Brandenburg and Prussia Part 3- Natural attractions by Robert Fullarton

Brandenburg and Prussia
Part 3- Natural attractions
by Robert Fullarton

The state of Brandenburg in Northern Germany is perhaps a largely undiscovered gem to non-German nationals. It surrounds the city of Berlin, by the borders of Saxony to the south, Poland to the east (what used to be part of Brandenburg before the Potsdam Agreement), the vast lakelands of Mecklenburg to the north and Saxony-Anhalt to the west. The State of Brandenburg today largely resembles what it used to be in the heyday of what was the Kingdom of Prussia. This is a land of fine sandy beaches, vast pine and birch forests, with the Havel lakelands (Haveland) and the Spreewald waterways, it has a diverse landscape for Osprey, White Tailed sea eagles, Corncrake, White and Black Storks, Great Crested Grebes and various species of Woodpeckers found hammering in the great expanses of its pine forests.

These landscapes are flat, similar in some respects to the landscapes of those of the Netherlands, of Denmark, and southern Sweden, but prone to higher temperatures and with a finer density of forests.

In the summer light the shores of the "Havelland" (the river Havel and its lakes) surrounding Potsdam, the Wannsee and around Babelsburg park and palace, glow by the sandy coves, where one can walk along forested paths and catch a water taxi to either side of the lakeland. My aunt and I walked along the beaches by Babelsburg palace, there is a heathland, with heather, juniper, wild flowers and chestnut trees, and across the water you can view the Glienicke Bridge (where the movie bridge of Spies was filmed as the infamous location for trading spies and intel). Park Babelsburg along with its fine Victorian era Castle (built for Kaiser Wilhelm I) is a peaceful, pastoral, place to indulge in the sights of landscape gardening and local history. These gardens are the work of Hermann Von Puckler, a count from Muskau estates in Saxony. My aunt and I went to an exhibition at the Babelsburg Palace, on the life of this landscape gardener who had transformed the entire area, using his various apparatus, to transport trees by huge carts to plant them, having been commissioned to create French Formal style gardens. It reminded me of something having been built by Victoria and Albert, with its grand sandstone facade, with a gothic like structure and a hint of Tudor opulence.

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I would recommend people to get outside of Berlin, get outside of the hustle and bustle, out of the shadows of the towering skyscrapers of Potsdamer Platz and be immersed in the surrounding hinterlands, that are largely the same as they were back in the days of old Prussia and the electors of Brandenburg. This region has survived the GDR government, despite architectural neglect and the abuse given to both people and the Prussian culture (as Potsdam's old town suffered not just from the ww2 bombings but also from the East German hatred for all things Prussian!). This is a land of Palaces, of rich culture, of natural beauty, overlooked by non-German's and yet perhaps it might just be discovered more by foreign tourists as Berlin and Potsdam have increased in popularity. The Prussian foundation for castles and Gardens has with the help of UNESCO, worked at restoring the lost palatial homes of the Prussian time period, the Hohenzollern dynasty and the beautiful old "chocolate box" towns and cities such as Potsdam with its beautifully restored Dutch quarter and Brandenburgstrasse. Spandau too outside of central Berlin, shows this beauty and finesse with its 15th century old quarter (and has largely escaped the ww2 bombings).