The Greater Köpenick Round Trip
Müggelspree between Müggelsee and Dämeritzsee
After we have left the Müggelsee between Müggelhort, on which there is a water rescue station of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, and the island Kelchsecke, we enter the next section of the Müggelspree. This leads us for about 4 km through the Berlin localities Rahnsdorf, Siedlung Schönhorst, Neu Venedig and Hessenwinkel to the western part of the Dämeritzsee.
Rahnsdorf and Siedlung Schönhorst
Rahnsdorf, located north of the Müggelspree, essentially consists of two parts: Rahnsdorf Mühle and the fishing village of Rahnsdorf. Rahnsdorf Mühle lies close to the Müggelsee, while the fishing village is reached by water only about 1 km after leaving the Müggelsee in our direction of travel.
Rahnsdorf Mühle takes its name from the mills that once stood on today’s Fredersdorfer Mühlenfließ. However, there is not much of Rahnsdorf Mühle to be seen on the round trip described here, since it is situated mainly on the “Bänke” and along both sides beyond the islands Kelchsecke, Entenwall and Dreibock along the Fürstenwalder Allee.
Apart from a sawmill and the dwellings of its operators, settlement at Rahnsdorf Mühle was sparse for a long time and did not gain momentum until the mid-19th century, driven by Berliners’ desire for light, air and sun. In the 1882 volume “Spreeland” of Fontane’s Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, among other things, it says:
Rahnsdorf, because of its beautiful location, has always had an attraction for the residents of the capital, who liked to spend the hot season here in a dispersed villa colony, especially their children’s school holidays.
(Theodor Fontane, Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, Fourth Part: Spreeland Beeskow-Storkow and Barnim-Teltow
J. G. Cotta´sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Stuttgart und Berlin 1905)
The fishing village already existed 1375 years ago. Its houses are arranged in the form of a Wendish round village. A description of the Province of Brandenburg from the year 1900 says the following about it:
The houses formed a cul-de-sac … to which there was only one entrance. They stood close together, with their gables or the narrow front facing the inner ring. The wide central square, on which the church was built in Christian times, served as the place where livestock stayed overnight.
(Helmut Lehmann with contributions by Heinrich Jendro and Werner Zimmermann: Life Between the Lakes, trafo Literaturverlag Berlin 2009)
Historical documents still accessible today show that the fishing village of Rahnsdorf was indeed for a long time almost exclusively inhabited by fishermen. Their main fishing grounds were the Müggelsee, the Spree and the Dämeritzsee.
The Rahnsdorf fishermen were engaged in an ongoing petty war with the fishermen in Köpenick. Because the latter were obliged to supply the kitchen of the Elector’s palace and to perform other services for the authorities, the Köpenick fishermen enjoyed far more favourable fishing rights for centuries. Especially aggravating for the Rahnsdorf fishermen was that the Köpenickers were allowed to fish right on their doorstep, for the best catches tempted in the Spree. The Rahnsdorf fishermen, by contrast, were not permitted to fish in Köpenick waters. The feud between the Rahnsdorf and Köpenick fishermen sometimes escalated so far that mutual raids with the seizure of fishing boats and nets were reported.
“Only with the subordination of the Köpenick and Kietz fishermen as well as the Rahnsdorf fishermen to the provincial courts and the reintroduction of the Mark Brandenburg land law in 1814 through the Stein–Hardenberg reforms in Prussia, followed a year later by a Brandenburg fisheries law, were the quarrels and lawsuits brought to an end, and the people of Rahnsdorf were able to live profitably from the duties and rights towards the manor lord. The large lakes and the Spree remained state property, and the state appointed the fisheries authority and the tax office to administer them. Private property of the Rahnsdorf inhabitants continued to be the shallows, the Bauersee and the access ways.”
(Helmut Lehmann with contributions by Heinrich Jendro and Werner Zimmermann: Life Between the Lakes, trafo Literaturverlag Berlin 2009)
Today there is only one active fisheries operation left in Rahnsdorf – the Müggelsee fishery (see Fig. 35). At the Entenwall in Rahnsdorf the Müggelspree widens into the Small Müggelsee for about 500 m – a popular bathing spot with a beach, which is also often used from boats.
In the direction of travel we have chosen for the Greater Köpenick Round Trip you pass, immediately after the Small Müggelsee, the popular excursion inn “Neu-Helgoland”. The owner family did not give up after two fires following reunification. The menu is basically good German cuisine and the selection of cakes and ice cream is also worth noting. In addition, well-known artists perform at weekends, especially in autumn and winter. Thus the venue is well attended not only in the summer months.
Not far from Neu Venedig, on the opposite bank, is the Müggelseefischerei. It is similarly popular, because the Thamm family offers an excellent fish snack here on weekends during the warm season.
A mention must also be made of the rowboat ferry F24, whose landing stage Kruggasse lies immediately next to the Müggelseefischerei.
The rowboat ferry operates only between Kruggasse in the old fishing village of Rahnsdorf and the opposite bank (Schönhorst settlement), with the ferryman indeed transporting his passengers in the rowboat by physical muscle power. A solar-powered electric ferry, the F23, also runs on the Müggelspree. Like that ferry, the rowboat ferry is operated by the BVG, so it can be used with Berlin public transport tickets. When the BVG tried to discontinue the rowboat ferry in 2013 for cost reasons, a storm of protest erupted throughout Köpenick. The BVG then backed down — since then this curiosity has been preserved for us.
Neu Venedig
As Neu Venedig is called, a residential and weekend-house settlement in the Rahnsdorf district of Hessenwinkel in Berlin is designated. It lies halfway along the Müggelspree between Dämeritzsee and Müggelsee and south of the Fürstenwalder Allee. The special charm of Neu Venedig consists of a delta-like network of canals that are connected to the Müggelspree at two points (see Fig. 42). Almost all plots in this area have direct access to one of the canals. Most of these waterfront plots have a boat jetty, several even a boathouse or their own slipway. In GDR times many SED officials and prominents had their weekend plots here (e.g. Frank Schöbel & Aurora Lacasa).
“The origin of Neu Venedig goes back to the year 1890. At that time the Rahnsdorf estate was sold and, together with the Hessenwinkel estate, was acquired by the town of Köpenick. The lands also included the marshy Spree meadows, a floodplain of the Spree below the manor house, which stood at Fürstenwalder Allee/Kuckucksweg corner, to the right on the footpath to Neu Venedig. In 1945 it was set on fire during the advance of the Red Army by the resident, who shot his family and himself in the flames.
(Source: Neu Venedig website)
In 1925 the Köpenick building authority drew up a development plan for part of the Spree meadows to create a settlement area with canal connections to the Müggelspree for Berlin water-sports enthusiasts. From 1926 the wet meadows were drained by canals. The area was initially called “Neu-Kamerun”. Five kilometres of canals were created, flowing around six islands. Wooden bridges, including arched ones, were built over the canals. During the works the name “Neu Venedig” was officially introduced.
From 1928 the “Neu-Rahnsdorfer Terrain Actiengesellschaft” was commissioned with the parceling and sale of the waterfront plots. 374 waterfront plots were created between Fürstenwalder Allee and the Müggelspree, almost all of which are privately owned. From 1933 to 1935 the swampy paths of Neu Venedig were raised by almost one metre with the excavation of the Gosener Canal, which was completed in 1936, using a light railway. Incidentally, the old Jannowitzbrücke served as the bridge over the Spree for the light railway; it had been transported here on ships. The waterfront plots were sold from 600 square metres at a price from 3,50 Reichsmark per m². In the middle of the island Elsterweg/Lerchenweg a small allotment garden with 21 plots without canal connection was created in 1960 on land belonging to the state of Berlin. Today the five-kilometre canal system of Neu Venedig spans ten road bridges and three footbridges.”
The canals in Neu Venedig are on average only about 50 cm deep and therefore freeze solid even during short cold spells, so that the ice can bear weight. The last time this happened was in 2021. At that time all citizens were still subject to the restrictions due to the Corona pandemic, so a walk on the ice – without the bothersome mask – was highly welcome! Since all plots in Neu Venedig have water access, they are still in high demand today. The standard land value currently (2022) amounts to 500 €/m² on the edge and 600 €/m² in the centre of Neu Venedig – and that despite the fact that the plots in this area have so far had no connection to the wastewater sewer system of Berliner Wasserbetriebe.
Hessenwinkel
After we pass Neu Venedig – on our left in the direction we are travelling – and the last bungalows of the Schönhorst settlement – on the right – we reach Hessenwinkel.
The built-up area of Hessenwinkel lies mostly to the left of the Müggelspree, with only the so-called “island” on our right in the direction of travel. The “island” came into being with the construction of the Spree Canal, which was completed in 1880. This eliminated the previously difficult entrance for ships into the Spree at the “Dämeritzer Loch”. For many years the “island” could only be reached by boat. That changed with the construction of the Triglawbrücke in 1912. The Triglaw Bridge is a 52,20-metre-long steel bridge built as a truss. The bridge was extensively renovated in 2000 and today can carry loads of up to 30 tonnes. It is named after Triglaw, the highest deity of the Poles, Sorbs and Wends.
Settlement in Hessenwinkel on a larger scale only began at the end of the 19th century, mostly with villas or detached houses.
«The builders, predominantly entrepreneurs, businessmen, artists and senior officials, mostly came from Berlin. They preferred private prestige. Many drove to their workplaces by car.»
(Helmut Lehmann with contributions by Heinrich Jendro and Werner Zimmermann: Life Between the Lakes, trafo Literaturverlag Berlin 2009)
The settlement was initiated by a “Terraingesellschaft” founded in 1891. It acquired, together with the former estate Hessenwinkel, a plot that was – by today’s standards – enormous, which after parcelling out was sold in plot sizes of several thousand square metres.
The Terraingesellschaft also erected the so‑called Hessenwinkel clubhouse, on whose land the DämeritzSeeHotel now stands.
At the end of July 1904 Rosa Luxemburg wrote in one of her letters from Hessenwinkel about this area:
«By the way … it is wonderful here: forest for hours, lakes … and idyllic tranquillity. The charms of this surroundings have gradually entered my soul…
(Rosa Luxemburg: Letters to Karl and Luise Kautsky (1896 to 1918), ed. Luise Kautsky)
Imagine me here in a kind of paradise before the expulsion of Adam with family: I encounter at every step all sorts of animals that I otherwise only saw in the zoo behind a barrier…»
At that time there were only a few villas in Hessenwinkel, primarily on the Dämeritzsee. In the meantime Hessenwinkel has improved considerably and “thanks” to BER the “idyllic tranquillity” is occasionally interrupted by an aeroplane. What has remained, however, is lots of forest and water and “all sorts of animals”, with raccoons even adding a new species…
