A Short Hiking Adventure in Kleinmachnow

We are already half-July and it seems that summer is running fast, faster than my travel plans at least. Regardless if I am enjoying the summer in Berlin - which is always a lovely experience - or taking random trips around the city for the weekend - more about this in the next two posts - I still some more German travel plans in my pocket. 

One will be in a couple of days an exploration of the iconic Sächsische Schweiz, near Dresden - and not only because it has the same 'Switzerland'/'Schweiz' in it. I am a big lover of hiking in the mountains as since a very early age - somewhere near 5 - I was took to long trips in the mountains with my family. 

Spending a couple of long hours the day on my chair does not help me being prepared for such an adventure and although I am trying to keep myself a regular gym program I need to get ready for long and eventually challanging walking and hiking journeys.

When the forest areas around Berlin - like Schlachtensee, Krumme Lanke, Nikolassee or Grünewald . are no more attractive enough for my wandering spirit - a short adventure to places like, for instance, Kleinmachnow, are worth a try.

I've been to Kleinmachnow four years ago, when I was rather interested in the recent history. Caught between Potsdam - which belonged to the GDR - and Steglitz-Zehlendorf - formerly part the American sector - it used to be a relatively isolated locality on the Cold War map of the area. After the fall of the WWII, Kleinmachnow was frequently mentioned in the media of the 1990s for the drama following the property restitution cases. When the locality was assigned to the communist Germany, many residents fled and abandonned their houses that were took over by locals or representatives of the Communist Party. Once the Berlin Wall was down - during the Cold War here it was a massive border crossing checkpoint, similar in importance with the checkpoint Bravo situated on the A115 motorway - those original owners or their inheritors wanted to recover their properties and often it was not possible without struggling which turned also violent once in a while.

From Berlin, you can arrive there either from Krumme Lanke, by bus, or from Grunewald, also by bus. My stop was at Rathausmarkt, where you can find all the shopping and eating facilities in Kleinmachnow. The offer is modest but enough if you just want to spend the day in the area, without leaving for Berlin. The Italian restaurants are just fine and there is even a bookstore selling the latest popular titles.

After a relativel short refuel shop for a short lunch meal, we are slowly walking alongside the Förster Funke Allee, with its identical one story blue houses, with discrete decorations on the window seals and small gardens embelisshed by blowing bushes of white and pink hortensias.

The more we walk, turning on Karl Mark Street, for instance, I have the confirmation why Kleinmachnow is considered such a paradise for real estate. Despite the persistence of a relatively confuse property rights situation, people keep buying and selling here, including expats, and during our short stay in Rathausmarkt we already heard three English-speaking locals. The houses are really beautiful, with generous garden space and covering a variety of architectural styles.

I wanted this trip to be nothing but of pleasure, but it rarelly happens in my case, as I cannot avoid historical and political references. I am in the front of the entrance to Hakeburg, a castle built at the beginning of the 20th century in neo-Gothic style by the family von Hake who owned it. Used by the Reichpost during WWII, and after took over by the German Communist Party - SED - it was later used as a guest house where special guests of the Communist Germany, such as Nikita Khrushchev, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro or Mikhail Gorbachev were hosted.

I make a mental note to come back again in autumn to check the situation of this building - but that's all for now. I need to focus on my actual hiking priorities.

Which hiking opportunity is opening generously on the opposite side of the street. There is a protected nature area, where I am supposed to encounter many special birds, and almost empty. For over an hour, I am wandering through the trees, many of them falling down on the grown, with no other human in sight. It is a relatively easy hike, and my simple sport shoes are enough. It's all I need for now, a fresh air, a little walking accompanied by the birds chirping. 

Suddenly, I am entering a sandy area. A sea of white sand without sea, surrounded by high trees. I've seen another one in Grunewald area and visually at least, it creates an interesting diversion, especially if you use hiking as an opportunity to keep thinking on and off without necessarily a direct connection to the environment. It is a pleasant surprise after all, and it makes the walking experience even more challenging.

There are many possibilities of hiking in Kleinmachnow for long hours. You cross the street and you are in the middle of another small forest. Some do it by walking, as me, others prefer to bike. For all, there is the offer of comfortably easy tracks, that do not require a special preparation. But it can start as a preparation for even longer and more difficult tracks.

Without noticing and not necessarily looking for, we are back in the urban area. We noticed that in the front of many houses, there are small banners where protests against the property situations are scribbled. One complains that he/she is homeless now although it is the right owner of a house here, another one is just writing down a protest against real estate sharks. Some just set up a magnified picture of the property as it once stood.

But for the rest of the residents - more or less local by birth -, it is life as usual, the the layers of various urban styles and interventions can be read at once, on the same street page. This visit to Kleinmachnow made me even more interested to delve a little bit more into the recent history of the place, but first and foremost, it offered me a well-deserved hiking opportunity that I promise to use it at least one more time in the very near future.

For more travel stories, follow my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ilanatravels

Cold War Memories in Klein Machnow

I did not know too much about Klein Machnow until a couple of months ago when someone outlined the real estate potential of this place, as many local VIPs, of various calibers, do have villas here. The decision to spend a whole summer day here was more the result of my curiosity than determined by some economic purposes. Plus, I assumed that I know quite a bunch about Berlin and its neighborhoods. What happened that I missed this apparently famous place?

I arrived there with a local bus from Berlin. Then, I took the Karl Marx Street for around 20 minutes, not before a long stop at the local weekly vegetables market. Triangle-roofed houses hidden by the high vegetation were the first noticeable observations in my first hour of exploration in Klein Machnow.

If at the first sight there were not too many traces of the former communist legacy, those little details familiar to someone that grew up in this (crazy) world were easy to spot. Maybe the attitude of some local people towards foreigners, or some buildings or just the overall impression...

Many buildings were renovated in the last years and sold to successful entrepreneurs from Berlin. The situation of real estate in Klein Machnow was subject not only to economic considerations. During the Cold War, this locality was part of the communist part. Following the reunification, around 8,000 people lived their houses that were in fact occupied illegally from owners that went in the West. It seems that history repeats itself, but this particular dispute was assigned a name: "Klein Machnow Syndrome".

A couple of streets before we were reading about what to do when meeting wild boars, a frequent presence around it seems, but now we are in the middle of the small central area and everything make you feel centuries distance from the above mentioned wilderness.

The main shops and restaurants are concentrated in the area around Sehquartier. There is nothing exquisite, just everything you need to make your life bearable before the first ride to Berlin.

The same when it comes to food. The Salumeria is the most attractive place for food and I took a seat outside, a good observation point to notice the locals between the food bites. The bruschettas are edible, not too elaborated in terms of taste - was expected more spices and maybe a bit more olive oil.

The pasta arabiatta are spicy as expected, but not too well cooked. The sauce compensates everything though, including the clumsy customer service.

With renewed forced, I continue my trip, convinced that there must be many hidden histories in these places. The street art is colourful, a testimony that there must be young people with ideas around.

The architects seem to try their hand here too, as the Bio Company shop is hosted in one of the most interesting buildings dedicated to this business, the repeated wood detail and the transparent entry being a good illustration of the messages of this company.

The only school in the locality bears the name of the Russian (Soviet) writer Maxim Gorki, a memory from the old communist times maintained in Germany without the similar shame from other communist countries - as the Karl Marx street that lead me to the city.

After a little bit of bus riding and more hiking, I arrive at one of the trademarks of this neighborhoods of Berlin. The Teltow Kanal, inaugurated in 1906, that played an important role in developing the trade network between Berlin and different locations in Germany or Poland.

Nowadays, here you can follow some short historical tours. The entire place is too peaceful to make you dream about the busy trade that used to be here just couple of decades ago.

Nearby, the old tram tells a different story. Now part of history, the 96 tram was took out of service following the establishment of the new borders of Berlin. As nothing went further the Checkpoint Bravo, this tram witnesses the isolation and alienation between the two parts of Berlin. The interior is decorated with black and white pictures from the old times and the custodian of the place is kind enough to answer my many questions around the topic: And how was is then?

As it happens often, intuitively my steps are taken to places with interesting histories. I am walking through the yards of the Hakeburg castle, a construction built in 1600, supposedly turned soon into a posh real estate destination. Old stained glass and statues covered by the rain, winds and snow, large interior yards and high walls. Used first as a castle, during the war as a private residence of the Reichpostminister, Wilhelm Ohnesorge. Destroyed by the bombings, it was opened again only in 1950, first as a school for party leaders, but also used as a private residence for various guests of the communist leadership. 

Such a small place, so many histories, many of them not yet revealed to me. As my long years of travel taught me, there is no single new place on Earth were you cannot learn something. You just need keep following your journey.

For more insights about what to do and see in Klein Machnow, check the dedicated Pinterest board