Oranienburg is a town on the Havel river, a short way north of Berlin, and it carries two very different histories side by side. On one side there is the palace, built in the seventeenth century for Louise Henriette of Orange, the Dutch-born wife of the Elector of Brandenburg, who gave the town its name. It was the first baroque palace in Brandenburg, and its Dutch influence is seen in the proportions and brick. The town became known as Oranienburg, the castle of Orange, and the palace now houses a museum and gardens.
On the other side is a darker chapter. In 1936 the Nazi regime opened the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at the town's edge, and tens of thousands of prisoners died there. The site is now a memorial and museum, and a visit is sober, serious and well worth the time. Many people combine it with a trip from Berlin, and the surrounding town carries the memory in quiet ways. Allow a few hours and treat the visit with the gravity it deserves.
As a starting point for a ride into the Ruppiner Land, this is a handy exit from the capital. North of the town, the roads fall into a rhythm of straight, tree-lined avenues, a typical feature of Brandenburg, with old chestnuts, limes and cherries standing at the roadside. Sandy soil, pine plantations and glittering lakes fill the landscape, and the pace is calm. Surfaces are generally good, though some are patched, and avenues can be dappled with light that hides potholes. Traffic is light on weekdays and busy on summer weekends as Berliners head for the water. Spring and early autumn are pleasantly mild.
The ride continues to Neuruppin, the home town of the writer Theodor Fontane, and on to Rheinsberg, where Frederick the Great spent happy years as crown prince in a small lakeside palace. Oranienburg has fuel stations, a supermarket and cafes, and the suburban train line to Berlin makes it easy to leave a car. Leegebruch, a smaller town nearby, has basic services. Top up here before heading out, as pumps thin out in the forest.