Strandbad Wannsee

The facilities laid out for about 12,000 bathers provide a beach, including a separate nudist-section, strandkorbs and deckchairs, a slide at the end of the shallower water area as well as playground, park and a promenade that was a prominent part of the historical plans for the establishment.

Large housing projects were planned and realized, cramping the working population close together in small flats, with little light and less fresh air.

In 1907, the administration of the Brandenburg Teltow district, southwest of Berlin, then the cognisant authority over the area, gave in to public pressure and officially allowed bathing on a 200-metre stretch of beach.

Tents, erected at the foot of the steeper incline towards the forest served as changing facilities, according to sections, and booths and mobile vendors provided services.

Plans to erect a permanent building at the site had come up as early as 1910, by Martin Wagner, later municipal construction director, but had been delayed due to the First World War.

Now, the municipality of Berlin tasked the same Martin Wagner and colleague Richard Ermisch, both employees of the city and experienced in public building, with planning a large scale improvement project.

Initially, the budget had been a sum of 5 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ that was supposed to have been spent on an additional five of the two-storeyed halls, as well as a large, circular main restaurant, a pier with a café on it, a marina and an open-air theater.

Of all that, only the existing four-structure complex was realized, and only after the maior visited the site to see that most of the reduced project had already been built and would not require much further work.

On the other hand, with Nazism growing, fights between various political groups, as well as the staff, damaged the reputation of the lido as well as that of the director, Hermann Clajus, who had been in this position since 1926 and was responsible for the continued development of the site.

In 1947, again 615000 people pay their fee, and in 1951, Conny Froboess sang Pack die Badehose ein (literally 'Pack your swimming trunks), one of the great hits of that time.

[6] Due to financial restraints, not all of the buildings have been fully restored: notably the former restaurant, aptly named "Lido", is still in its old derelict state.

For the Strandbad Wannsee, preferred material for facades is yellow clinker, the bricks lending the complex its characteristic hue.

The complex consists of four large two-storeyed buildings, arranged in a row along and close to the hill flank parallel to the beach line.

In the 1930s, a restaurant on the premises, called "Wannseeterrassen" (Wannsee terraces) was erected in a manner that intentionally contrasted the modern designs by Ermisch with a more traditionally styled structure.