Falkenstein (Hamburg)

The Falkenstein is a wooded area in Hamburg-Blankenese , which extends to Hamburg-Rissen and is part of a 1,686 hectare landscape protection area (see list of landscape protection areas in Hamburg ). Traditional forestry is practiced here in order to maintain the typical character of this mixed forest .

Some of the largest and most elegant villas in Hamburg are hidden between the wooded hills on spacious, barely visible private properties .

The Falkenstein Puppet Museum is located in this forest area in a villa that is now a listed building, which the architect Karl Schneider had built in the Bauhaus style from 1923 to 1924 for the manufacturer's wife Elise "Ite" Michaelsen . After the suicide of his son Axel Springer, who had worked as a photographer under the stage name Sven Simon , the publisher Axel Cäsar Springer, who lived in a neighboring villa until the 1970s and had acquired further villa properties in the area to protect his privacy, donated In 1980 an approx. 55,000 m² large part of his land under the name "Sven-Simon-Park", including the Bauhaus villa in need of renovation, which was converted into a doll museum by donors, was made available to the public. The Falkenstein Golf Club is in the immediate vicinity. The Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy , also originally located in Hamburg-Falkenstein, has now been relocated to Eimsbüttel .

Falkensteiner Ufer

The Falkensteiner Ufer borders the forest on the Lower Elbe . The area is a popular excursion destination and local recreation area . The beach is also used for swimming in the Elbe. Between the paddle club and the campsite, the Falkensteiner Ufer road is a bicycle road . The Elbe Camp campsite is open from April to October.

Elbe beach on the Falkensteiner Ufer

Beach, in the background the Airbus plant in Finkenwerder and the port of Hamburg

Doll museum in Landhaus Michaelsen ( Sven-Simon-Park )

View from Sven-Simon-Park to the island of Neßsand

Waterworks

The lower part of the Altona waterworks, built in 1859, is on the Falkensteiner Ufer . From the beginning it had settling basins to filter the Elbe water on the Baursberg . The first settling basins were located on the Baursberg, in 1896 the clarifying, primary settling basins or settling basins on the Falkensteiner Ufer were put into operation. The system worked with a sand filter, making it the first of its kind in Germany. The cholera epidemic of 1892 therefore did not spread to Altona. The plant on Baurs Berg is still in operation today, but has no longer worked with Elbe water since 1960, but from a total of ten wells in the area that pump the groundwater from a depth of up to 310 meters.

After several years of renovation of the ensemble by two private developers, families, couples, singles and senior citizens have been living in the historic buildings, which have been converted into lofts. The historic pump hall in the eastern building has also been completely preserved inside and is now a private museum that is opened on special occasions. A small historic locomotive can be found on the newly designed outdoor facilities, clearly visible from the street. The name "Waterworks Falkenstein" now used refers to the original name Altona Waterworks, which the British engineers responsible for the construction had chosen in 1859.

Company sign of the waterworks

Former machine house of the Baurs Berg waterworks

View over the Elbe to the Neßsand radar station
In the foreground: one of the settling basins of the waterworks

Altona waterworks (view from the Elbe)

Renaturation

The renatured water basins

Eastern retention basin, seen from the overflow threshold

Western retention basin, seen from the overflow threshold

The specialist office for water protection in the office for environmental protection of the city of Hamburg had the two water basins on Falkensteiner Ufer renatured in 2010 and 2011 . For this purpose, shallow water zones were created in the basins. The eastern basin was opened on a section to the Elbe as part of a water ecological compensatory measure, financed by a wastewater tax from the Airbus plant in Finkenwerder . With the completion of the renaturation measures, refuge areas for Elbe fish should be available, the oxygen input into the Elbe should be increased in summer, the development of rare animals and plants should be promoted and the attractiveness of the Falkensteiner Ufer for nature and visitors should increase. The toad population is one of the last major amphibian occurrences in Hamburg and will only be able to spawn in the western basin in the future .