Welcome to Berlin-Mitte!
Discover the environmental education program near you!
1. What makes your district so special?
The Mitte district is hard to beat in terms of diversity and contrasts. This applies to the individual neighborhoods such as Alexanderplatz or Tiergarten, Wedding or the government district. But the district's population also has a colorful variety of languages, occupations and socio-economic backgrounds. And even the green spaces differ considerably. While in the densely built-up city center you can hardly find a spot in the summer in green spaces such as the Volkspark am Weinberg or the James-Simon-Park, the large Tiergarten or the Volkspark Rehberge offer the opportunity to dive into the wilderness undisturbed at any time of year.
2. Which green and sustainable places does our district have to offer?
The famous Tiergarten, the Volkspark Rehberge and the Humboldthain are among the largest green spaces in the district with a wide variety of plants and animals that can be observed here. A very special place of Berlin's urban nature can be the small river Panke, which has been opened up and revitalized in the southern part as part of renaturation measures. Various organizations and institutions invite interested parties to delve deeper into the topics of nature, climate or sustainability, for example as part of workshops or guided tours. Sometimes the participants even become researchers themselves. These institutions include the Museum für Naturkunde, which has something to offer for all ages and interest groups with changing exhibitions, guided tours in the museum and at various locations in Berlin's urban nature, as well as citizen science projects. The School Environmental Center with its three locations in the district and around 40,000 visitors a year is also a special environmental education facility in the district. Here, daycare groups and school classes in particular learn where food comes from, which animals live in which habitats and how we use resources sustainably. They also learn how natural cycles work and how they can be positively influenced. The Volkshochschule Mitte has been recognized as a role model for sustainability through its Education for Sustainable Development working group, among other things, and attracts an average of one in 10 residents of the district once a year with a variety of further education opportunities. A special offer of the environmental and nature conservation office is the environmental store, which regularly offers excursions and lectures and awards the annual environmental and climate prize. Countless other small and large institutions contribute to Mitte's diverse environmental education landscape. Even the district's own libraries surprise with reading gardens, seed libraries or the opportunity to borrow a spade instead of having to buy one.
3. Whicht are topics that we are most concerned with in the district?
The current focus of the work is on setting up the coordination office, which was launched in mid-September 2024. The focus is on establishing a network of environmental education stakeholders and publicizing the coordination office. Needs and wishes regarding the work of the coordination office will also be recorded. A website is also being set up at umweltbildung-mitte.berlin, which will help to make the district's nature, environmental, climate and sustainability education offers more visible by making them as accessible and appealing as possible. An extensive filter and search function, which is simple and intuitive to use, ensures that all those looking for offers can easily find the projects and programs that are suitable for them. At the same time, low-threshold offers for school classes and early childhood environmental education programs are being developed, with a focus on less privileged user groups. This will build on existing and proven offers in the district. The new coordination office for environmental education thus aims to promote and further develop the district's diverse environmental education landscape in the short and long term.