Volkspark Friedrichshain

Volkspark Friedrichshain is a large urban park on the border of the Berlin neighborhoods of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. The oldest public park in Berlin, at 52 hectares, it is also the fourth-largest, after Tempelhofer Park (>300 hectares), Tiergarten (210 hectares), and Jungfernheide (146 hectares).HistoryThe 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.