Tiergarten

The Tiergarten is this huge park in Berlin where I have been running. On the easternmost side it starts a few blocks from me, at the Brandenburger Tor. From there it goes west a few miles and it is really wide with lots of winding paths.

It used to be the hunting grounds for the royalty living in Berlin (the German word Tier is related to the English word deer but now it means "animal", hence Tiergarten). It became increasingly "tamed" and fenced in until the late 18th century when it became more a park than hunting grounds.

I really like running here because there are so many interesting things hidden throughout the park...tons of various statues, little bridges, benches, flower gardens, ponds, lakes, but most of it is forest. It's not very old forest because of war damage.

Today I noticed that one of the major paths I am running on, which is called Bremer Weg, is named for the city of Bremen, which gave Berlin the trees which line this path in 1950.

One of the other paths is called Fasanenweg, "Pheasant Path", which I think my dad would think is pretty cool. Didn't hear any drumming though...The only wildlife I have seen so far are birds, not even squirrels, which seems strange.

Here is a picture I found of what the park looked like in 1945: