The park was originally conceived by the landscape gardener
Peter Joseph Lenné, and in 1840 the Berlin
city council decided to construct it on the occasion of the
centennial of
Frederick the Great's ascension to the
Prussian throne. The oldest parts of the park were laid out in 1846-1848 based on plans by
Johann Heinrich Gustav Meyer, a
landscape architect who held the post of city park director, and learned his
craft in the botanical garden of
Schöneberg. The park was constructed on the space of a former
vineyard, and officially opened in 1848 with an area of 46 hectares.
Mid 19th Century - 1945 (1913) The size, shape, and layout of the park have changed over the intervening years. In 1848, the
Friedhof der Märzgefallenen (a cemetery commemorating those who died in the
March revolution) was created. Another of the earliest changes was due to the construction of Berlin's first urban
hospital, , which was built in 1868 to 1874 in the southeast part of the park. The hospital, which was designed by
Martin Gropius and
Heino Schmieden, was originally directed by the notable
Rudolf Virchow. An element of the park that has survived the destruction wrought during the
Second World War is the (). Designed in 1913 by Berlin's city building director,
Ludwig Hoffmann, the fountain contains 106 stone sculptures representing characters from traditional German fairy tales. The fountain was created for the children of Berlin, during a time in which
rickets and
typhoid were
endemic, and took 12 years to complete. The Second World War had a dramatic impact upon the rest of the park. The
Nazi military made use of the park, constructing
flak towers in 1941, as well as
bunkers, and as a result much of the park was destroyed by
Allied bombing during the war.
Post-1945 Reconstruction At the end of the war Berlin was divided into four parts by the Allied Powers, and the resided in the
Soviet Sector. The reconstruction of the park was therefore undertaken by the
German Democratic Republic (GDR). A plan was devised by , the GDR director of landscape and park architecture, to create two small artificial
mountains in the park out of rubble from the bombed-out city. In 1946 the bunkers were destroyed, filled, and covered by over two million cubic meters of
rubble from the
ruins of destroyed
buildings. The larger of the two hills became known as both and (), and is tall. The smaller hill, "" (), has a height of . With the passage of time and the growth of greenery, the hills now appear to be completely natural features. The park continued its evolution during the
Cold War. An
open air theater was constructed at the southern end of the park in 1950, and after recent renovation remains open today. In preparation for the
3rd World Festival of Youth an Students two
pools were constructed during the period from 1949–1951. The complex included a 5-meter deep pool for diving, and an 8-lane, long swimming pool, along with stands for up to 8,000 spectators (). Around 1963, the swimming pool received a collapsible mobile roof that allowed for winter use, although the roof was incorrectly constructed as it was too low. School swimming events, competitions training took place at the stadium, and it also served for other mass events such as the appearance of during the
10th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1973. Due to the conditions of the pool basins and degradation of the bleachers, the facility was demolished in 1999. Only the four lantern pillars of the western gate remain, which were made in the workshop of in 1951. In GDR times, a youth recreation camp existed in the park, the (). The period from 1995 to 2004 saw a period of renovation and reconstruction, during which the () was cleaned of a great deal of
vandalism that had taken place following
German reunification. The swimming pools built in the GDR period have been replaced by a sports complex for
beach volleyball,
rock climbing,
skateboarding, and
cycling. ==Monuments==