Out of Berlin
Babelsberg: the Potsdam most visitors miss
Anyone travelling from Berlin to Potsdam usually ends up at Sanssouci. Yet one stop earlier lies a district that has it all: a village of Bohemian weavers, a palace park above the water, the bridge where spies were swapped and the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. The tip came from someone who knows both worlds.
In the dining car on the train from Berlin to Leipzig, I got talking to a businesswoman. She is a Berliner who has lived in Potsdam for a few years, so she knows both worlds. I asked her straight away which neighborhoods in Potsdam she would recommend. Her answer came at once: Babelsberg, her neighborhood, which she loves.
Daniel
Getting there S7 to Babelsberg, or to Griebnitzsee for the villas
Ticket Potsdam is in zone C: Berlin ABC or Deutschlandticket
Good for A whole day of walking, history and water
Walking times Measured on OpenStreetMap footpaths
A Berlin AB ticket is not enough here; anyone riding on one counts as travelling without a valid ticket if checked. More in Understanding the BVG.
01 The Weavers' Quarter
about 6 minutes on foot from Babelsberg station
From 1751 Frederick II had a colony built here for Protestant refugees from Bohemia, mostly weavers and spinners. The village was called Nowawes, Czech for "new village". In the middle of Weberplatz stands the octagonal Friedrichskirche from 1752/53, designed by Jan Bouman, who also built Potsdam's Dutch Quarter. Sermons were preached in Czech here until 1809. Around it a few of the small settlers' houses still stand, and one of them holds a small museum. Only in 1938 did Nowawes merge with the villa colony of Neubabelsberg, and in 1939 both became part of Potsdam as Babelsberg.
If you know Berlin, you will spot a relative: Bohemian Rixdorf in Neukölln was also founded by Protestant refugees from Bohemia, a good decade earlier. On two Advent weekends, in 2026 from 27 to 29 November and from 4 to 6 December, Weberplatz hosts the Bohemian Christmas market, with concerts in the Friedrichskirche.
02 Babelsberg Park, Flatow Tower and palace
about 23 minutes on foot from Babelsberg station to the Flatow Tower, 34 minutes to the palace
The park lies on a slope above the Havel and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin. Peter Joseph Lenné began it, and from 1843 Prince Pückler continued the work, commissioned by the future Emperor Wilhelm I and his wife Augusta. Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed their palace in the English Tudor style as a summer residence. The palace interior is being restored and can only be seen at events and special tours between May and October, while the park is open daily from 8 am until dark. After seven decades the water features are running again too.
The 46-meter Flatow Tower has a wraparound platform with views over the park, the Havel and the city. It is open at weekends from May to October and closed in winter.
The classic
Sanssouci
Vineyard terraces, palace, coaches. Beautiful, but rarely quiet.
Kieznah tip
From Weberplatz into the park
First through the Weavers' Quarter, then through Babelsberg Park down to the shore and on to the Glienicke Bridge. World heritage, water and space, shared with walkers from the neighborhood.
03 The Glienicke Bridge
about 25 minutes on foot from Babelsberg Palace along the shore
During the Cold War the bridge between Potsdam and Berlin was a border, and the GDR called it the "Bridge of Unity". On 10 February 1962 the American pilot Francis Gary Powers was exchanged here for the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, and two more exchanges followed in 1985 and 1986. Since Steven Spielberg's film "Bridge of Spies", half the world knows it. Since 10 November 1989 anyone can walk across it again, and from here you are in Berlin in a few steps.
04 The villas of the Potsdam Conference
about 9 minutes on foot from Griebnitzsee station to the Truman villa, 16 minutes to the Churchill villa
In the summer of 1945 the leaders at the Potsdam Conference lived in the Neubabelsberg villa colony on the Griebnitzsee. US President Harry S. Truman stayed for just over two weeks in the villa at Karl-Marx-Straße 2, built in 1891 and now home to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Winston Churchill, and after him Clement Attlee, stayed at Virchowstraße 23. The houses can be seen from the street, a quiet walk through world history.
05 Studio Babelsberg and the Filmpark
about 16 minutes on foot from Medienstadt Babelsberg station to the Filmpark
Films have been made in Babelsberg since 1912, under the names Ufa, DEFA and today Studio Babelsberg. The studio calls itself the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. The studio itself offers no public tours, but next door the Filmpark Babelsberg shows sets, stunt shows and technology. The park opens seasonally, so check times before you go.
Our acquaintance from the dining car also raved about a second Potsdam neighborhood, towards the old town. That is the one we will look at next.