The silk construction in Zernikow goes back to Michael Gabriel Fredersdoff, the secret treasurer of Friedrich II. “Fredersdorff took on”, as we read in Fontane, “a fondness for silk production. Gardens and paths were planted with mulberry trees (there were already eight thousand of them in 1747) and the following year he had a net yield from the reeled silk for the first time..."
In addition to the mulberry trees, whose leaves are needed as food for the silkworms, the house at Dorfstraße No. 18 also bears witness to the silk production that was once operated in Zernikow. This building was originally built to breed silkworms or to extract silk. Unfortunately, it is not known how long silkworms were bred in Zernikow. The only thing that is certain is that as early as 1777, Fredersdorff's widow, Frau von Labes, converted the silk house into a "hospital" for the poor, the elderly and those unable to work. The term "hospital" for the former silk house has survived to this day.
The Maulbeerallee in Zernikow is a real treasure. Both botanically and culturally. Far and wide there is no longer a comparable, connected row of trees. In 1751, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorff had mulberry trees planted on the road to the Zernikow mill after he had received the Zernikow estate as a gift from Friedrich II (personally) a few years earlier. And while he was at it, good Herr Fredersdorff also had more avenues of beech, poplar, linden, chestnut and elm trees planted around Zernikow. All are still more or less well preserved.