The Lustgarten: From Royal Garden to Nazi Rally Ground to Berlin's Favorite Picnic Spot

If you stand on Museum Island between the Berliner Dom and the Altes Museum, you'll notice a large open green space where people sit on the grass, eat ice cream, and take photos. It looks like just a nice park.

This is the Lustgarten — and its history is anything but peaceful. This square has been reinvented more times than almost any other space in Berlin.

A Garden for the King (1573)

The name Lustgarten translates to "Pleasure Garden." It was originally created in 1573 as a kitchen and herb garden for the Berlin Palace (the building that later became the Humboldt Forum). Over the following centuries it was redesigned multiple times — at one point featuring exotic plants, fountains, and orange trees in the Baroque style.

Then in 1713, the "Soldier King" Friedrich Wilhelm I decided gardens were frivolous. He paved over the entire thing and turned it into a military drill ground.

Schinkel's Vision (1830s)

When the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel built the Altes Museum in 1830, he redesigned the Lustgarten as the grand public square we see the basic outline of today. A granite bowl — the largest in the world at the time, carved from a single glacial boulder — was placed in the center. It's still there. Most tourists walk past it without realizing it weighs 75 tons.

The Nazi Era

In 1934, the Nazis paved over the gardens again and turned the Lustgarten into a massive rally ground. Joseph Goebbels used it for propaganda events, and it became one of the key locations for Nazi mass gatherings in Berlin. The green space disappeared under stone and asphalt.

Thousands of people stood in this exact spot, listening to speeches that would lead to catastrophe. It's a history that's invisible today, but it happened right here.

GDR and Reunification

After the war, the East German government renamed it Marx-Engels-Platz (the neighboring area) and used the space for state events. After reunification, Berlin restored the lawns and returned the name to Lustgarten. Today it's a place where people relax, take in the views, and enjoy the sun — without any idea of what happened on the ground beneath them.

See It on Our Free Tour

The Lustgarten sits right between Stop 8 (Berliner Dom) and Stop 9 (Altes Museum) on our walking tour. We walk through this space and tell its full story — from pleasure garden to propaganda ground to picnic spot.

Book your free spot now. From Alexanderplatz to Hackescher Markt — 800 years of history, zero entrance fees. Tip-based, always.