The best family-friendly hikes and walks in Forst Zinna-Jüterbog-Keilberg

The two lakes south of Frankenfelde were created in 2002 during the dredging as a compensatory and replacement measure for the construction of the new B 101.

Beautifully idyllic gravel pit lake located on the former military training area. Pure relaxation and not far away is the small gravel pit lake, which almost reaches the roadside, but is hardly recognizable. The two lakes south of Frankenfelde were created in 2002 during dredging as a compensatory and replacement measure for the construction of the new B 101.

Three kilometers north of the Jüterbog district of Kloster Zinna is the former military area Forst Zinna, which is bordered on the east by the course of the Nuthe and on the west by the new federal highway 101 and the Berlin-Halle railway line. The former military training area Jüterbog (historical Jüterbog shooting range) extends to the west and beyond the railway line. In 1934, as part of German rearmament, another military camp was set up on the edge of the training area. In addition to the existing camps "Old Camp" and "New Camp", the new military area was given the name "Camp III" in chronological order. A provision store and a train station were installed next to the troop camp. Source https://www.rottenplaces.de/main/panzerkaserne-forst-zinna-34431/

... The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) claimed from 1947 - according to a decision - some areas of the area for the founded German Administrative Academy (DVA) "Walter Ulbricht". This included cinema and theater halls, restaurant rooms, sports facilities in a pleasing architecture to ensure ideal academy conditions. The facility was intended to train the political elites for the gradual self-government of the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR, which was founded in 1949. Important artists were engaged for the academy and the expansion of the facility, including the Yugoslavian architect Selman Selmanagić (1905-1986), a representative of the Dessau Bauhaus, who designed the furniture for the administration academy in Forst Zinna in 1947. After the administration academy moved to Potsdam-Babelsberg, the Soviet army claimed the area again and built a new facility for a construction battalion. A self-sufficient military area was created, with several administration buildings, farm buildings, a cinema and a zoo. Although Forst Zinna still has numerous buildings on a huge area, most of the military installations and buildings were already removed as part of the conversion. In 2007, demolition work began on the site. In the future, there are plans to completely unseal the area and renaturalize it – potential commercial areas should be kept free. The former provision store from the Wehrmacht era – consisting of two storage buildings, a warehouse, a gatehouse and a residential building – is a listed building. Source http://www.rottenplaces.de/main/panzerkaserne-forst-zinna-34431/

Three kilometers north of the Jüterbog district of Kloster Zinna is the former military area Forst Zinna, which is bordered on the east by the course of the Nuthe and on the west by the new federal highway 101 and the Berlin-Halle railway line. The former military training area Jüterbog (historical Jüterbog shooting range) extends to the west and beyond the railway line. In 1934, as part of German rearmament, another military camp was set up on the edge of the training area. In addition to the existing camps "Old Camp" and "New Camp", the new military area was given the name "Camp III" in chronological order. A provision store and a train station were installed next to the troop camp. According to several sources, the Schutzstaffel (SS) was the first user of the area. The Jüterbog artillery school used the camp to set up observation departments for the artillery troops from 1935. The Lehrstab T, which trained drivers for tracked vehicles, was also stationed here from 1949. "Lager III" was supplemented by a preparation department for the assault gun developed in Jüterbog (full-track armored vehicles of the assault artillery equipped with an artillery gun). Until the end of the Nazi dictatorship, parts of the RAD Infantry Division "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" stationed in Jüterbog were quartered on the site. After the end of the Second World War, the Soviet occupying power operated a DP camp (DP = Displaced Persons) on the former Wehrmacht military premises, an internment camp in which members of different countries were collected, often against their will, and then deported to their countries of origin... Source http://www.rottenplaces.de/main/panzerkaserne-forst-zinna-34431/

The source of the Pfefferfliess is approx. 100 m away

You need to be in good physical condition to get here, because the sandy path to get there is very strenuous. But once you get there, the view is rewarding and the silence is glorious. There are no benches to rest, take enough water with you.

The Jüterbog Wilderness Area was used for military purposes for over 150 years. What remained was a huge, contiguous area that is uninhabited and without roads. Today it is a nature reserve and offers a habitat for rare species such as wolves, Bechstein's bats, and hoopoes. The landscape diversity in the wilderness area ranges from sand dunes, heathland, and pioneer forests in the central area to wetlands and older forests in the peripheral zones. On this trail, you can discover how nature can develop dynamically without human intervention. The sparse sandy soils are prepared by grasses, mosses, and lichens. Gradually, heathland spreads over the barren ground, providing a habitat for many rare insect and bird species. Without further disturbance, a semi-open landscape can develop, and it doesn't take long for the first small pioneer trees to settle among the heathland. Over the years, the trees grow steadily larger, so that the primeval forests of tomorrow are slowly developing in the wilderness area. In the wilderness areas, development is never complete. Storms, for example, create open spaces in different places, where natural growth begins anew. This is what constitutes the special character of wilderness.