Berlin Botanic Garden

The garden moved to Dahlem between 1897 and 1910 and covers about forty-three hectares with around twenty thousand plant species, making it one of the three or four largest botanic gardens in the world. The Grosses Tropenhaus of 1907, sixty metres long and about twenty-five high, is among the largest glasshouses anywhere and was built without internal columns using a steel frame; it holds a giant bamboo and a rainforest planting. The Arboretum and the geographical section arrange plants by region rather than by family, with sections representing the Alps, the Caucasus and other ranges as landscape rather than beds. A herbarium and museum sit alongside.

History

In 1573, under Elector John George, the first notable plant collection was made for the electoral garden, and in 1679 a hops garden was laid out on Potsdamer Strasse in Schöneberg, on the site of today's Kleistpark, which grew into the botanical garden; Carl Ludwig Willdenow had it assigned to the Berlin university in 1809. A move was first proposed in 1888, and the new garden at Dahlem was built between 1897 and 1910 under the architect Adolf Engler, covering 42 hectares with over 20,000 plant species; its best-known building is the Great Tropical Greenhouse, home to a giant bamboo (Wikipedia, Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum).

The main sights

• The great tropical house - a column-free 1907 glasshouse sixty metres long.
• The geographical sections - plants arranged by region as landscapes.
• The species count - around twenty thousand species on forty-three hectares.
• The botanical museum - the only museum of its kind in central Europe.

When to go

April to October for the outdoor sections; the glasshouses make winter visits worthwhile. Closing times change monthly with daylight. It is large and needs hours.

Before you go

The site is very large with a lot of walking. Some glasshouses close in rotation for restoration. It is a research garden, labelled accordingly.

Nearby

Dahlem's museums are close; central Berlin lies northeast.

Key facts