In Hermsdorf, you can include nature trails and district history in your travel plans. Wetlands, boardwalks and waterbirds shape the landscape around Tegeler Fließ and Hermsdorfer See, while the Reinickendorf Museum and the village church offer other ways to explore the past. When planning your outings, it is worth first deciding what you would most like to focus on: green spaces, cultural history or a combination of both. The options vary in landscape, route type and content.
Wetlands, not a swimming trip
At the wetland around Hermsdorfer See, two bridges allow visitors to cross while protecting the natural environment. They also offer an opportunity to observe nature and the waterbirds that live there. Hermsdorfer See is not suitable for swimming. So if you are planning an outing by the water, the focus here is on wetlands and wildlife watching, not a day of swimming.
Between Hermsdorf and Lübars, sections of the path along Tegeler Fließ pass over boardwalks through the stream floodplain and marshland. Eichwerdersteg is designed as a nature trail and has information panels. This section therefore offers both distinctive scenery and explanations about the nature trail. The combination of floodplain, boardwalks and information panels gives the route a different character from a walk focused solely on the lake.
A circular walk or a longer route
A five-kilometre circular hiking trail runs through the marshland around Hermsdorfer See and past former passageways. For a longer route, there is the 34-kilometre Barnimer Dörferweg. It connects the historic village centres of Tegel, Hermsdorf, Lübars, Blankenfelde, Karow and Ahrensfelde in Berlin’s Barnim district. The route lengths and formats help with planning: one is a loop through the marshland, while the other runs between several historic village centres.
The distances given indicate the route length, not walking time. For practical planning, you can therefore consider the route and the time you have available separately. For the longer route, it is also advisable to check the seasonal information before setting out.
Local and district history
The Reinickendorf Museum is housed in an old primary school in Alt-Hermsdorf. Its permanent exhibition covers the district’s history and the everyday culture of earlier times, including traditional crafts and rural and urban life around 1900. It also introduces notable people from Reinickendorf in the fields of art, literature and history. The topics range from everyday life in earlier times to individual notable figures.
The museum grounds include a reconstructed Germanic farmstead and a lapidarium. Another local landmark is Hermsdorf Village Church at Almutstraße 7, which is a protected historic building. The museum and church offer different ways to explore local and district history: an exhibition covering several subject areas and a protected historic building. If you plan your stay around these interests, you can include cultural history as a separate part of your trip alongside the nature trails.
Berlin as the wider destination
The wider destination of Berlin offers other things to explore. Tiergarten is Berlin’s largest and most visited inner-city park, and is ideal for walks, outdoor activities and picnics. Tempelhofer Feld is a large public park where people picnic, sunbathe and play sports. Berlin’s cultural and historic sites also include Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Brandenburg Gate, built in 1791 and regarded as a symbol of German reunification. These attractions can help inform your choice of Berlin as the wider destination; Hermsdorf’s local highlights remain its wetlands and district history.
Discover more destinations: Berlin-Reinickendorf, Marienfelde, Kladow, Wannsee, Tiergarten, Friedrichshain, Berlin-Neukölln, Schöneberg.
Back to the wider travel overview: Berlin.
