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How an apprentice, a researcher, and a young entrepreneur explore Adlershof

There is life after work. We wanted to know what young people, who haven’t been working on the site for very long, do in their free time or during their lunch break? Do they have any good tips? A tour for discovering Adlershof and broadening your view.

“Adlershof is paradise for engineers,” says Felix Fiedler. The 34-year-old is currently writing his PhD in medical technology in Lübeck and will then take over management of SLM GmbH, an Adlershof-based special laboratory for applied microbiology, early next year. “This conglomeration of high-tech companies and scientific research institutes is extremely interesting, a brilliant place for networking and new ideas,” Fiedler says excitedly. But is it also a brilliant place to live, to unwind, or to do something after work? We asked young people, who only just started working on the site.

Even when his studies sent him to far-away places, Felix Fiedler never truly left. He wrote his diploma thesis in the library of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. At lunch time, he would go out to eat on campus with his mother, Birgit Fiedler, who founded SLM GmbH 22 years ago. Not much has changed since then: Whenever Felix Fiedler comes to the site, as an external quality management employee of his mother’s company, they still like to go out to eat with colleagues, either to “esswirtschaft” on Rudower Chauseee, or “Speisemanufaktur Adlershof”, where the changing menu features a delicious tarte flambée. “The canteen at the WISTA building is dearly missed,” says Fiedler. “It was a kind of central meeting point that brought me together with a bunch of interesting people for lunch. Unfortunately, now everything is more spread out.”

Then again: “In the last few years, countless restaurants, bars, and night spots have made the site much livelier,” says Fiedler. Not least because of dormitories and new residential areas, Adlershof is now not completely deserted when people go home from work. People meet up, have a drink, and enjoy the landscape park. Some of Fiedler’s friends now live on Newtonstrasse and like to meet up locally, for example, at the new Italian restaurant “I Due Amici” on Erich-Thilo-Strasse. Fiedler doesn’t have to go far: He lives in Altglienicke, which is also where he grew up.

Radhakrishnan Sumathi loves to go on walks there in her free time. The researcher works at the Department Volume Crystals of the Leibniz-Institute for Crystal Growth (IKZ) and appreciates the comfort of living at the IBZ guest house. She generally appreciates the atmosphere in Adlershof, precisely because it’s not only good work but also play. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, you might meet Sumathi shopping on the market at Dörpfeldstrasse. Whenever Sumathi does not cook herself, she loves the food at “Olympia”, a Greek restaurant on Rudower Chaussee. “If I need a quick refresh with coffee and tasty cakes, I go to ‘Kamee Caffè & Ess Bar’,” the scientist recommends. Her special tip: going to see the reality talent show “The Voice of Germany”, which is recorded at Studio Berlin (Am Studio 20).

Eva-Therese Krüger, an apprentice for personnel and organisation at WISTA.Service GmbH, has not been on the site for long and already values its diversity: “Unfortunately, I haven’t spent a lot of time in Adlershof outside of my job, but the landscape park is very appealing.” The future office management assistant has also been to the local cinema after work. It’s handy because it’s just a short way around the corner. “After work, I like to pop to Dörpfeldstrasse to do some grocery shopping.” What the young women appreciates most about the site is “that there is so much to discover and achieve.” By the latter, she means the diverse range of training opportunities. Personal and professional: “There’s something for everybody, at any age,” she points out. “I really enjoy the atmosphere in Adlershof, because it’s relatively quiet, not too hectic but never boring.” Eva-Therese Krüger plans to continue to explore Adlershof in the coming months.

Felix Fiedler has a good tip for her: Not only to newcomers, he suggests taking a walk along the “Gedanken-Gang”, a kind of academic educational trail that showcases teaching, research, and manufacturing from Adlershof: “The trail with its hands-on experiments is really well done and will open your eyes to some new perspectives and local spots off the beaten track to work.”

By Chris Löwer for Adlershof Journal

• “Gedanken-Gang” educational trail through Adlershof
• Landscape park Johannisthal/Adlershof