Der Blumenstand

A shop in the listed Chamissokiez

Der Blumenstand has its retail shop on Fürbringerstraße in Chamissokiez, on the northern edge of Bergmannkiez. The street has borne its name since 1874 after Moritz Fürbringer, who organized the municipal school system as Berlin’s city school councilor from 1852 and is buried in the cemetery on Bergmannstraße. The surrounding quarter was built from 1877 during the Gründerzeit and has largely survived war, clear-cutting redevelopment, and removal of stucco; today, the Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance facades, along with the square, are listed as historical monuments, and the original gas lanterns are still burning. Chamissoplatz itself was designed according to plans by garden director Hermann Mächtig and named in 1890 after the naturalist and poet Adelbert von Chamisso. The area is accessible via Mehringdamm subway stations with lines U6 and U7 and Gneisenaustraße with U7, as well as bus lines M41, 140, and 248. The fact that a flower shop is located precisely here suits the neighborhood: the square was intended as a green area from the beginning, and the market on it has been part of the neighborhood’s weekly rhythm for decades.

Own cultivation in Brandenburg instead of wholesale

What distinguishes Der Blumenstand from other shops is not found in the shop, but grows sixty kilometers south of it. Christoph and Ulrike Lenzen, both trained florists, cultivate their own flowers, organically certified, on approximately 6,000 square meters near Kloster Zinna, close to Jüterbog. There, about 150 varieties of cut flowers are grown, along with around one hundred varieties of potted, balcony, and garden plants, as well as herbs. The reason for this is artisanal: anyone who only offers the usual wholesale assortment can only show a small fraction of the diversity of forms and colors that nature provides. Accordingly, the selection is reassembled every day, depending on what has just been cut. Sales are made at three locations in the district: in their own shop, at a stall in Markthalle Neun on Eisenbahnstraße, and at the Ökomarkt (eco-market) on Chamissoplatz, which has brought together producers from Berlin and Brandenburg for more than thirty years. This makes Der Blumenstand one of the few businesses in the city where cultivation, arranging, and sales are all handled by one entity.