Discover Velten: Bernsteinsee and the town of stoves

Velten combines swimming opportunities at Bernsteinsee with a tour of local history and museums dedicated to stove and ceramics culture. When planning your stay, you can choose different focuses: time by the water, a walk with themed stops, or a visit to the collections. The following places and routes give you an overview of what makes Velten distinctive.

Bernsteinsee: swimming and water sports

Bernsteinsee in Velten is 750 metres long and 170 metres wide, and offers opportunities for swimming. Wide sandy beaches and sunbathing areas complement the lakeshore. A playground and a beach volleyball court add further leisure activities by the lake. Swimming and relaxing are thus available alongside playing and beach volleyball.

Bernsteinsee is also home to Velten Water Ski and Wake Park, with a 720-metre circuit. This gives the lake a focus on water sports in addition to swimming. When planning your time by the water, you can consider these different activities as separate options.

The Veltener Töppertour

The approximately three-kilometre-long Veltener Töppertour begins at the station square and ends at the museums. Along the route, 25 information panels explain how the boom in stove tiles changed the town and the daily lives of its residents. The walk thus links a route through Velten with a clear theme: the effects of the stove-tile boom on the town and everyday life.

There is also a family version: an approximately one-kilometre interactive children’s tour with a digital audio guide. When choosing a tour, you can compare the approximate distances: around three kilometres for the Töppertour and around one kilometre for the family version. The latter adds interactive elements and a digital audio guide to the theme.

Stove and ceramics museums

The Velten Stove and Ceramics Museum is housed in the listed former Schmidt-Lehmann stove factory and presents stove art spanning three centuries. The collection includes more than 4,000 individual tiles, stove parts, stove ornaments and stove models. The museum also houses well over 2,000 decorative and functional ceramic objects, with a focus on the 1920s and 1930s.

Around 1,600 objects from Hedwig Bollhagen’s ceramic estate are on public display at the Hedwig Bollhagen Museum. On a museum visit, you can therefore choose between different subjects: stove art and ceramic objects at the Stove and Ceramics Museum, or Hedwig Bollhagen’s ceramic estate at the museum named after her. The collections give Velten a strong connection to stove and ceramics culture.

Routes and paths in the surrounding area

The German Clay Route offers a wider route framework: the 215-kilometre circular route begins and ends at the Velten museums. In the area around the destination, quiet field and forest paths, including routes through the Luchwiesen meadows, invite you to go cycling. Your plans can therefore accommodate different scales: the circular route has a specified length, while cycling tours follow paths around Velten.

Getting to Velten and finding your way around

Velten is served by DB Regionalbahn line RB55. Check the current timetable before your trip. Digital information pillars at the station, Museumsgasse and Bernsteinsee provide directions and up-to-date information. As availability and content may change, check the information on site when you visit.

Discover more destinations: Rudow, Ruhlsdorf, Hohenschönhausen, Berlin-Neukölln, Lichtenberg, Berlin-Reinickendorf, Bohnsdorf, Adlershof

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