In December 1920 a group of postal engineers at Königs Wusterhausen broadcast a concert of carols and instrumental music from a hill outside town, and the sound went out across Germany. It is remembered as the country's first radio broadcast, and the hill, the Funkerberg, still carries a historic radio station and a museum of early broadcasting. Whatever the exact date, this was where German radio began, and the masts on the hill have been a landmark ever since.
The town has other claims on history. In the early eighteenth century, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I, known as the Soldier King, made the hunting lodge here his favourite retreat, and held his legendary Tobacco Colloquium, a sort of smoky evening club, in its rooms. The little palace is open to visitors. The Dahme river runs through the town, with a lock and a harbour, and the old railway junction ensures plenty of traffic.
With over thirty-two thousand people, Königs Wusterhausen is a busy commuter town and has everything: fuel on all the main roads, supermarkets, cafes, bakeries and a station for the S-Bahn into Berlin. It makes a good fuel stop for riders heading south into the Dahme-Seengebiet or the Spreewald, since the road beyond becomes quieter and the stations fewer.
Traffic through the town can be heavy, especially in the morning and evening, and the level crossings on the railway can hold you up. The ride south, however, is a pleasure, through forest and along lakes with gentle bends and long straights. In summer, the lakes around the town are busy with swimmers and boaters.
Fill the tank, take a coffee and look at the radio hill. It is a modest hill, but it has the right to be proud. If you ride south after that, notice how quickly the villages thin out and the pines close in; the last proper supermarket is behind you, and the lakes and canals of the Dahme country are ahead.