The wonderful world of Mauerpark

Forget the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate or the Pergamon museum, Berlin's top attraction on a Sunday is the one and only Mauerpark! All year round huge crowds of locals and tourists flock on a Sunday morning (not too early mind - this is Berlin) or afternoon to this once abandoned piece of land divided by the Berlin Wall.
 

Mauerpark Karaoke

The Mauerpark caters for all tastes. Fancy some live music? Care to spend a few hours browsing the flea market stalls selling everything from GDR furniture and paraphernalia, to jewellery and clothes made by local designers? Or perhaps you would like to try out your singing talents in front of hundreds of cheering people at the karaoke? Then head to the Mauerpark! Of course there is also a good selection of food and drinks available. The Schoenwetter beach bar and the Mauersegler bier garden are always a good choice for chilling out on a Sunday afternoon.
 

The Mauerpark is a great place to try out your artistic talents: be it wall spraying, juggling, tightrope walking or breakdancing. It's also a good place for entrepreneurs - be it karaoke entertainers, Pfand  (deposit) bottle collectors or improvised bakers. The popularity of the Mauerpark has reached unprecedented levels. It's also a good place to keep fit: you can play boules, basketball, jog, cycle, dance... the list is endless.  The number of visitors has grown exponentially over the years. It's mentioned in every respectable guidebook, blog or travel web site. Alas, the Mauerpark as many other unique Berlin attractions is at risk!
There are plans to build hotels, houses, businesses threatening the survival of the Mauerpark as we all know it.
 

The mayor of Berlin once famously said that Berlin is “arm aber sexy”, which translates as “poor but sexy”.  Whatever happens I cannot believe that the city of Berlin will destroy one of its most important attractions to make way for some rich but uncool investors.

This post was written in April 2012, but never found its way onto the Blog.  Two years later nothing (or very little) has changed.  I recently met a friend to spend a couple of hours at the Mauerpark on a Sunday afternoon leaving Papa and son to play football in a nearby park.  The place was so busy that although we had previously arranged to meet by the entrance at Eberswalder Strasse it took us 40 minutes to find each other! The mobile phone networks were overloaded so we couldn’t call or text either. This just shows that the Mauerpark is still extremely popular and attracting very large crowds.  The future of the park is still uncertain, as plans keep changing.  However, I don’t think there is any danger that the Mauerpark and its colourful crowd will disappear any time soon.