Description

About 40 minutes west of Berlin’s city centre you’ll come across Grünewald, a sprawling forest with over 100 miles of interwoven paths leading runners away from the city lights and towards the feeling of being completely immersed in nature.

This circular run begins and ends in the Teufelsberg carpark, found just off Teufelssee Chaussee.

You'll start with a steep climb up to the top of Drachenberg (99m), where you will be greeted by expansive views across the city.

You then climb a little further up to the famous Teufelsberg, or “Devil’s Mountain,” a 120m-high manmade hill made of rubble from WWII.

**Teufelsberg History** From the end of the war until 1972, the debris of around 15,000 of Berlin’s war-damaged buildings was dumped at the Teufelsberg site.

Then for a brief period in the 60s and 70s, the mound of rubble was turned into a winter-sports playground for West Berliners, complete with ski lifts, ski jumps, and a toboggan run.

But as the Cold War tensions grew, the allies built a listening station at Teufelsberg’s summit, which was used by the National State Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Echelon global intelligence network to listen in on the GDR and the Soviet Union right up until the fall of the wall in 1989.

The remnants of the eerie, sci-fi-like listening tower still loom large above the flat forested landscape.

The trail takes you around the listening tower, down the other side of the hill, and then towards Teufelssee, one of Berlin’s popular FKK swimming lakes.

The route then goes along a footpath in the forest, making a wide, sweeping loop before bringing you back up to Teufelsberg and Drachenberg, eventually landing you right back in the Teufelsberg carpark.

Written by Fionnuala Kavanagh **Sources** https://www.dw.com/en/teufelsberg-mirrors-berlins-dramatic-history/a-17074597 https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/a-brief-history-of-teufelsberg/ https://www.thelocal.de/20170504/10-incredible-facts-about-the-teufelsberg-spy-station-in-berlin-list