Hasenheide Park, covering an area of 56 hectares/138 acres and situated in a densely populated part of Berlin, was laid out by Peter Joseph Lenné in 1838. From 1878 it was used as a shooting range by the Berlin garrison, and it became a public park only in 1936-39. After the Second World War it was extended to take in the Rixdorfer Höhe, a hill 69.5m/230ft high formed of rubble from buildings destroyed during the war.
A nature trail was laid out and a wide variety of facilities for recreation and relaxation were provided - wide expanses of grass, children's playgrounds, enclosures in which animals could range at liberty, heath and rhododendron gardens and an open-air theater. To Berliners the Hasenheide is closely associated with the name of "Turnvater" Jahn - Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who opened the first gymnasium in Germany here in 1810 with the idea of toughening the youth of Prussia by a Spartan way of life and the practice of gymnastics.
However, his outspoken political opinions displeased the authorities. He was arrested, his gymnasium closed in 1819 and the practice of gymnastics prohibited. Subsequently, Jahn was not allowed within ten miles of the city. There is now a monument to him in the park (by Erdmann Encke, 1872).
There is another monument in the park commemorating a very different historical situation. Erected in 1955 on the Rixdorfer Höhe, this monument by Katharina Singer honors the "Trümmerfrauen", the "rubble women" who played their part in the rebuilding of Berlin after the war.
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