At Berlin in August 2022, I continued visiting spots that I so far have known only from the metro or S-Bahn stations. I have already talked about the Rüdesheimer Platz. Today, I will explore the Heidelberger Platz.

 

Beautiful medieval Heidelberg presented at the metro station of U3

Heidelberg has one of the most beautiful medieval city centres of Germany, with the castle ruin above it. The station “Heidelberger Platz” of metro U3 presents photos of Heidelberg and its romantic castle ruin, such as this one. 

 

The castle of Heidelberg, elegant Renaissance, was the residence of the Electors of the Palatinate (Kurfürsten von der Pfalz). On the photo, we see the ruins of the belfry, flanked by the buildings of the Electors Friedrich and Ottheinrich above the medieval city centre with the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Spirit Church). The castle was destroyed by the French in the late 17th century. The medieval city centre of Heidelberg is intact, as it was spared from the bombings in the Second World War. 

Let us leave the metro station and see, what the Heidelberger Platz looks like.

 

The Heidelberg Platz “above the ground”: My first impression – it is just a busy traffic junction

My first impression of the Heidelberger Platz: What an ugly and busy traffic junction. The metro below the ground is intersected by the suburban train (S-Bahn) and the city highway A100, as seen from the multilane street called Mecklenburgische Strasse. A huge and sober Aldi shopping centre rounds up the picture to the left. 

Just the red brick building of the S-Bahn station adds some charm.

This is not a place to rest. Not at all, what the beautiful metro station with the photos of Heidelberg made me expect. Three e-scooters are waiting for those who want to escape from here.

 

A second look: Some nice and cute details

A second look reveals some nice and cute details.

Still related with the traffic junction, I notice the car wash called “COSY-WASCH” which mixes up English (cosy) and something like German (Wasch). May be, potential clients from Berlin would not understand “cosy wash”; only “wasch” makes it clear to them that they can wash (waschen) their car here. And what is “cosy” about this place? It my be convenient to wash the car at this traffic junction, but cosy? 

Across the COSY-WASCH is the red brick building of the suburban S-Bahn train station, where a barber has installed his barbershop. He calls it “Barber’s House” making use of the logo of the Berlin suburban train, the letter S, white letter in a green circle. 

What an inviting barbershop!

In the middle of the Heidelberger Platz, people rest in a small park. Huge trees reduce the noise of the traffic junction. After several weeks without rain, the meadow is yellowish-brown.  

The restaurant at the corner is called – well not “Heidelberger” – but “Heidelbeere” (German for blueberry). That sounds almost like “Heidelberg” – almost.

At lunch time, I have a typical meal of North Germany here: Young herring with potatoes, salad and curd (Matjeshering).

Next door, this bear is carrying books, using its paws and its head. The bear’s dress has a somewhat scientific look.

The bear presents the books in front of the Springer Nature building, a German-British academic publishing company that in Germany has its main seat at Heidelberg, and obviously at Berlin, one of its affiliates resides at the Heidelberger Platz. What a coincidence.

A second look at the Heidelberger Platz reveals some nice and cute details, indeed.

 

Vale un peccato – it is worth a sin – or perhaps better: it is worth a peccadillo

After having visited the busy traffic junction Heidelberger Platz and after having noticed some nice and cute details, I walk along Assmannshauserstrasse, just  for a few meters, and enjoy a delicious Italian meal at the restaurant “vale un peccato”.

I eat delicious spaghetti with mussels and get involved in a deep discussion with another pensioner who in his business life was a professor for political sciences at Berlin. His insights into the current evolvement of history are interesting – I value his differentiating thoughts. 

 

Sources:

• “Schloss Heidelberg”, my own work written in 1964 for the history lessons at school
• Springer Nature: home site https://www.springernature.com/gp and wiki entry about Springer Nature https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springer_Nature