Ringbahn series · Part 2
Ringbahn, part 2: from Ostkreuz to Tempelhof
In the east and south the Ringbahn shows its best side: water at the Rummelsburger Bucht, the Spree at Treptower Park, an 18th-century village in Neukölln and the largest open space in the city. We get off at six stations and tell you how far each sight is on foot.
Section Ostkreuz to Tempelhof, 6 stations
Direction Clockwise on the S41
Good for Water, parks and neighborhood history
Walking times Measured on OpenStreetMap footpaths
The Ringbahn series
- Part 1: all 27 stations
- Part 2: Ostkreuz to Tempelhof
- Part 3: Südkreuz to Halensee
- Part 4: Westkreuz to Wedding
- Part 5: Gesundbrunnen to Frankfurter Allee
22 Ostkreuz · Worth getting off
One of the city's biggest interchanges and a good start, because three very different corners lie around it.
about 10 minutes on foot from the station
Rummelsburger Bucht
A riverside path runs around the bay of the Rummelsburger See, with boats, reeds and new apartment buildings. The Paul-und-Paula-Ufer is named after the 1973 DEFA classic film. If you keep walking you reach, one S-Bahn stop further on, the Rummelsburg memorial site: on the grounds of the former workhouse from 1879, later a prison under the Nazis and in the GDR, open-air steles have told the stories of the people locked up here since 2015.
about 13 minutes on foot from the station
Victoriastadt
Wedged between the railway tracks is a small neighborhood with cobblestones and old buildings put up between the 1870s and the First World War. Most of the listed houses stand on Pfarrstraße. More in the Kiez atlas.
about 18 minutes on foot from the station
Boxhagener Platz
The "Boxi" has a farmers' market on Saturdays and a flea market on Sundays, with cafés all around. More in our 12 places off the path.
23 Treptower Park · Worth getting off
Perhaps the loveliest stop on the ring. Between the Spree and the park there are four destinations here, enough for a good half day.
about 6 minutes on foot from the station
Molecule Man
In the middle of the Spree stand three 30-meter aluminum figures holding on to each other. The American artist Jonathan Borofsky put them up in 1999 where Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Treptow meet, right on the old border between East and West. The best view is from the riverbank behind the station.
about 16 minutes on foot from the station
Soviet War Memorial
One of the city's largest memorials, built between 1946 and 1949 and inaugurated on 8 May 1949. Around 4,800 fallen Red Army soldiers lie beneath the lawns. At the end of the long axis stands the huge figure of a soldier holding a child. A quiet, impressive place, and admission is free.
about 22 minutes on foot from the station
Archenhold Observatory
Germany's oldest public observatory has the "sky cannon", a telescope considered the longest movable refracting telescope in the world. Tours explain how it works, and the Einstein Hall is dedicated to Albert Einstein. Dates are on the Stiftung Planetarium Berlin website.
about 25 minutes on foot from the station
Insel der Jugend
A small island in the Spree, reached by an old bridge, with views over the water. The excursion boats also leave from Treptow harbor, and a little further on the Spreepark reopens in 2027.
The classic
The East Side Gallery
The best-known stretch of the Wall, often with long queues in front of the paintings.
Kieznah tip
The Molecule Man in the evening
From the riverbank behind Treptower Park station as the sun sets over the Spree. Three figures right on the old border, and most of the time you have them almost to yourself.
24 Sonnenallee · Worth getting off
Here the street itself is the attraction.
Sonnenallee
Around the station you will find a row of Arabic bakeries, snack bars and greengrocers. Come hungry. The name became famous through Leander Haußmann's 1999 film "Sonnenallee", based on material by Thomas Brussig. It is set at the shorter, eastern end of the street, where a border crossing stood until 1989. That end, however, is quite a way further southeast in Treptow.
25 Neukölln · Worth getting off
Two of Neukölln's loveliest places are less than ten minutes from the station.
about 8 minutes on foot from the station
Körnerpark
A park like a small palace garden, laid out between 1912 and 1916 in a former gravel pit and therefore five to seven meters below street level. In the orangery a gallery shows contemporary art with free admission, and there is a café next door.
about 9 minutes on foot from the station
Bohemian Rixdorf
From 1737 Protestant refugees from Bohemia settled here. Around Richardplatz the old smithy, farmhouses and cobblestones still survive, and at Richardplatz 35 is the Comenius Garden, named after the scholar Johann Amos Comenius. It has a relative in Potsdam, by the way: the Weavers' Quarter in Babelsberg. More in the Kiez atlas.
Klunkerkranich
The rooftop bar on the parking deck of the Neukölln Arcaden is a good 20 minutes on foot, or two stops on the U7 to Rathaus Neukölln. More in our 12 places off the path.
26 Hermannstraße · Worth getting off
The shortest way from the ring onto Tempelhofer Feld.
about 13 minutes on foot from the station
Tempelhofer Feld
Since May 2010 the old airfield has been a park, and in 2014 Berliners voted in a referendum against building on its edges. Around 300 hectares of meadow and runway where people skate, barbecue, fly kites or just look at the sky. It is open from sunrise to sunset and admission is free. The nearest entrance is on Oderstraße.
about 19 minutes on foot from the station
Schillerkiez
Around Herrfurthplatz and its church you will find cafés and small shops, quieter than the neighboring Reuterkiez. More in the Kiez atlas.
27 Tempelhof · Worth getting off
This is where the airport story begins, and a village of the Knights Templar is still here too.
about 15 minutes on foot from the station
Old village church in the Alter Park
The Knights Templar founded a settlement here in the 13th century, and the fieldstone church on the edge of the Alter Park dates from that time. It was almost completely destroyed in the war and rebuilt between 1954 and 1956. A small pond and old trees make the park a quiet place in the middle of Tempelhof.
about 21 minutes on foot from the station
Airlift Memorial
Berliners call it the "hunger rake": unveiled in 1951 and designed by Eduard Ludwig, the memorial recalls the 1948/49 airlift, and its three prongs stand for the three air corridors to West Berlin. The names of those who died are listed on the base. On the U6 it is two stops to Platz der Luftbrücke.
about 24 minutes on foot from the station
THF Tower in the airport building
Tempelhof Airport closed in 2008, but its enormous 1930s building still stands. The THF Tower has an exhibition and a roof terrace overlooking the field, plus tours of the building. Times and tickets at thf-berlin.de.