Wusterhausener Bär

Wusterhausener Bär stands in Köllnischer Park, in Berlin’s Mitte district, as a small round tower surrounded by urban parkland. It is the last surviving part of Berlin’s former defensive waterworks, built after the Thirty Years’ War. Two moats once branched from the Spree near Jannowitzbrücke and rejoined it near the Bode Museum. Weirs controlled their water levels and supported mills that powered local trades.

Thick masonry, adjustable gates and sloping tops made these structures both practical and difficult to cross. A central tower blocked passage, while its size limited the debris if attackers destroyed it. The surviving tower belonged to the Oberbär, later linked to the road towards Königs Wusterhausen. Friedrich Wilhelm I renewed it in 1718, adding a small sandstone figure and an inscription. As the Green Canal narrowed and disappeared, the tower stood on dry ground near Neue Jakobstraße before monument enthusiasts moved it to the park in 1893. Its unusual silhouette preserves a fragment of Berlin’s vanished canals, mills and defensive landscape.