The Greater Köpenick Round Trip

Müggelsee and Müggelberge

The Müggelsee is the largest of the Berlin lakes. To distinguish it from the Kleine Müggelsee, which is connected to it and covers only about 0,16 km², it is referred to as the Großer Müggelsee.
The lake covers 7,4 km² (max. 4,3 km long; 2,6 km wide) and is up to 8 metres deep. The lake and the Müggelberge on its southern edge were formed during the Pleistocene.

Before we turn to the sights around the Müggelsee, Theodor Fontane should be heard once more. In his “Wanderungen in der Mark Brandenburg” he describes a trip on the “Wendische Spree” with a sailing boat, the “Sphinx”, from Köpenick to Teupitz. The river called the “Wendische Spree” is the Dahme. By contrast, the Spree was also referred to as the “Deutsche Spree”.
Although this boat trip did not go across the Müggelsee, the conversations on board the Sphinx also touched on it. The Müggelsee was then called the Müggel. About the dangers on the Müggel Fontane quotes the captain of the “Sphinx” with the following words:

“It is the most treacherous of all waters. As treacherous as it looks innocent. Suddenly a wind springs up, fills the sails and lays the boat on its side. Whoever then clings to the mast and the gunwale may be saved; but whoever tries to wrest it back by his own skill is lost. He gets entangled in the weed and goes to the depths. The good swimmers and the good sailors — precisely they are the ones who fall victim to the Müggel’s treachery.”

(Theodor Fontane, Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, Vierter Teil Spreeland Beeskow-Storkow und Barnim-Teltow
J. G. Cotta´sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Stuttgart und Berlin 1905)

The large expanse of water in the lake, lying like a bowl, amplifies every wind, whether it comes from the west or the east. Waves can build up that need not shy away from comparison with the open sea. Even today, good and strong swimmers still drown in the Müggelsee. Fontane therefore by no means exaggerated here.

As can be seen from Fig. 27, the Müggelsee is also a magnet in winter — provided the ice will bear. In winter 2010 this was the last time that was the case. Young and old could then enjoy ice skating, playing ice hockey or simply a walk on the ice near the lido in front of the former bark hut. According to the gloomy forecasts of the climate sceptics, however, this kind of pleasure on the Berlin lakes will probably soon be definitively a thing of the past…

Looking south from a ship or boat on the Müggelsee, the Müggelberge dominate the horizon. They lie between the Langer See and the Müggelsee in the southeast of Köpenick and, at 114,7 metre above NHN, are the highest natural elevation in Berlin.
On the Kleiner Müggelberg the much-visited present Müggelturm was erected in 1961; it offers an extensive view over the lake and the forests all the way to the silhouette of Berlin.

Müggelturm

The Müggelturm is a well-known excursion destination in the south-east of Berlin in Köpenick. It stands south of the Müggelsee in the Müggelberge on the Kleiner Müggelberg at an altitude of 88 m above sea level. At the same location there used to be a wooden tower which burned down in 1958. This was originally erected in 1880 by order of Carl Spindler, the owner of the Köpenick large laundry Spindler, initially with a height of 10 m and was rebuilt in 1889 so that the tower finally reached a height of 27 m.

In contrast to the Bismarckwarte this tower was not blown up in 1945 as planned by the Wehrmacht. The wooden tower survived the chaos of the war, but had to be closed a few years later due to dilapidation. In 1958 a fire destroyed the old tower for good. 1960/61 the new Müggelturm that still stands today was then built as a reinforced concrete structure.

You can reach the Müggelturm area from the former excursion restaurant Marienlust in the south on the Dahme via a path followed by a staircase (243 steps) or from the Teufelssee in the north-east, also via a staircase (111 steps). From the Müggelheimer Damm the road to the Müggelturm leads up to the tower, but it is open to car traffic only as far as a car park a few hundred metres before the plateau.

The entire building complex, consisting of the Müggelturm with restaurant and hotel, was sold to private investors after reunification in the hope that the structures would be renovated and remain accessible to the public as before. However, the Treuhand property company and the Berlin Senate fell for dubious dealmakers, so that for many years nothing happened. The restaurant and hotel were closed and fell into disrepair. Only the viewing tower was provisionally maintained with EU funds. At the end of 2013 the last sale could be reversed and from May 2014 the Köpenick property developer Matthias Große (partner of speed skater Claudia Pechstein) was awarded the site.
The Bild-Zeitung hurried to cast M. Große in a rather unfavourable light. The fact is, however, that Große under the motto "Der Müggelturm ist wieder ein Köpenicker" — in contrast to the West German previous owners — really set things in motion. Since Große became involved, construction has been underway on the site.
The official reopening took place on 1 May 2018. It gave rise to the hope that the Müggelturm as well as the restaurant and hotel will once again become a genuine attraction for Berliners and their visitors in the foreseeable future.

Teufelssee (Köpenick)

The shortest walking route to the Müggelturm begins at the Müggelheimer Damm above the Rübezahl inn (see Fig. 28). It passes the Köpenick Teufelssee, which lies at the foot of the Kleiner Müggelberg in the Köpenick Bürgerheide. The very small, shallow and nutrient-rich lake of 1.6 hectares is a raised bog formed during the Ice Age, when meltwater scoured out a basin in the ice. At the lake the Teufelssee Forest School maintains a three-kilometre nature trail that largely runs on wooden boardwalks across marshy ground around the lake, past rare plants such as water lilies, water hemlock or sundew. The Müggelturm excursion site is a few hundred metres south-west of the lake on the western slope of the Kleiner Müggelberg. Very near the Teufelssee the Müggelberge toboggan run — popularly called the Todesbahn — ends (closed). Various legends surround the water body, on which, according to one of these tales, there had stood a devil’s altar. The beginning of another legend about a castle that disappeared into the lake is retold by Inge Kiessig lt. Wikipedia as follows:

“In the dense reed belt at the edge of the Teufelssee there used to lie a Great Stone. It was called the Princess Stone, for it marked the spot where once a magnificent castle had stood, inhabited by a princess. She was cursed and sank into the bog together with her palace. But sometimes she would reappear...”

Bismarck watchtower

On 16 October 1904 the 40-metre-high Bismarckwarte on the Großer Müggelberg was inaugurated by the association founded in 1899, „Bismarck-Warte zu Cöpenick e.V.“ The architect was Otto Rietz from Schöneberg. The foundation stone was laid on 23 May 1903 and the total construction costs amounted to 120.000 Goldmark. The tower and the sculptural work were made entirely from Rüdersdorf limestone.
At the foot of the tower there was a memorial hall containing a statue of Bismarck. Above the entrance to the memorial hall stood a four-metre-high lion by the sculptor August Gaul. The front of the tower was adorned with a Brandenburg eagle by the sculptor Max Meißner.

The viewing platform at 29 metres height could be reached via two opposing entrances on the sides of the tower by two staircases with 166 steps each. A non-public spiral staircase led from the viewing platform to the top of the watchtower where a fire bowl was mounted. Using a special system, a flame up to 18 metres high could be produced in it. During the entire 1936 Summer Olympic Games a fire brought to the Müggelberge by Berlin schoolchildren burned in the fire bowl.
Shortly before the end of the Second World War the Bismarckwarte was blown up in April 1945 by German troops in order not to give the advancing Soviet armies widely visible points for orientation on their march to Berlin. In the process, several church towers as well as the Bismarckwarte fell victim to the demolitions.
There are no remains of the Bismarck tower. At the site of the former Bismarckwarte today stands the investment ruin of the unfinished Müggelberge TV tower.

TV tower Müggelberge

The Müggelberge TV tower is a 31-metre-high tower stump on the Müggelberge in the south-east of Berlin used for microwave purposes. It was originally intended to become Berlin's TV tower. When construction began in 1954 it was overlooked that it would pose a danger to aircraft approaching Berlin-Schönefeld airport. For this reason construction was halted on 13 December 1955. A height of 130 m with a viewing platform at 70 m had been planned.
The tower stump was later used by the Ministry for State Security as a listening station. Today it serves Deutsche Telekom AG as a microwave node and carries a radar dome on its top.
Next to the Berlin-Müggelberge TV tower there is also a 64-metre-high steel lattice tower with antennas for microwave links and the non-public aeronautical mobile service.

Friedrichshagen Waterworks

The Friedrichshagen Waterworks was put into operation in 1893 in Berlin-Friedrichshagen. It was the third municipal waterworks of Berlin after the works built in 1856 at Stralauer Tor on the Spree and in 1877 in Berlin-Tegel at Tegeler See and was at that time regarded as the largest and most modern of its kind in Europe. Surface water from the Müggelsee was used exclusively as raw water at that time. The daily capacity was 86.400 m³ of surface water.
With the commissioning of this works, the waterworks at Stralauer Tor was able to cease operations in 1894.
With a total of six engine houses, 34 slow sand filters, four aeration channels, numerous outbuildings and four residential buildings, the waterworks, which extends over an area of 55 ha, is today a testimony to industrial history and a landscape monument of European significance. The engine hall with its 19th-century machinery is considered particularly worth seeing.
History: The construction of this waterworks and its two predecessors was based on the 1852 contract concluded between the Prussian state government and the English entrepreneurs Sir Charles Fox and Thomas Rushell Crampton on the supply of Berlin with running water — at that time by the London-based “Berlin-Water-Works-Company”.

Already before the expiry of this concession in 1881, after the company shares were to be handed over to Berlin at the current assessed price, the city of Berlin purchased the company shares in 1873 for a total of 1.25 million pounds sterling, and on 2 January 1874 the city of Berlin, under Lord Mayor Hobrecht, assumed the administration of the now municipal waterworks.
The designs for the factory buildings were by engineer Henry Gill, formerly operations director of the English company and now director of the municipal waterworks, and by architect Richard Schultze. The façades of the buildings were executed in brick.
Between 1904 and 1909 the waterworks were converted for the abstraction and treatment of groundwater. In particular, the collection well dating from this period was restored in 1991–1995. From 1925 to 1927 a partial modernisation took place, after which parts of the waterworks were electrically operated. In addition, the daily capacity increased to 320.000 m³ of treated water.
In 1979 a first rapid filter hall was built and a second in 1983. Also in 1983 steam engine operation was discontinued. Since 1991 abstraction of surface water has ceased and only groundwater has been pumped.
In 2022 Berliner Wasserbetriebe state the pumping capacity of the waterworks as a maximum of 230.000 m³ of water per day. For this purpose a total of 215 vertical wells, each 30 to 60 m deep, are used, from which 40 to 125 m³ of water per hour is pumped with the aid of submersible motor pumps. The raw water is aerated in two trickling channels with four trickling filters each; per trickler a maximum of 1.450 m³/h of water can be passed. Afterwards the water is treated in 22 multi-layer filters with a filter area of 75 m² each and a filtration velocity of up to 7,30 m per hour. The treated water is pumped into the supply area of the lower city and to the intermediate pumping stations Lichtenberg and Lindenberg.

Before you enter the Müggelspree from the Müggelsee between Müggel- and Dämeritzsee, the “Bänke” lie to the left of our tour. If you briefly branch off our round trip into the Bänke, the view opens onto the waterfront of Rahnsdorf Mill (Fig. 32).