We have been out and about, tracking down exceptional locations for your next event in Berlin. This time our BCO tour of discovery took us through the far east – from Marzahn-Hellersdorf to Lichtenberg.
An exceptional event starts with an exceptional location. To keep you up to date on the latest on the event map, the BCO team regularly heads off through Berlin’s neighbourhoods or explores the green suburbs to find (new) event venues for conventions, congresses , meetings, events and incentives. This time we explored the boroughs of Marzahn- Hellersdorf and Lichtenberg by bike. On our tour through the eastern suburbs of Berlin, we made some amazing discoveries and found some surprising gems ...
The Gardens of the World is a spreading landscaped park – so large that we spent over an hour there and only saw a third of everything on offer. “And not even that much,” added Beate Reuber, Senior Park Manager at Gardens of the World, enthusing over all the magnificent sites in this expansive green area including, for example, the Wolke Sieben (Cloud Seven) café and panoramic viewing platform, the rose garden with its traditional varieties, the Balinese Garden, or the pavilion for the Japanese tea ceremony.
Combined with all with those heavenly scents, this all sounds like paradise – and it certainly is! From the visitor centre to the event rooms to hire such as the Tropical Hall or the Oriental Garden with a cedar wood room to the open-air stage – everywhere is light and bright, green and peaceful. And whatever season of the year, the Gardens of the World offers attractive vistas wherever you look, an ideal atmosphere for events, especially for workshops and incentives in natural surroundings. We really didn’t want to cycle off – and we didn’t have to. After all, the Gardens of the World also has a panoramic cable car!
As we cycled through an estate of prefabricated concrete-slab apartment blocks, we could hardly believe our eyes. Suddenly, we came on an old brick-built complex, trees hung with coloured lanterns, and a garden with sculptures by artists once in the Tacheles arts centre in Mitte. You could easily be forgiven for wondering if this is still Marzahn, but the answer is ‘Yes, it is!’.
This contrast is exactly what makes the Alte Börse (Old Exchange) so immediately appealing for events. But there is one problem – we couldn’t decide which was our favourite among the many lovingly restored rooms on this spreading 2000 sq. metres of event area. Built around 1903 as the site of Germany’s largest livestock market, today the complex comprises three heritage buildings for conferences and congresses, meetings and incentives, or as co-working spaces – including accommodation for guests. From the old Exchange Floor (for up to 300 people) to the Coachmen Parlour or a get-together location in the garden – all the buildings and rooms offer an attractive mix of old and new combined with modern conference technologies. We’d have been quite happy to move in straightaway!
Berlin has so many unusual sites to offer, but this must rank on everyone’s list – a former boiler house, now a museum, on a hospital complex! Today a heritage site, the Herzberge Boiler House Museum displays historic boilers in their original locations, a small exhibition of historical medical instruments, and shows of modern contemporary art. The hospital, opened in 1893, later became renowned as a mental institution during the days of East Berlin.
Nowadays, the museum is managed by a not-for-profit association dedicated to preserving this fascinating industrial heritage location and hiring out rooms for events. Given its location, this venue is especially interesting for medical conferences or health sector events – especially since, as House 29, the historic boiler house is still under the umbrella of the KEH (Königin Elisabeth Herzberge) hospital.
This unique heritage building also has something for art fans as well – temporary exhibitions by emerging Berlin artists in the Blankenstein Hall and the Auditorium in this former boiler house with space for up to 300 people.
Besonders reizvoll ist die Location vor allem auch für Medizinkongresse oder Events der Gesundheitsbranche: Als Haus 29 gehört das Kesselhaus heute zum Krankenhausbetrieb des Evangelischen Krankenhauses Königin Elisabeth Herzberge (KEH).
Aber auch Kunstliebhaber kommen in dem weltweit einmaligen Denkmal auf ihre Kosten: Im Blankensteinsaal und im Theatersaal des einstigen Heizhauses für bis zu 300 Personen finden wechselnde Ausstellungen aufstrebender Berliner Künstler statt.
Admittedly, when thinking of ‘cool’ locations, an old GDR site for vehicle fleet parking and maintenance on Lichtenberg’s industrial park is not likely to spring to mind.
Yet the Fahrbereitschaft is not just oddly cool, but a bit more besides. Aside from such businesses as a car-body shop and a tyre dealer, the site is also home to a sound studio and a film studio, as well as a dance school, advertising agency, fashion producers and numerous contemporary artists – inspired by the authentic ambience of the old GDR-style buildings and the historic garages. We were also immediately taken with the unique charm of this vast setting – and at 18000 sq. metres, it certainly deserves the word. As an authentic backdrop, this venue also attracts film crews and appears regularly in, not least, the successful German series Berlin Weißensee. The hall in the main building, complete with that GDR-interior-design feel, has space for events of up to 140 people.
At the latest while viewing our last location, we had the feeling we’d somehow lost our way and long left the familiar environs of Berlin. In fact, the Dong-Xuan Center in Berlin’s Lichtenberg district is just 5km from Alexanderplatz, but when you enter the site, you seem to be transported to another world. Not only is the Dong-Xuan Center a hot tip for the best Vietnamese food in town, but its 80,000 square metres is also a flourishing home to Asian food markets, companies and businesses. In other words – an authentic touch of the Far Eastern lifestyle, right in the heart of Berlin.
Yet the history of the site itself is intimately connected with Berlin’s industrial age. As early as 1872, Siemens built a factory here to make alcohol measurement instruments. Much later, in the years of East Germany, this was the site of the state-owned Elektrokohle Lichtenberg production plant. Finally, after the Wall came down, the Vietnamese wholesale market moved into new halls here – with Germany’s largest private solar power plant on the roofs! And what about the future? On the surrounding site, a new block with apartments and event rooms is just being built. In 2020, we’ll be back for the opening – and another delicious Vietnamese soup. Although just for the soup, the Dong-Xuan Center is well worth a visit at any time!
Are you looking for a special hotel, the right service partner or an event location in Berlin with a special flair?
Then take a moment to browse our Meeting Guide Berlin.
From incentives to conferences, meetings and corporate events – we’ll be happy to share our expertise to help you with your planning!
Just contact us: convention@visitBerlin.de. We’ll be glad to help you with your organisation.
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