at the
Havel river The history of Wannsee as an attractive suburb of Berlin began when "Great Elector"
Frederick William of Brandenburg ordered the construction of a hunting lodge, the
Jagdschloss Glienicke. The castle remained the hunting lodge of the
Hohenzollern family for generations, and was rebuilt and expanded several times. Today, the castle houses an institute for social education. In 1793, the
Prussian king
Frederick William II, a descendant of Frederick William, acquired the island Pfaueninsel (German: "
Peacock Island") in the
Havel river and had the Pfaueninsel castle built for himself and his mistress
Wilhelmine Enke in 1794–1797. Jagdschloss Glienicke and
Pfaueninsel castle are both part of the UNESCO
World Heritage Site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin. On 21 November 1811, German writer
Heinrich von Kleist shot himself on the shore of the
Kleiner Wannsee and, at her bidding, his lover, Henriette Vogel. A memorial marks the site.
Glienicke Palace (
German:
Schloss Glienicke) was designed in
neoclassical style by
Karl Friedrich Schinkel for Prince
Carl of Prussia in 1826. It used to be the summer palace of the prince. Together with the Russian style ensemble
Nikolskoe around the church
Ss. Peter and Paul (German: St. Peter und Paul) on the top of a hill on the banks of the
Havel river, it also belongs to the UNESCO
World Heritage Site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
Nikolskoe, consisting of the church, a cottage, a school and a cemetery, was established from 1813 to 1837 at the suggestion by a
Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the daughter of
King Frederick William III of Prussia. Her brother Prince Carl, constructor of Glienicke Palace, was buried in the church after his death. Today the church is especially popular for weddings and the cottage is housing a restaurant. The
Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee, the second oldest
yacht club in Germany, was established in October 1867 on a small wooden shack by River
Havel. In 1877 it moved to its present location at the edge of the lake. In 1909,
Max Liebermann, head of the
Berlin Secession, had a villa built at the western shore of the Wannsee. His widow was forced to sell it to the
Deutsche Reichspost in 1940. Today, the property is a museum in honor of the painter. Especially worth seeing is the garden, which was a popular Liebermann motif. was held In 1928, a large
shooting range was established in the
Düppel woods near the Berlin city limits. It was the site of the
shooting events of the
1936 Summer Olympics. A golf course hosted the running section of the
modern pentathlon at the same games. After
World War II, it was used by the
US Army as the "Rose Range" firing compound. In 1994, the shooting range was returned to Germany by the Allies, and is today used by the
DEVA institute. On 20 January 1942, senior Nazi officials met at the
Wannsee Villa (built 1914–1915) to ensure the cooperation of the major government organizations in "the organizational, logistical and material steps for a
final solution of the Jewish question in Europe" - the extermination of the Jews of Europe. The event, presided over by
Reinhard Heydrich and conducted by
Adolf Eichmann, has since become known as the
Wannsee Conference. Today, the building serves as a memorial and education centre. ==Transport==