Few visitors reach Wedding. This walk climbs a wartime flak tower for the view, passes the first crematorium in Berlin (now the arts venue silent green) and a Schinkel church, and ends at Bruno Taut's red-brick Schillerpark estate, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Start at S+U Gesundbrunnen, end at U Rehberge (U6).
Best time: Dry afternoon, April to October; the flak tower platform is always open, and Berliner Unterwelten tours inside run in summer
The route, stop by stop
- 1Humboldthain Flak Tower
A flak tower built in 1941-42 with forced labour and partly blown up after the war. The Humboldthöhe viewing platform on top is always open and good at sunset; Berliner Unterwelten runs tours inside in summer, and bats winter in it. The rose garden of Volkspark Humboldthain is nearby. 40 min.
- 2silent green Kulturquartier
Berlin's first crematorium, opened in 1912 and used until 2001, at Gerichtstraße 35. Since autumn 2015 it has been the cultural venue silent green, with an underground concrete hall opened in 2019. 20 min.
- 3Alte Nazarethkirche
One of Karl Friedrich Schinkel's four suburban churches, built 1832-35, on Leopoldplatz. 10 min.
- 4Siedlung Schillerpark
Bruno Taut's estate of 303 flats along Bristolstraße, built 1924-30 in dark red brick in the manner of the Amsterdam School, with some of the first flat roofs in Berlin. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2008 (Berlin Modernism Housing Estates). 20 min.
More walks in Berlin
- Mitte classics: Reichstag to Museum Island
- The Wall and Prenzlauer Berg on a Sunday
- Kreuzberg to Neukölln food graze: bakeries, canal market and street food
- East Side Gallery and Friedrichshain's Boxi
- West Berlin: Charlottenburg Palace to Kantstrasse
- Tempelhofer Feld to old Rixdorf
- Karl-Marx-Allee: socialist boulevard from Kino International to Frankfurter Tor
- Schöneberg: Nollendorfplatz to the Rathaus where Kennedy spoke
- Britz: Taut's Horseshoe Estate and the old village
- Treptower Park: Soviet memorial, sky cannon and the Insel der Jugend