Müggelturm

The Müggelturm (“Müggel Tower”) is a popular day-trip destination in Köpenick, in southeastern Berlin, Germany. It is located to the south of the Müggelsee lake in the Müggelberg hills atop the Kleiner Müggelberg (“Small Müggelhill”). Berlin’s highest natural elevation is the nearby Großer Müggelberg at 115 m.

Access

The Müggelturm area can be reached from the former Marienlust restaurant to the south at the River Dahme via a footpath ending in a stairway (374 steps), or from lake Teufelssee in the northeast up another stairway (111 steps). From the street Müggelheimer Damm there is a road leading to the tower (named Straße zum Müggelturm), but cars must be left at a parking lot a few hundred metres before the plateau.

The early towers

In 1880, Carl Spindler, owner of the Köpenick laundry and dyeworks W. Spindler (and source of the name of the Berlin district Spindlersfeld), had a 10 m high wooden lookout tower, known as the Spindlerturm, built on the Kleiner Müggelberg. Because of its low height there was not much of a view and it accordingly attracted few visitors. In 1889 Spinder spent 40,000 marks to extend the tower, now 27 metres high, and choosing an architecture reminiscent of a pagoda, It opened to the public on 1 April 1890 and had a quadratic base of 5 m per side tapering to 4.2 m above the restaurant and 2.8 m at the viewing platform. This tower was also a wooden construction and had a shingled facing. The architect was Max Jacob; and the first restaurant manager was Carl Streichhahn. The enlarged tower and its restaurant rapidly became a popular excursion destination. From the platform at the top a panoramic view extended as far as 50 km on clear days and included the region’s forest and lake landscape and the Berlin skyline. There were some 52,000 visitors already in its first year of operation.