Easy hikes and walks in Ketziner Havelinseln

The path along the Havel dike is picturesque in every season, but in winter, with ice drift, the boat dock becomes a real "lost place".

In 1850, Carl Friedrich Linde received permission from the Royal Government in Potsdam to build a pharmacy in Ketzin. In 1875, pharmacist Paul Bergemann acquired the building and added a 12.75-meter-high tower in 1880. Bergemann sold the pharmacy to Otto Köppen in 181 for 96,000 marks. In 1239, Köppen remodeled the building. A story was added, giving the roof a flat slope. The building underwent further renovations in 1938. Pharmacist Alfred Rothkegel had the pharmacy's entrance door installed flush with the facade. Rothkegel owned the pharmacy for over 30 years. The last three renovations and a comprehensive renovation of the building took place starting in 2005. (Source: Information board)

In front of the Wilfried Herzog shipping company's Ketzin jetty, below Kirchstraße and in front of the shower and toilet facilities, you can still see old GDR art on a small rectangular building. On the side facing the Havel, you can see a water landscape with waterfowl, fish, and reeds, and on the long side, stone mosaics.

As part of the village's redesign, the master builder David Gilly (1748-1808) constructed the Flour Scales and Fire Station complex between 1798 and 1805. The connection between the two buildings was created by a covered ladder barn, which served as a storage area for fire hoses and ladders. The fire engine was kept in the fire station itself and was occasionally used as a detention cell. The ladder barn was demolished around 1900, and the Flour Scales and Fire Station fell into disrepair. After reunification, at the initiative of the Paretz Historical Society, both buildings were completely renovated in accordance with historical preservation regulations, and the ladder barn was faithfully reconstructed. Source: https://www.paretz-verein.de/seite/131481/mehlwaage-und-spritzenhaus.html

Ice cellars for storing natural ice were, before the invention of refrigeration, the privilege of kings and wealthy landowners. Later, ice cellars were also built for communal use. This is likely the case with the ice cellar located behind the Paretz barn in the Rohrhaus garden. It is one of three ice cellars that once existed in Paretz. While the two located in the royal gardens no longer exist, the ice cellar built around 1850 was restored by the Historical Paretz Association in 2007 and opened as a small museum in 2010. Further information can be found at: https://www.paretz-verein.de/seite/131483/historischer-eiskeller.html

The lovingly restored and fully listed four-sided farmhouse served as the "Gasthof zum Prinzen Heinrich" (Prince Heinrich Inn) from 1912 onwards, with the rise of "Luisen Tourism," and from 1918 to 1942 as the "Gasthof zur Linde." At the end of the Second World War, the farmhouse was used as a military hospital, then for several years as a registry office. During the GDR era, there was a small private farm here. After the upheavals of 1989, the farm became increasingly quiet. In 2002, a family from southern Germany brought life back to the old walls of the farmstead. One of the family's four children is also named Luise, like the queen in the castle at that time. A small number of horses and other farm animals moved in with them on the four-sided farmyard. The storks also returned to the barn roof as they did every year, which is why the family promptly named the entire farm "Storchenhof" (Stork Farm). Source: https://www.paretz.online/hochzeits Feier/der-storchenhof-paretz/

This is how refrigerators used to work

Like everywhere in Parez, time has stood still here for 200 years.