page_title: Wannsee
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wannsee / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Jagdschloss Glienicke von Babelsberg aus Juli 2014
context_page_description: Wannsee is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee and the Kleiner Wannsee, are located on the River Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee Bridge. The larger of the two lakes covers an area of 2.7 km² and has a maximum depth of 9 m
context_section_description: The history of Wannsee as a sublime suburb of Berlin began when "Great Elector" Frederick William of Brandenburg ordered the construction of a hunting lodge, the Jagdschloss Glienicke. The castle remained for generations the hunting lodge of the Hohenzollern family and was rebuilt and expanded several times during this time. 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 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 the 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.
  In 1928, a large shooting range was established in the Düppel woods near the Berlin city limits. It was the site of the shooting part of the shooting events of the 1936 Summer Olympics. A golf course hosted the running part of the modern pentathlon at those 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 from the allies to Germany, 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 Final Solution to the "Jewish Question", 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.
  In 1944, after the failure of the assassination attempt on Hitler in which he had been involved, senior SS and Gestapo official Arthur Nebe went into hiding on an island in the Wannsee but was later arrested after a rejected mistress betrayed him.
caption: Jagdschloss Glienicke at the Havel river
exif: {"Image Make": "CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD.", "Image Model": "EX-ZR200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "1.00", "Image DateTime": "2014:07:11 14:54:21", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "282", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, 22, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 16, 131, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "12720", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7890", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "47/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:07:11 14:54:21", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:07:11 14:54:21", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "595/108", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "16/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "121/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4608", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "12596", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "68", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "\u0010\u0013a\u0012I#p!"}