Freundschaftsinsel

The Freundschaftsinsel lies in the centre of Potsdam, a six-and-a-half-hectare island in the Havel. Two arms of the river, the Alte Fahrt and the Neue Fahrt, wrap around it, with the old town close by. On the western edge, the Lange Brücke links the historic core with the Teltower Vorstadt and Babelsberg.

Between 1937 and 1940, Karl Foerster and Hermann Mattern laid out display, teaching and trial gardens for hardy perennials, ferns and grasses. The planting today runs to more than 1,200 perennial varieties, 100 roses and over 250 irises in a water garden. Two gatehouses by Otto von Estorff mark the garden entrance. Around 25 sculptures stand scattered across the island, most of them from the DDR era. An open-air stage built in 1973, a playground and a café complete the picture. The island worked for a living before any of this: sheds stored sugar for a factory founded in 1826. In the late nineteenth century, gardens and boatyards turned it into a place for outings. The Second World War left it heavily damaged, and redesigns in the 1950s and 1970s restored the grounds.

The Brandenburg Art Association Potsdam shows its work in an exhibition pavilion, and the site has carried protected status since 1977. In the summer months you can hire a boat on the Alte Fahrt and look back at the island from the water.