Leisure & recreation

The Sunday flea market is and remains an essential part of the Mauerpark. The flea market area was designed so that it can be used on weekdays as a sports and exercise area for the park's visitors.

In cooperation with children and young people from the surrounding neighbourhoods, a new 2,000 square metre playground has been created. The playground equipment is based on ideas created on paper and with various other materials during the participation process.

Since 2012, residents from the surrounding neighbourhoods have come together in an intercultural community garden in the Mauergarten. In the open, communal and ecological kitchen garden, everyone can contribute with their ideas, skills and cultural backgrounds.

The extension of the Mauerpark offers a variety of opportunities for sports and leisure activities such as: cycling, skating, jogging, Nordic walking, table tennis, basketball.

As envisaged in the design by Prof. Gustav Lange, a four-row avenue of plane trees runs as a central axis through the Mauerpark extension. The generous tree-lined promenade is supplemented by well-preserved existing trees, especially self-seeding tree species such as maple, birch and black locust, and runs in a north-south direction.

Along the former course of the border, one now finds the avenue of unequal things, over the course of which three large pedestals with different surfaces – wood, water-bound pavement and Charlottenburg pavement slabs – connect the existing park and the extension. Thus, they not only form a bridge over the former course of the border, but also offer a place to linger and get together.

In the northern part of the extension area is the Apfelwiese [apple meadow]. Various fruit trees give the impression of being in a garden and form a pleasant contrast to the urban structures all around.

A newly created large square as the centre of the east-west connection is the so-called Steinkreis. This measures 32 metres in diameter and has various seating areas and also a large table made of the granite that is characteristic of the Mauerpark and thus functions as a meeting place and lounge area.

The granite that characterises Mauerpark is also found in many places in the extension. In response to the citizens' desire for seating that promotes communication, several granite squares were created in the northern area of the extension, inviting visitors to linger.

It was always important to the designer, Prof. Gustav Lange, that Mauerpark be and remain a place where history and the present meet. This was taken into account on the one hand with the integration of relics from previous uses (for example rails, paving stones and the integration of the former station wall as the western boundary of the park).

In the course of the construction of the extension, the former course of the Berlin Wall was traced over the entire length of the park (293 metres) with the double row of paving stones that can also be found elsewhere in the city.

As part of construction work by Berliner Wasserbetriebe, remains of the former border fortifications between East and West Berlin were found at the entrance to the Mauerpark on Eberswalder Straße in early 2018: A vehicle barrier, which was intended to prevent escape by car or truck from the former GDR, as well as the entrance to an escape tunnel. In connection with the Berlin Wall Memorial, an exhibition of the findings was conceived on the newly created forecourt between Schwedter Strasse and the entrance to the Mauersegler. The exhibition has been open to all visitors since 9 November 2020.