Berlin's great green expanse is a former private hunting ground and its name translates as 'animal park', all rather appropriate given that gays have colonised certain areas of the Tiergarten for communing with nature, sunbathing — clothed or not — and cruising. A mass of avenues, pathways, lawns, meadows, ponds and flowerbeds, the near-520-acre park (slightly bigger to London's Hyde Park) stretches from Brandenburg Gate in the east to Zoo S-Bahn/U-Bahn station in the...
Berlin's great green expanse is a former private hunting ground and its name translates as 'animal park', all rather appropriate given that gays have colonised certain areas of the Tiergarten for communing with nature, sunbathing — clothed or not — and cruising. A mass of avenues, pathways, lawns, meadows, ponds and flowerbeds, the near-520-acre park (slightly bigger to London's Hyde Park) stretches from Brandenburg Gate in the east to Zoo S-Bahn/U-Bahn station in the west and is located just north of gay Schöneberg. How to find the three many gay zones of the Tiergarten: halfway down and immediately west of the Hofjägerallee — which is the road running south from the Siegessäule (Victory Column) — you'll find an oasis of gay sunbathers, young and old, while just south of that is a lovely and quite gay patch for relaxing and ever so casual cruising. Further to the west, between the pond and the road called Straße des 17. Juni, you'll come to the full-on gay cruising area. This would be easier to get to if the sadly now-closed-off footbridge Löwenbrücke were reopened. Tasty and inexpensive food can be had at the indoor/outdoor Schleusenkrug [see entry], located at the very west of the Tiergarten, just near Zoo. And at the far eastern end of the park, by Ebertstraße, you'll find a concrete memorial designed by Scandanavian artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, dedicated to homosexuals persecuted under Nazism.