Köpenick Altstadt

Many of the cobblestone streets in Köpenick’s Altstadt still follow their original, medieval layout. To walk there from the Köpenick S-Bahn station, follow Borgmannstrasse two blocks south to Mandrellaplatz, site of the imposing Amtsgericht (municipal court). It houses a small memorial exhibit (admission free; 10am-6pm Thu) for the victims of a brutal Nazi crackdown against local communists between 21 and 26 June 1933. Around 90 people were killed, most of them in the court prison itself, during what went down in history as Köpenicker Blutwoche (Bloody Week). The entrance is via the courtyard at Puchanstrasse 12. The victims were raised to martyr status in the GDR’s day and given a monument on the Platz des 23 April, a riverside square about 750m south of the courthouse (via Puchanstrasse). The name of the square, by the way, refers to the date in 1945 when the Red Army arrived in Köpenick. From the square it’s just a short walk south via Lindenstrasse to the Altstadt proper across the Dammbrücke. Lindenstrasse turns into Strasse Alt-Köpenick, a historic street lined with baroque beauties and the neo-Gothic 1904 town hall.