Having never visited Berlin before I was unsure as to what to expect from the urban city. Friends who had visited before had always mentioned the colourful, graffitied streets, the moving memorials of Berlin’s past and the beer, but never did I ever imagine I’d see what I did.
When we think of urban areas we often focus our attention on the fundamental aesthetics of the city; tall concrete buildings, busy transport links and the hustle and bustle of every-day lives. The thought of nature and in particular, trees often go amiss. So, when arriving in Berlin, a city most famous for its urban landscape and architecture, I was taken by surprise to see that there were a countless number of trees everywhere I looked. When walking around Berlin, I couldn’t help but notice that there were trees everywhere, lining the sidewalks, expanding across every field, park and filling every open space from residential areas to memorial sites. No place was without a tree. Whether they were evergreens, tiny saplings or bare trees awaiting their springtime blossom, these trees where everywhere you looked. Lindens, Maples, Oaks, and Chestnuts accounting for 75 percent of the city’s landscape.
Berlin’s fixational on trees has natural roots, grounded deep within German culture and history. During World War II, most of Berlin’s canopy was destroyed. For those trees that were not bombed down to the ground, they were cut down by residents who were desperately in need of wood for a source of producing fuel both during the War and after it, in its recovery years.
Berlin has since gained progress in restoring its tree stock. Today, Germany’s capital has more forested areas than any other major city in Europe. Berlin is home to over 2,500 green spaces, parks, gardens and has approximately 438,000 trees lining its streets. The city’s most famous promenade ‘Unter den Linden’ (which literally translates to “under the Linden trees”) is named after its distinctive tree-lined features. It is a 1.5km strip that begins at the at the Brandenburg Gate and flourishes past some of the city’s most magnificent buildings such as the Humboldt University, the Staatsoper and ends at the Berliner Dom. Since Berlin’s reunification these buildings have been restored and rebuilt back up, likewise, its trees have been replanted and the area has notoriously been reclaimed as a garden, again (VisitBerlin.de, 2018).
Berlin’s famous tree-lined promenade: Unter den Linden
The replanting of trees around the city shows how the strong physical materiality and the symbolic character of these trees play an influential role in the creation and the shaping of ‘New Berlin’ (Jones and Cloke, 2002). The trees symbolise the regrowth of Berlin through the reconstruction of its tree landscape (Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, 2017). The growth of trees; from saplings into the mature trees we see today symbolises how Berlin as a city, has grown, adapted and evolved over the years from a city that was formerly divided and torn apart by the War to the unified city we see today. By growing trees in their near-original locations prior to the destruction during World War II, shows how far Berlin has come as a nation, it shows a story of self-healing and growth, moving away from a time that once was but whilst not entirely covering up its past.
Teufelsberg
Even as I stand 100 meters above the ground, at the top of the former United States’ National Security Agency Field Station it is evident that nature has a strong presence in the city. Not only can you see the expansive amount of greenery spreading across Berlin as you look out of a small peephole, but you can also see that there is a huge element of nature reclaiming the city’s landscape. The abandoned spy station at Teufelsberg is one of many examples where nature has torn through old structures to create a presence.
Alongside the great deal of health benefits associated with growing trees including; cleaning the air of pollution, moderating temperatures within the city, supporting biodiversity and proving habitats to enhance wildlife and reducing stress. The ambitious tree planting programmes in Berlin have helped bring peace and unity back, within the city. The trees of Berlin have been effective in creating spaces of peace for people in the tremendous urban city, where people can reflect and take a break from their hectic lives. In doing this, the trees have helped with the creation of ‘New Berlin’ whilst implicitly highlighting its historic, geopolitical legacy.
Suggested Further reading:
An Homage to Berlin’s Trees. (2018). [Blog] Berlin impressions. Available at: https://www.sprachreisen-community.de/en/content/photostory/homage-berlins-trees [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018].
Colomb, C. (2012). Staging the New Berlin. 1st ed. London: Routledge
Environment, Transport and Climate Protection (2017). City Trees. Available at: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/umwelt/stadtgruen/stadtbaeume/en/schutz_pflege/index.shtml%5BAccessed 19 May 2017].
Jones, O. and Cloke, P. (2002). Tree cultures: the place of trees and trees in their place. 1st ed. Oxford: Berg.
Larondelle, N. and Strohbach, M. (2016). A murmur in the trees to note: Urban legacy effects on fruit trees in Berlin, Germany. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 17, pp.11-15.
Visitberlin.de. (2018). Unter den Linden | visitBerlin.de. [online] Available at: https://www.visitberlin.de/en/unter-den-linden [Accessed 15 Apr. 2018].
Tracing Geopolitics in the urban landscape 