The Murellenberge, the Murellenschlucht and the Schanzenwald are a hilly landscape formed during the Weichselian Ice Age in the Berlin district of Ruhleben in the Westend part of the District of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The area is located to the west of the Olympic site. The largest part of the upslope and terminal moraine landscape is designated as nature reserve Murellenschlucht und Schanzenwald, which is part of the biotope network Fließwiese Ruhleben, Tiefwerder Wiesen and Grunewald. About 1.5 kilometers northeast of the area (from Murellenberg) is the natural monument Murellenteich.
The Murellenberge (often referred to as 'Murellenberg', formerly: Morellenberge) are part of the Teltownordband, which forms the northernmost spur of the Teltow plateau to the Berliner Urstromtal. The connection of the original natural area was largely lost due to urban development. The up to 62 meter high mountains and the up to 30 meter incised basin have a diverse and endangered flora and fauna, especially in their dry grassland areas. Used as a military and police area for over 150 years, the forest stands in the Schanzenwald were able to develop almost undisturbed. The Waldbühne was built in the eastern part of the ravine in 1936 under the direction of the architect Werner March. The National Socialists set up an execution site in the mountains for deserters and so-called "wehrkraftzersetzer". The Installation Memorial to the Murdered by Nazi Military Justice on the Murellenberg by the artist Patricia Pisani from 2002 commemorates the victims.
Location of the area and etymology The Hügelgebiet, which was originally much more extensive and is now partly urbanized, extends to the area where the Spree flows into the Havel. Beyond today's nature reserve, it includes a police training area and the Ruhleben Cemetery to the north. The part of the Schanzenwald to the west of the police area, which was used for military purposes for a long time, is now largely accessible again and part of the nature reserve. The embankment of the Spandau suburban railroad, which was built in 1907, borders the area to the west. The railroad line also forms the border between the districts of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Spandau. To the south and east, the Murellenschlucht gorge and its continuation in the Ruhleben meadow border the site. To the north, the area is bordered by the Hempelsteig, the course of which roughly follows the Elsgraben, which once separated the area and was filled in.
The name element Murellen or formerly Morellen is traced back to the Morelle (= soft cherry) by the Brandenburg Name Book.Brandenburgisches Namenbuch. Teil 10. Die Gewässernamen Brandenburgs.Founded by Gerhard Schlimpert, edited by Reinhard E. Fischer. Edited by K. Gutschmidt, H. Schmidt, T. Witkowski. Berliner Beiträge zur Namenforschung on behalf of the Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas e. V. Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, Weimar 1996, ISBN 3-7400-1001-0, p. 187 (see reference to the field name Murellenberg in the entry for Morellgraben) An encyclopaedia of Berlin's street names also contains an entry under Murellenweg, which leads from the Ruhleben meadow to the Ruhleben housing estate: "Murellen, overgrown cherries that gave the Murellenberge their name."Klaus Katzer: Berlins Straßennamen. Haude und Spener, Berlin 1982, p. 150. ISBN 3-7759-0256-2 A derivation from moraine, which refers to the geological structure of the area, cannot be verified.
Geology and climate
North band of the Teltow
Geologically, the Murellenberge and the Grunewald belong to the Teltow plateau, which ends to the west in the Havel lowlands and to the north in the Berlin glacial valley, through which the Spree flows. The Havel separates the soft glacial Teltow plateau from the Nauener Platte to the northwest with Gatow and parts of Wilhelmstadt. The Spreeniederung separates the plateau from the Barnim. While the ground moraine plateau of the Teltow is largely shallow and dominated by boulder clay, the Grunewald is dominated by exceptionally thick (20 meters and more) meltwater sands from the advance phase of the inland ice. In the area around Schildhorn, the Pichelsberg and the Murellenberge, the advancing ice has also severely compressed (disturbed) the sands, so that a relief of a thrust/terminal moraine determines the landscape here. The northern edge of the Teltow runs northwards from the Murellenberge along the Murellenschlucht gorge and turns north-east shortly after reaching the Ruhleben meadow. It runs around the Murellenteich pond and continues over the former Spandauer Spitze at the former Spandauer Bock and the Ruhwaldpark to the steep slope above the Fürstenbrunn mineral water spring. At this point, south of today's Rohrdammbrücke, the Teltow plateau reaches its northernmost point. The Teltowkante then bends to the southeast along the Schlossgarten Charlottenburg.Planwerk Westraum Berlin. Ziele, Strategien und landschaftsplanerisches Leitbild. (Memento from January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive) (PDF; 1.4 MB) see literature, graphic on the Teltowkante, p. 12, Senate Department for Urban Developmenta
Today's dry valley Murellen Gorge is a former dead ice channel that cuts up to 30 meters deep into the hilly landscape. The gorge, which is up to 100 meters wide, runs along the southern edge of the entire area and separated the Murellenberge from the Pichelsberg,Pichelsberg. In: District encyclopedia Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf on berlin.de which, like the Murellenberge, has a height of 62 meters and is almost completely built over today. To the west, the Drainage channel originally stretched across the Havel valley arm Hohler Weg to the Stößensee. In the other direction, it bends to the north and continues in the Verlandungsmoor and nature conservation and Natura 2000 area Fließwiese Ruhleben. The Schanzenwald forest to the northwest is already part of the valley sand area of the Spreeniederung in the Urstromtal.Naturschutzgebiet Murellenschlucht und Schanzenwald. In: Senate Administration [...] (see literature)
Boulders
Numerous erratic boulders bear witness to the landscape-shaping power of the ice in the Murellenberge. Two of the erratic blocks are protected as natural monuments (NDM) under protection:Verordnung zum Schutz von Naturdenkmalen in Berlin, vom 2. März 1993 (mit Ergänzungen, Stand August 2002) (PDF; 734 kB), Senate Department for Urban Development; for both boulders see p. 43 one is in the Murellen Gorge (NDM VII-6F), the other (NDM VII-5F) was moved from the Murellen Gorge to the meadow at the southern exit of the Ruhleben subway station in 1968. While the boulders of the gorge and the mountains are otherwise mainly made of granite, the stone at the station is made of gray, medium-grained sandstone (so-called lignite quartzite). As debris made of this soft material usually has a maximum head size after drifting from Scandinavia, the approximately 1.2 m3 boulder cannot have traveled such a long way, unlike granite or gneiss boulders. Experts therefore suspect the region around Stettin or Bad Freienwalde as the place of origin. Its dimensions are 1 m × 1 m × 1.2 m and those of the boulder in the ravine, which is probably made of biotite gneiss or alkali granite, 1.5 m × 1.5 m × 1 m.Hainer Weißpflug: Berliner Denkmale der Natur. Eine topographische und geschichtliche Studie. Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89542-096-4, p. 258f.Findlinge in Berlin. Ed.: Landesstelle für Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege in Berlin, Verlag Ihring, Berlin 1970, p. 10.
Clima The Murellenberge and the Schanzenwald are located in a temperate climate zone in the transition area from the atlantic climate Northern/Western Europe to the continental climate Eastern Europe. The climate corresponds to that of the outskirts of Berlin. This includes parts of the Murellen Gorge, which is said to have once been called the Kuhle Grund,Forst Grunewald (Memento from May 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive) Murellenberg & Murellenschlucht. to one of the inner-city "cold islands".
Natural development and urban interventions Due to increasing development, the landscape of the Murellenberge, which was shaped by the Ice Age, has lost its connection to the surrounding landscape and "its original character in many areas" over the last century.Naturschutz- und NATURA 2000-Gebiet Fließwiese Ruhleben. In: Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung Berlin: natürlich Berlin! Naturschutz- und NATURA 2000-Gebiete in Berlin. Verlag Natur & Text, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-9810058-3-7, p. 124.
Lost connection to the Grunewald (south)
The northern boundary of the Grunewald forest and landscape area is now generally drawn along Heerstraße, so that the Murellenberge mountains to the north of the road are excluded from Grunewald. In the past, the mountains, the ravine and the Schanzenwald belonged to the forest or the Teltower Heide and Spandower Heide, as the Grunewald was previously known. The Prussian Kartenaufnahme of 1835 describes the Murellenschlucht as a valley within the Spandauer Heide. The separation of the Murellenberge from today's Grunewald landscape area took place from 1907 with the construction of the Grunewald Racecourse and the German Stadium on former Grunewald land and the simultaneous construction of the Heerstraße and the Spandauer Vorortbahn, which cut through the extensive natural area of the Grunewald from west to east. Further construction for the Olympic Games 1936, especially in the area of Glockenturmstraße, narrowed the forest connection. With the construction of the high-rise housing estate on Angerburger Allee in the 1960s, the direct green connection between the Murellenberge/Schanzenwald area and the Grunewald was finally lost. However, the area is still assigned to the Grunewald by the forestry office, as it belongs to the Saubucht forestry district.
As part of the construction work for the 1936 Summer Games, the eastern part of the Murellenschlucht was built under the direction of Werner March according to plans by Conrad HeidenreichErika Schachinger: Conrad Heidenreich und Paul Michel. Die Architekten des Weinhauses Huth. In: Announcements of the Association for the History of Berlin, Issue 4, April 1998 diegeschichteberlins.de the Waldbühne, an open-air stage with space for 22,000 spectators. The construction in the form of a natural basin meant a considerable intervention in the natural environment, even if the natural slopes of the Murellenberge were largely retained. The southern slope and parts of the ravine were also filled with rubble between 1948 and 1950.Angela M. Arnold, Gabriele von Griesheim: Trümmer, Bahnen und Bezirke, Selbstverlag, Berlin 2002, S. 88, ISBN 3-00-009839-9 Today, the new ice rink and the central buildings of the natural gas storage facility below stand on the embankment. Berlin of Gasag.Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Kiezspaziergang am 11. Mai 2002 mit Sozial- und Umweltstadträtin Martina Schmiedhofer: Vom S-Bhf Pichelsberg durch die Murellenschlucht bis zum U-Bhf RuhlebenGASAG (Memento from May 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive) Erdgasspeicher BerlinA. Schneider, M. Stark, W. Littmann: Erdgasspeicher Berlin – Methoden der Betriebsführung. In: Erdöl Gas Kohle. Urban-Verlag, Hamburg/Vienna, November 1, 2011, archived from the original (no longer available online) on June 13, 2021; retrieved December 30, 2019.
Former northern boundary of Elsgraben