Berlin and Brandenburg

Berlin dream

Whenever one speaks of dreams, then this applies particularly for Germany and Berlin. Dreams are – like on trips and when playing golf – then valuable if they don’t just remain visions, but rather if they are then realised. That happened in divided Germany in the years of 1989/90. Walls fell, no-man’s lands disappeared, and people came together again who had lost each other for decades.

When the Iron Curtain came down, it likewise signalled that a new period of freedom was breaking forth. For many, this freedom equalled travelling. In no city was this more experienced and felt than in Berlin, the divided metropolis, which, beginning in 1945, had been like an island with blocked boundaries. With the fall of the wall on 9 November 1989, this city began telling time in a new manner as its most significant dates were represented by the re-unification of Germany, the decision on the capital city and the completion of the relocation of the government and parliament to the one-time historical centre and thus the heart of Berlin. Berlin again became the capital city – a function to which this city was also entitled. That also applies for golf.

Berlin – in the heart of Europe – was and has always been a central destination for travellers from throughout the world. The Potsdamer Platz [Potsdam Square] of the 1930s was once the most trafficked in Europe. The first traffic light in the world was here. After the Berlin Wall fell, the Potsdamer Platz of the year 2002 became a centre of new traffic technology - and urban planning – visions which have largely also been realised such as with the Sony Centre and Beisheim Centre.

Always worth a trip

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Berlin was the 1988 Official Cultural City in Europe – it has always been unofficially. Cultural institutions of international rank are a permanent component of everyday life in Berlin (film festivals, over 30 theatres, three opera houses). The musical offerings include everything and, with the Waldbühne [Forest Stage], Berlin has the most beautiful and largest open-air theatre in Europe. The city has a unique museum landscape with numerous archaeological and cultural history collections which document 6000 years of cultural history development from Europe to the Far East – the museum’s island is even a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

However, Berlin is also the Ku-Damm and Kiez, magnificent boulevards and shopping centres which extend for 3.5 kilometres from the Gedächtniskirche [Emperor Wilhelm’s Memorial Church] to the Halensee. There’s something for everybody there. The areas of Unter den Linden and along the Friedrichstraße have arrived. Berlin’s centre has awoken from its long, forced slumber. The city practically never sleeps and the guests of the “Spree-Athens” can fully enjoy the charm of this cosmopolitan mix.

“Berlin is always worth a visit” – this slogan has never been more true than today. The city is undergoing radical change. Berlin was already always very strong in such phases because the German capital city has always mobilised incredible power which are come from two sources: A future-orientedness and the courage to experiment.

The oldest golf adress

The oldest German golf club was founded more than one century ago in Berlin am Wannsee which nonetheless could never become of the largest ones. Only then after the Berlin Wall fell which naturally/unnaturally impeded Berlin’s golfing development and forced Berlin residents to seek their golfing happiness in groups and as travellers on West German courses – did Berlin break forth from its slumber. The Berlin Wannsee Golf and Country Club has become bigger again and a new clubhouse replaces the one which feel victim to bombs. The course is both challenging as well as a naturally beautiful. From a golfing perspective, the capital city is not just worth a trip owing to the fairways and greens along the Wannsee.

After more or less a 70-year golfing abstinence, Berlin has not only made the connection and thus opened a new chapter in its golfing history in addition to the city’s history, but rather is on its way to catching and even passing both golfing capital cities of Germany, Hamburg and Munich. Overall, top-class golf is offered in the Berlin area.

One should mention the Berlin Gatow Golf Club, which was designed by the British in 1969 and undeniably carries the signature of its English builders. It is distinguished through old groves of trees and park-like premises. The golf course was expanded in June 2001 to 18 holes, among others, through the creation of a lake with 13,000 qm of water area. The Potsdam Märkisch Golf Club, with its 18-hole course and two 9-hole courses is sporty as well as the Seddiner See Golf & Country Club in Seddin which, in addition to the uniquely beautiful lake and forest landscape and the exclusivity of the golf course and residential area, distinguishes itself above all through its top-class traffic connections to Berlin. The 27-hole course of the Kallin Golf Club lies in the middle of a pine forest and offers varied golf play, dominated by its 35,000 qm water areas. The fairways of the varied golf course of the Potsdam Golf Club run upon one-time fruit plantations and open terrain. Well-placed water hazards and sand traps always make scoring well a challenge, even for accomplished golfers.

Only 25 min. from the Ku’damm, the Berlin Stolper Heath Golf Course in northern Berlin offers top-class golf. It includes two 18-hole championship courses which were designed by Bernhard Langer. The western course has gently rolling terrain and numerous water hazards while the eastern course, with its roughs, its grassy hollows and bunkers, is patterned after a Scottish links course and demands even more precise play with its especially fast greens. One should then mention the Berlin-Scharmützelsee Sporting Club, a top-class golfing resort, even by international standards. Not far from Berlin are the 18-hole Arnold Palmer Golf Course with its many American elements and the 18-hole Nick Faldo Golf Course which reminds one of a Scottish links course. In addition, there is alternatively the Stan Eby Golf Course (18 holes) as well as the Jake McEwan Golf Course, a public 9-hole course. In addition, tennis, horseback riding and sailing are offered.

At the Berlin Motzener See Golf & Country Club, one finds contrasting optical impressions, play-related tactical variants and open, expansive views which allow the golf play to be united with the existing landscape, along and through the forest and across bunkers and lakes.

Brandenburg and Potsdam

Dreams – golfing dreams as well – from the last decades of the previous century became a reality in and for Berlin in the 20th Century – even if most of the good golf courses lie outside of the city borders in Brandenburg state, the Prussian place of origin without which Berlin would not be conceivable at all.

Since the fall of the wall, Berlin is not only a city, but rather become the city owing to above all its Brandenburg surroundings, famous for its lakes, forests and historical sites. The Mark Brandenburg, the Potsdam castles and the channels in the Spree Forest are again among the most popular excursion destinations. Potsdam is inseparably associated with Prussia and its kings who characterised the residence city permanently. Today, the city is – not least of all thanks to its earlier royal promotion – one of the most important cultural and art sites of Germany. Sanssouci Castle (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site) is the centre of a wondrously beautiful park along the western edge of the inner city. Built based upon the drawings of Friedrich II the Great, it is considered to be among the best which the German Rococo produced.