Berlin's northernmost point is at the Rieselfelder meadows, a former sewage farm transformed into a rural area, part of the Buch Forest within the Barnim Nature Park.

Probably founded by Sprevane tribes, Buch gradually became a German village during the Ostsiedlung migration, instigated by the Ascanian margraves John I and Otto III of Brandenburg from the early 13th century onwards.

Devastated during the Thirty Years' War, the Buch area was quickly redeveloped under the rule of the "Great Elector" Frederick William.

The manor estates were purchased from the Voss family by the City of Berlin in 1898, in order to lay out the Rieselfelder sewage area according to plans by James Hobrecht.

The hospital area from 1928 hosted the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research led by neurologists Oskar Vogt, Cécile Vogt-Mugnier and biologist Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky; from 1931 it had its seat in a newly erected building designed by Carl Sattler.

During the Nazi era, headed by Hugo Spatz and Julius Hallervorden from 1937/38, it played a vital role in eugenics and racist research, and also in the Aktion T4 "euthanasia" program.