Großer Wannsee

Wannsee beach is a protected monument

The Great Wannsee (old name: Wannensee ) is hydrologically considered a bay of the Havel. He belongs to the so-called Kladower sea crossing, the twelve miles long extending from the Spandau local situation Pichelsdorf to Meedehorn at Potsdam Sacrow, bordered by typical river -like Havel sections upstream (from the Spandau Citadel to Pichelsdorfer Gemuend ) and the Havel Enge near Sacrow downstream. The delineation of the Great Lake Wannsee from the Kladower sea crossing is an imaginary line from the Schwanenwerder bridge ( country side ) in the east to the Great depth Horn in the West. The Great Wannsee is located in the south-western Berlin district of Steglitz -Zehlendorf. The shortened name always refers to the Wannsee Wannsee, never the less significant Kleiner Wannsee, which joins the last lake of the Griebnitzkanals on the north side of the bridge in the Wannsee Wannsee.

The Great Wannsee (GWS ), with a length of 2.53 kilometers, heard as a waterway class IV to federal waterway Lower Havel waterway for which the Water and Shipping Authority is responsible Berlin.

Havel, Wannsee, Griebnitzkanal, Pohlesee, Stolpchensee, Griebnitzsee and Glienicker Lake encircle the island-like Wannsee district of Berlin, located west of the Great Wannsee. To the north lies on the River Havel, the island Schwanenwerder and about a mile west lies downstream on the River Havel, Peacock Island.

The Wannsee beach is on the northern section of the eastern shore, and thus not in the district of Wannsee, but in the district Nikolasee. 1951 sang Conny Froboess: " Pack your swimming costume, take your little sister, and then nothin ' get out of ' Wannsee. " Naturally came the Wannsee as inner-city recreation area in the walled-in between 1961 and 1989 West Berlin of particular importance. With its elongated and listed building section of the building and its nude area it was until the fall of the Wall, the most popular summer weekend destination for people of West Berlin.

As a destination of the Wannsee also significant by the Passenger Shipping. There are trips on the lake and along the Havel or Griebnitzkanals to Potsdam, Werder or Tegel. The pier is located at the south end of the lake near the Wannsee bridge and of the S-Bahn station Wannsee. There lay on the ferry to Kladow on the opposite bank of the Havel.

At the Villa Marlier on the western shore of the Great Lake Wannsee was held on 20 January 1942 a secret meeting of high-ranking representatives of the Nazi Reich authorities and party offices, were discussed at the details of the already adopted the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question ". This meeting was later called " Wannsee Conference" known; the villa is a memorial and exhibition center today.