Schöneberg Südgelände Nature Park

The Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände covers roughly 44 acres (18 hectares) on the site of the former Tempelhof marshalling yard. After long-distance traffic on the Anhalt and Dresden railway lines ended in 1952 and the western half of the yard was shut down, nature spent decades taking the land back. When clearing work for a planned freight yard was set to begin in 1980, citizen groups documented the ecological value of the site and stopped the construction. The result is a rare biotope in the middle of the city, a mix of birch woodland, dry grassland and rusting rails.

In 1995 the German railway transferred the land to the state of Berlin as ecological compensation. Under the state company Grün Berlin it was reworked into a park, symbolically opened in 1999 and placed under nature and landscape protection. In 2000 it was an official project of the EXPO world's fair, which brought it attention well beyond Berlin. It still counts, alongside the Britzer Garten and the Gardens of the World, as one of the city's three big parks.

The particular pleasure here is the coexistence of decaying railway infrastructure, protected nature and art. Raised steel walkways carry you through the woods without touching the fragile ground, past the old water tower, the locomotive sheds and rusting track beds with their art installations. A historic steam locomotive platform and sculptures by the artist collective Odious add accents. If you want quiet, unusual photo subjects and a piece of wild urban nature, this is the place.