“Erst die Fremde lehrt uns, was wir an der Heimath besitzen.“ Only a travel abroad teaches us the value of our homeland – the German writer Theodor Fontane wrote these lines in a foreword to his book “Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg” (Wandering through the county of Brandenburg). Fontane, born 1819, described this area around Berlin in his ballads, novels and travel reports, with much detail and with much love.