Memorial Sites at the Cemetery

Altglienicke Cemetery also connects local history with remembrance. The ceremonial hall has a coffin-lifting mechanism: a manual pump uses water pressure to move a platform and raise the coffin into the ceremonial hall. A communal urn grave for the ashes of concentration camp victims interred there is located by the entrance on the left.

The two details tell different stories: the mechanism makes an unusual mechanical process understandable, while the communal grave commemorates concentration camp victims. When choosing travel themes, Altglienicke can therefore be explored not only through architecture or landscape, but also through history and remembrance.

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Go to the main travel overview: Berlin.