It owes its modest fame to a battle. In August 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars, a Prussian and Swedish army under Bülow defeated a French force marching on Berlin, which saved the Prussian capital from occupation. A monument in the town marks the spot, and the battle is remembered each year with a local commemoration.
The town has another claim to local pride, the Teltower Rübchen, a small, sweet turnip grown in the sandy soil of this district since the Middle Ages. It was prized by gourmets, and Goethe is said to have been a fan, although the story is better as a legend than as fact. Today the fields are interspersed with a huge freight distribution centre, which supplies the capital, and the roar of lorries on the nearby motorway ring is the dominant sound. Teltow, Stahnsdorf and Kleinmachnow, nearby, form a prosperous belt of commuter suburbs.
For a rider, the area is a mixture of ring road and quiet lanes. The A10 motorway ring and the A115 carry heavy traffic, and the junctions can be tricky, but small roads between Großbeeren and the neighbouring villages run straight through fields of grain and rapeseed. The surface is good, and there are few bends, so the main hazards are crosswinds on open stretches and farm vehicles. Sunsets on the flat horizon are striking. The best time to ride is early on a weekday, before the commuter traffic builds. Wild boar and deer appear on forest edges.
Practically, fuel is easy to find at stations along the main road and in the logistics area, and there are supermarkets and bakeries in Großbeeren and nearby Teltow. Gasthäuser serve German classics, and in season you might find asparagus and strawberries sold from roadside stalls. The S-Bahn at Teltow Stadt connects to central Berlin, so you could leave the bike and travel in. For anyone finishing a long day on the Saxon Switzerland route, this is a quiet last stretch.