Bike Tour through Tempelhof - Schöneberg - Top 10 Bike Tours through Berlin

The bike tour through Tempelhof - Schöneberg collects Berlin history in a short distance: the town hall with the Freedom Bell and Kennedy's balcony, the disused gasometer from 1910, the heavy load-bearing body made of 12,000 tons of concrete, and at the end, the Tempelhofer Feld with over 300 hectares. It's also flat and completely urban.

Bike Tour through Tempelhof – Schöneberg: From the Town Hall to Tempelhofer Feld

The bike tour through Tempelhof – Schöneberg begins at Schöneberg Town Hall, designed by Jürgensen and Bachmann, where the first city assembly met on March 25, 1914. The tower is now around 70 meters high; Kurt Dübbers rebuilt it after the war. Inside hangs the Freedom Bell, cast in 1950 after the model of the Liberty Bell. Initiated by General Lucius D. Clay, it traveled through 26 US states, and approximately 16 million Americans donated for its casting. On June 26, 1963, John F. Kennedy spoke from this balcony.

The next stop is on Torgauer Straße. The Schöneberg Gasometer was built between 1908 and 1910, went into operation in 1913, and held up to 160,000 cubic meters of city gas. 78 meters high, 63 meters in inner diameter, it has been a protected monument since 1994 and was decommissioned in 1995. Only the steel framework of the container remains, in which a circular office building now stands. It was renovated until 2024, and a Sky Lounge with a rooftop terrace is located at a height of 66 meters. The interior can only be seen as part of a guided tour.

Südgelände, Heavy Load-Bearing Body and 300 Hectares of Field

Behind the railway embankment begins the Schöneberger Südgelände Nature Park, 18 hectares on an old marshalling yard, 1.7 kilometers long and a maximum of 170 meters wide. Nearly four hectares of it are a nature reserve; two barrier-free circular paths of one and 2.7 kilometers open up the area. In front of the locomotive hall, the Shakespeare Company performs outdoors. On General-Pape-Straße stands the Heavy Load-Bearing Body, a concrete cylinder 21 meters in diameter and 32 meters high, about 18 of which are underground. Weighing 12,000 tons, it was built to test the load-bearing capacity of the soil for a triumphal arch of the planned Reich capital.

At the end is the Tempelhofer Feld with over 300 hectares. Flight operations ended on October 30, 2008; the area has been open since 2010, and the 2014 referendum secured it as an open space. The airport building by Ernst Sagebiel was built between 1936 and 1939; for the airlift from June 1948, two additional runways of 1600 meters each were added. Those who turn off beforehand will find the graves of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Rudolf Virchow, and Rio Reiser in the Old St. Matthew’s Churchyard from 1855, more than 50 of which are honorary gravesites.