Explore the real-world places that appear in Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Wannsee Lake, Glienicke Bridge, Potsdamer Platz, Cecilienhof Palace, Sanssouci Palace and 7 more.
Southwest Berlin — Setting for the summer house
The lake provides the idyllic setting for the grand summer house that serves as the novel's central character. Multiple generations of inhabitants describe swimming in its waters, sailing boats, and watching seasons change from the house's windows. The architect who appropriated the house from its Jewish owners uses the lake's beauty to justify his possession, while later residents find both solace and haunting memories in its unchanging presence.
Wannsee has been Berlin's premier recreational lake since the late 19th century. Wealthy Berliners built grand villas along its shores, creating an exclusive summer retreat area. During the Nazi era, many Jewish-owned properties around the lake were seized and redistributed.
Wannsee remains one of Berlin's most popular lakes for swimming, sailing, and recreation. The area still features many historic villas, though most are now museums, hotels, or public facilities rather than private summer homes.
Visit: Wannsee Beach (park)
Potsdam-Berlin border — The 'Bridge of Spies'
Characters in the novel reference this bridge as a symbol of the divided city and the Cold War tensions that affected their lives in and around the summer house. The bridge represents the broader political upheavals that shaped each generation's relationship to the property, from Nazi appropriation through Soviet occupation to reunification.
Built in 1907, the bridge became famous during the Cold War as a crossing point between East and West Berlin. It was used for prisoner exchanges between the US and USSR, earning it the nickname 'Bridge of Spies.'
The bridge is now a popular tourist destination and symbol of German reunification. Visitors can walk across it freely, and interpretive signs explain its Cold War history.
Visit: Glienicke Bridge (historic site)
Central Berlin — Symbol of division and reunion
Characters from different eras describe traveling through this square, which serves as a touchstone for Berlin's changing political landscape. The Nazi architect recalls its bustling pre-war energy, while post-reunification characters witness its dramatic reconstruction, mirroring the transformation of their own relationship to the summer house and German identity.
Once Europe's busiest square in the 1920s, Potsdamer Platz was destroyed in WWII and left as a wasteland divided by the Berlin Wall. It became a symbol of the city's division during the Cold War.
Completely rebuilt after reunification, it's now a modern commercial and cultural center featuring skyscrapers, shopping, restaurants, and the Berlin International Film Festival venue.
Visit: Potsdamer Platz (landmark)
Potsdam — Site of the Potsdam Conference
The palace serves as a reference point for characters discussing the post-war division of Germany and how political decisions made by the Allied powers affected ordinary Germans' lives, including the fate of properties like the summer house. Characters reflect on how their personal histories intersected with these momentous political events.
Built between 1914-1917, Cecilienhof hosted the Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945, where Churchill, Stalin, and Truman decided the post-war fate of Germany. The conference sealed Germany's division into occupation zones.
The palace operates as a museum dedicated to the Potsdam Conference, with the original conference rooms preserved exactly as they were in 1945. It's part of the Potsdam Palaces and Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Visit: Cecilienhof Palace Museum (museum)
Potsdam — Frederick the Great's summer palace
Characters make pilgrimages to this palace, drawing parallels between Prussia's grand summer retreats and their own more modest lake house. The architect character sees himself as part of a grand German cultural tradition, while later inhabitants question what this heritage means after the Nazi period and German division.
Built in 1745-1747 as Frederick the Great's summer palace, Sanssouci ('without worries' in French) epitomizes 18th-century Prussian rococo architecture. Frederick designed it as his private retreat where he could pursue philosophy and the arts.
Sanssouci is one of Germany's most visited palaces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring the original rococo interiors, Frederick's tomb, and extensive baroque gardens open to the public year-round.
Visit: Sanssouci Palace (historic site)
Bernauer Straße — Preserved section of the Wall
The Wall's construction and eventual fall frame many characters' stories about loss, separation, and reunification. Characters describe how the Wall's presence affected their access to the summer house and their sense of belonging in Berlin, with some losing contact with the property for decades due to the division.
The Berlin Wall stood from 1961 to 1989, dividing East and West Berlin. Bernauer Straße was one of the most dramatic locations, where buildings formed part of the border and many escape attempts occurred.
The Berlin Wall Memorial preserves the only remaining section showing the Wall's full depth with death strip, and features a documentation center and chapel commemorating victims of the division.
Visit: Berlin Wall Memorial (memorial)
Southwest Berlin — Ancient woodland near the lake
Characters describe walking through this ancient forest to reach the summer house, using the woods as a place for reflection on their changing relationships to the property. The forest serves as a constant natural presence that outlasts all the human dramas, providing a sense of permanence amid political upheaval.
The Grunewald is Berlin's largest forest, preserved as a hunting ground for Prussian royalty since the 16th century. It became a public recreation area in the 19th century and survived both world wars largely intact.
The 3,000-hectare forest remains Berlin's primary green space for hiking, cycling, and nature observation. It features numerous trails, lakes, and the Grunewald Tower offering panoramic views of the city.
Visit: Grunewald Forest (park)
Am Großen Wannsee 56-58 — Site of the 'Final Solution' meeting
This villa near the summer house location serves as a dark counterpoint to the idyllic lake setting. Characters grapple with the proximity of this site where the Holocaust was planned, adding layers of moral complexity to their memories of the area and questions about German culpability and memory.
On January 20, 1942, Nazi officials met in this villa to coordinate the 'Final Solution' - the systematic murder of European Jews. The meeting lasted only 90 minutes but sealed the fate of millions.
Since 1992, the villa has operated as a memorial and educational center documenting the Wannsee Conference and the Holocaust. It features permanent exhibitions and serves as a research center.
Visit: House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial (memorial)
Peacock Island in the Havel River — Romantic landscape garden
Characters visit this enchanted island as a romantic escape from the complexities of their lives and the weight of history surrounding the summer house. The island's artificial paradise serves as a metaphor for the ways people try to create perfect worlds while ignoring the darker currents of history.
Created in the 1790s as a romantic landscape garden for King Friedrich Wilhelm II, the island features an artificial ruin, exotic animals including peacocks, and carefully designed 'natural' landscapes typical of 18th-century romanticism.
Pfaueninsel is a UNESCO World Heritage Site accessible only by ferry. Visitors can explore the romantic ruins, see the famous peacocks roaming freely, and enjoy the preserved 18th-century landscape garden.
Visit: Pfaueninsel (park)
Friedrichstraße — Famous Cold War crossing point
Characters reference this checkpoint when discussing their ability to travel between East and West Berlin, and how political divisions affected their relationship to properties like the summer house. The checkpoint symbolizes the arbitrary nature of political boundaries that could separate families from their homes for decades.
Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous border crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War, primarily used by Allied personnel, diplomats, and foreigners. It was the site of several dramatic Cold War standoffs.
The original checkpoint booth is in a museum, but a replica stands at the historic location. The site now features the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and attracts millions of tourists annually.
Visit: Checkpoint Charlie Museum (museum)
Pariser Platz — Symbol of German unity
The gate serves as a powerful symbol throughout the novel of German history's cycles of division and unity. Characters from different eras describe passing through or around it, from the Nazi period through the Cold War to reunification, mirroring their own changing relationship to their German identity and the summer house.
Built in 1791, the Brandenburg Gate was inspired by the Acropolis in Athens and served as a symbol of peace. It became a symbol of division when trapped behind the Berlin Wall, then of unity when the Wall fell in 1989.
The Brandenburg Gate is Berlin's most recognizable landmark and a symbol of German reunification. It's surrounded by major hotels, embassies, and the Reichstag, making it the heart of modern Berlin.
Visit: Brandenburg Gate (landmark)
Flowing through Berlin and Brandenburg — The region's lifeline
The Havel connects the summer house to Berlin proper and serves as a recurring motif throughout the novel. Characters describe boat trips along the river, its changing seasons, and how it remained constant while everything else - ownership, politics, society - transformed around them. The river represents both continuity and change.
The Havel has been central to the region's development since medieval times, connecting Berlin to the North Sea via the Elbe River. It supported trade, transportation, and recreation for centuries.
The Havel remains an important waterway for recreation and transportation. Boat tours run regularly between Berlin and Potsdam, and the river supports numerous marinas, beaches, and recreational facilities.
Visit: Havel River Boat Tours (tour)
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