Mauerpark is a public

linear park A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. These linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, or highways and shorelines. Examples of linear p ...

in Berlin's

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incor ...

district. The name translates to "Wall Park", referring to its status as a former part of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...

and its Death Strip. The park is located at the border of Prenzlauer Berg and Gesundbrunnen district of former

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

Old Nordbahnhof

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mauerpark area served as the location of the Old Nordbahnhof ("Northern Railway Station"), the southern terminus of the

Prussian Northern Railway The Berlin Northern Railway (german: Berliner Nordbahn) is a 223-kilometre-long main line route, that runs from Berlin via Neustrelitz and Neubrandenburg to Stralsund on the Baltic Sea coast. Nowadays, long-distance and regional traffic on the N ...

opened in 1877-78, which connected Berlin with the city of

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, N ...

and the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. Soon after it lost its role as a passenger station to the nearby '' Stettiner Bahnhof'' and remained in use as a freight yard. In 1950 the ''Stettiner Bahnhof'' took the name Nordbahnhof because of its role in Berlin's public transportation system, and the Old Nordbahnhof became known as ''Güterbahnhof Eberswalder Straße''. It was finally closed after the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. When viewed from above, one can still see remains of the railroad tracks running towards the former station from the Ringbahn.

Berlin divided

In 1946, through the division of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

into four occupation zones, the land of the Old Nordbahnhof stretching from '' Bernauer Straße'' to ''

Kopenhagener Straße The Kopenhagener Straße is a street in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district, which runs parallel to the Ringbahn tracks between busy Schönhauser Allee in the east all the way to the Mauerpark in the west, where the Berlin Wall separated the So ...

'' was split between the

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and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

sectors. After the building of the Berlin Wall, the land was included into the heavily guarded Death Strip with walls on either side. One of the viewing platforms, from which

residents could look over the wall into

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

, stood at this location. The remaining western part of the station was turned into a storehouse and commercial area. An interesting aspect and a problem for the East German guards was the fact that the anterior part of the Wall strip was located on the steep embankment of the former railway tracks at a higher elevation than the adjacent area in the west. Yet in 1988, the East Berlin authorities concluded an agreement with the West to acquire a strip of land at the bottom of the hill to set up a more efficient border. MauerPark

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the former death strip was designated as a public space and one of several green spaces in the city by local residents. With a contribution of DM 4.5 million from the

Allianz Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. Th ...

environmental fund, the park was built on the eastern half of the former train station. However, the western half, which still belonged to the '' Bundeseisenbahnvermögen'' real estate association, remained a trade area and since 2004 has served as the location for a

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal ...

next to the park. Several attempts to attach the western part to the green space have so far failed. Today the park is one of the most popular places for young residents of Berlin, especially from the fashionable district of

, and attracts basketball players, jugglers, musicians, and many other types of people. It is a crowded leisure ground and a site of sustainable improvised nightlife, especially in the summer, and has also become notorious for

Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess ...

riots in recent years. There are two stadiums next to the park, including Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark and Max-Schmeling-Halle, home to several of Berlin's local sports teams. An 800 m strip of the

still stands in the park today as a monument, and is a popular place for graffiti artists to paint and display their work. The park has been expanded in several phases since its establishment; construction is underway to bring the park to a total of , with construction scheduled to be completed in 2019.

Culture

Bearpit Karaoke Show

A stone circular stage area with surrounding amphitheatre is situated on the hillside directly across from the park's basketball court. In late February 2009 an informal karaoke show took place there for the first time. Weather permitting, the "Bearpit Karaoke Show" at the amphitheatre has continued each year since then to be a regular fixture in the park on Sunday afternoons, with it possible to visit the shows from spring through to late autumn. Rapidly becoming a Berlin institution, every Sunday afternoon thousands of people make their way to it. If the crowd loves the singer, they will sing and cheer along and make them feel like a star.

Flea market

Open every Sunday since 2004, Flohmarkt am Mauerpark (German for Mauerpark Flea Market) is popular with both locals and tourists alike. While a newcomer to the Berlin flea market scene, it is becoming a quick favorite. The loose grid stalls populate the western side of the park and offer a collection of new and vintage fashions, vinyl records, CDs, GDR memorabilia and antiques, bicycles and other nicknacks.History of Mauerpark Berlin
AwayPlan

References

External links

360° Panorama
of Mauerpark on weekly Karaoke.
Shortfilm about Mauerpark Karaoke
The Guardian.
Photographical documentation of the graffiti at "Mauerpark" -Berlin
{{Authority control Urban public parks Parks in Berlin Berlin Wall Pankow Linear parks