Berlin - Botanic Gardens

(Local Name: Botanischer Garten) The Berlin Botanic Gardens, in the Steglitz district, were originally the kitchen and herb garden for the Royal Palace in the Lustgarten. In 1679, on the instructions of the Grand Elector, a "specimen garden" was laid out in Schöneberg, in what is now the Kleistpark. Over the years this developed into Botanic Gardens, which were then transferred to Dahlem towards the end of the 19th C. Between 1899 and 1910 the German botanist Adolf Engler (1844-1930; his gravestone can be seen to the left of the main pathway) created one of the largest and most important botanic gardens in the world.

Within their 43 ha/104 ac some 18,000 different species of plants are grouped on scientific principles. There are, for example, a series of open beds arranged geographically (13 ha/32 ac), a wooded area (arboretum, 14 ha/34 ac; about 2,200 species of trees and shrubs), a section devoted to useful and medicinal plants, 16 hothouses for plants from tropical and subtropical areas (the Great Tropical House itself is 60 m/200ft long, 30 m/100ft wide and 25 m/83ft high) with a 480 sq. m/574 sq. yd pond forming the centerpiece of the biotope for marine and marsh plants, the Electoral Garden with 17th C. garden greenery together with one where blind people can detect plants by smell and touch.

Apart from their educational and research value, the Botanic Gardens are a very popular place of recreation for the people of Berlin. A garden restaurant near the southern entrance ("Unter den Eichen" - Under the Oaks) is open in the summer.