Wannsee - History

History

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.

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.

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.

On 20 January 1942, senior Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Villa (built 1914-1915) to plan the Final Solution to the "Jewish Question" – the extermination of the Jews of Europe. This 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.