Hiking like Honecker (19 km hike through former GDR government hunting grounds)

The Schorfheide, north of Berlin, offers a surprisingly diverse natural landscape. When walking there, one often does not realize that parts of it were once off-limits to ordinary people, as it served as the official hunting ground of the East German government. Erich Honecker hosted hunting trips there with guests, including illustrious names such as Leonid Brezhnev and Fidel Castro.

More on this: https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/291693/honeckers-jagdfieber-zahlte-die-bevoelkerung/

We won’t be going hunting, but it might be interesting to explore the area a bit. So let’s go to the Schorfheide and walk from Eichhorst on the Werbellinsee to Groß Schönebeck.

We'll meet on Saturday at 10:55 at the railway station Joachimsthal. You can reach this by taking the RB 63 train which departs at 10:04 from Berlin Gesundbrunnen. From Joachimsthal, we will take the bus 917 to go to Eichhorst.

From Eichhorst, we will pass by:

• The Hubertusstock, the official East German government guesthouse in the forest
• Diverse monuments dedicated to diverse German emperors (the East German government was not the first to use the forest—earlier rulers did as well)
• The Krummer See and the two Pinnowseen
• Erich Honecker’s private hunting lodge

We will take back the train from Groß Schönebeck, likely the train leaving at 17:12.

Important things to note:

• This is an average hike with a relatively long distance. Thus, you should wear suitable shoes. Expect quite wet and muddy ground at some places.
• You are all responsible for yourself. None of us is mountain guide or something like that.
• There won't be too many Späties around, so have enough water and food with you.
• The historic houses are not publicly accessible, we can just walk by