Babelsberg is full of variety and color, with everything you expect for life: there are residential areas to suit a wide range of tastes, such as restored weavers' cottages dating from the 18th century, blocks of flats from the 1870s, housing estates from the 1920s and 1930s, as well as magnificent villas along the banks of the Griebnitzsee lake.
Babelsberg has a vibrant local center in the middle of the Weberviertel (the Weavers Quarter) which dates from the Bohemian Nowawes weavers colony, originally founded by Frederick II in the 18th century. Many of the colonist's homes still provide evidence of that period, as do a small museum and the Friedenskirche (the Peace church) on the Weberplatz square. The Weavers' Quarter was classified as a redevelopment area in 1993. Under private initiative and with the help of state and federal government funding, more than half of the once poor houses have already been reconstructed in accordance with the guidelines of the protection of historic buildings and monuments, and are thus now highly-desirable residential homes and business quarters.
The name of Babelsberg is closely linked with the home of the former UFA film production company and later, the DEFA studios. Today, Babelsberg's media city is located on that same land, which is also the home of many media companies, among others the ORB (East German Radio Station Brandenburg) and the Konrad Wolf Technical College for Film and Television. The Babelsberg Filmpark is right in the neighborhood and, in fact, on the same land. The Filmpark is a leisure and adventure park with many rides, attractions, and a stunt show.
The Babelsberg park around Schloß Babelsberg was laid out under the horticultural direction of Prince Pückler and the great landscape architect Lenné. K. F. Schinkel designed the palace in an English gothic style. Babelsberg park and palace, as well as the neighboring Jagdschloß Glienicke (the hunting lodge) and the surrounding park, belong to the Berlin-Potsdam cultural landscape, which is under UNESCO World Heritage protection. There are also a large number of other Potsdam and Brandenburg palaces and parks which enjoy this status. Moreover, Babelsberg is a home to science, research, and teaching. The Astrophysical Institute, the Hasso Plattner Institute for Informatics, and sections of the Potsdam University are also located in Babelsberg.
Babelsberg has everything you could ask for. And if you need the flair of a metropolis - no problem at all. From the Babelsberg railway station, you can be in the center of Berlin by the S-Bahn city railway within just 20 minutes.
