Friedrichshain District, Berlin

Situated east of Friedrichshain Public Park in Berlin, the popular SEZ Sports and Health Center was opened on March 20, 1981. Showing the influence of Swedish and (at the time) West German architects, the skillfully designed complex with its huge areas of glass is most impressive. It aims to provide both health and other leisure facilities.The actual sports facilities are on the second and third levels. The large swimming hall is particularly attractive. There is a total water area of 1,795 sq.m/19,300 sq.ft, divided into several pools (swimming pool, diving pool, pool for the disabled, cascade and wave pool) and a channel leads to the open air pool.There is also a sauna and a solarium. The sports hall is divided into a body-building studio, a keep-fit room and a fitness-testing and conditioning room, as well as a gymnasium.There are also roller-skating and ice-skating rinks ("Polarium"), a bowling-alley with sixteen lanes, a foyer, club room and seven guest rooms. An extensive lawned leisure park surrounds the complex. It covers over 5 hectares/12.5 acres, with a number of sports fields and games areas (tennis, various ball games, chess, etc.)

The popular Friedrichshain public park in Berlin lies in the north of the district of the same name. As long ago as 1840 the municipal authorities decided to construct a park here, and it took shape during the second half of the 19th C. After the Second World War the 52 hectare/130 acre park had to be laid out afresh. The two hills were formed by pouring rubble over two former air-raid bunkers (popularly known as "Mont Klamott" or "Rubbish Mountain"; beautiful panoramic views).At the western entrance near the Königstor (Royal gate) stands the Fairy Tale Fountain with figures taken from Grimms' fairy tales. In the northern half of the park there is a leisure center, and in the eastern part an open-air stage with seats for 3,000 patrons.There are also several political memorials, such as the graveyard in the south on Landsberger Allee for those revolutionaries who perished in the 1848 Revolution.On the eastern side of the park can be found the city's first municipal hospital, the Friedrichshain Municipal Hospital, built in 1868-77.Behind it, in the Neuer Hain (New Grove), as it is known, is the Karl-Friedrich-Friesen Swimming Stadium (seating for 8,000 spectators) and the Sport and Health Center.