Lietzensee Park

The Lietzensee is an inner-city lake in the Charlottenburg area of Berlin, curved like a crescent, roughly 16 acres (6.6 hectares) in size and ten to thirteen feet deep. The park as it stands was created from 1918 to 1920 as a public works project, to designs by the Charlottenburg director of gardens Erwin Barth, who took office in 1912. A 1910 decision by the city assembly had already prevented the west and north shores from being built over entirely, which is why the green space survives. The bridge carrying Neue Kantstraße splits the lake into a northern and a southern section.

The defining structures are the Große Kaskade at the southern end, designed in 1912 and 1913 by Erwin Barth and Heinrich Seeling and restored in 2005 and 2006, and the Kleine Kaskade on the northwest shore. The park keeper's house of 1925 and 1926 is by Rudolf Walter. Both the keeper's house and the Große Kaskade are protected historic monuments. Around the lake, stately apartment buildings from the imperial era recall the well-heeled origins of the neighborhood, and small additional green spaces survive at Witzlebenplatz, Kuno-Fischer-Platz and Dernburgplatz.

For visitors, Lietzensee Park is above all a place to breathe. The shoreline promenade runs just under 1.6 miles, and a wider park loop of about three miles is popular with runners. You can stroll along the water, watch the ducks from a bench or take a break from the noise of the city among old trees. If you like, combine the detour with the nearby radio tower and the exhibition grounds, only a few minutes away on foot.