Avenues of the Zernikow Estate

"Zernikow...Near Boberow forest and Huwenow lake lies another estate complex, which achieved historical renown through the stay of Crown Prince Friedrich in Rheinsberg...", Fontane reports in his Wanderungen.

Zernikow is a typical example of an 18th-century manor farm. While the former manor park was settled after 1945, the pretty avenues were preserved. In the extensive, now wooded so-called "Tiergarten" (animal garden) there were fish ponds and animal enclosures.

According to his own account, Frederick the Great spent the happiest days of his life as Crown Prince in nearby Rheinsberg Palace. Of course, Fontane also visited and described Rheinsberg Castle and Park on his travels through the county of Ruppin. Frederick the Great is also encountered again at the Zernikow estate. Shortly after his accession to power, Frederick II gave the estate to his valet and confidant Michael Gabriel Fredersdorff.

The latter established an impressive mulberry plantation of more than 8,000 trees and a silk farmhouse there. Fontane was enthusiastic about this work and attested that Fredersdorff had made "a well-cultivated estate out of a clod of sand". The gardens and avenues from Fontane's time still characterise the image of the village today. 21 mulberry trees still exist in the Maulbeerallee, as do the manor house and the silk house. The manor house houses an exhibition on the history of the village and silk cultivation.