Malchower Aue Nature Reserve: Mapped Protected Landscapes and Glacial Terrain in Berlin

The history of Malchower Aue begins at the end of the Weichselian glaciation, when retreating ice released meltwaters that cut a shallow channel into the Barnim plateau. Over time this channel lost its open water through natural silting and peat formation, gradually transforming into a lowland bog whose southern end connected to the Malchower See.

In the eighteenth century, the moor was drained by a ditch that still exists today under the name Dorfgraben Malchow, and the resulting land was used as meadow. The reserve's history then became tied to the larger Malchower Rieselfelder, the sewage irrigation fields that supplied Berlin's wastewater management from 1884 to 1969 and largely defined the agricultural pattern of the surrounding area. In 1931, an allotment garden complex known as Kleingartenanlage Wiesenhöhe was established within what is now the reserve, and it was expanded in 1951.

During the 1970s and 1980s the site underwent dramatic physical change. Meadow use was largely abandoned in 1979, and extensive peat extraction took place between 1979 and 1983, producing the seven characteristic ponds that still define parts of the reserve today. Some of the excavated ground was filled with building rubble and excavated soil from the construction of the Hohenschönhausen-Nord prefabricated housing estate, built between 1981 and 1989. In 1985 planners proposed a Volkspark Malchower See that would have transformed the Malchower Aue spoil heaps into a winter-sports hill with a viewpoint, but the plan was halted by the political upheaval of 1989 and German reunification.

After 1990 the surrounding Plattenbau estates were renovated, and a concrete-rubble depot was added to the existing soil mound. In 1994 the two resulting hills were sealed with additional topsoil from the Linden-Center construction project, the depot was closed, and the landscape was redirected toward ecological rather than industrial use. Recognising the importance of the surviving peat meadows, peat cuts, and adjacent alder swamp forest, the state of Berlin formally designated the area as a nature reserve on 7 March 1995.

The landscape of Malchower Aue is shaped by the smooth, low-relief terrain of the Barnim, a glacial plateau that carries the scars of the last ice age. The defining feature is a north-south meltwater channel, now almost fully vegetated, that once connected northward across the plateau and today drains southward toward the Malchower See at the reserve's southern edge.

Within this broader setting the reserve presents a mixture of gently undulating wetland and several distinct man-made elevations. The flat lowland is occupied by wet meadows, varying degrees of degraded peatland, and patches of alder swamp forest where the ground stays saturated throughout much of the year. Scattered across this floor are seven small peat-cutting ponds, each surrounded by reed beds, which together form one of the most recognisable visual signatures of the reserve.

In the south-eastern part of the site the otherwise low terrain rises into a pair of hills created by the deposition of construction spoil. After the loading of rubble and soil stopped, the mounds were sealed and revegetated, and today they support a community of warm-loving grasses and herbs that contrasts sharply with the wet surroundings. A viewpoint on top of the higher mound offers an elevated outlook over the wetland below and gives a sense of the reserve's compact yet varied relief.

Ecologically, Malchower Aue functions as a small but unusually diverse patch of wet and dry habitat pressed against the urban fabric of eastern Berlin. Its core is built around the remains of a lowland bog, or Niedermoor, whose peat-forming plant communities survive mainly as fragments. Surrounding these remnants are damp meadows, alder-dominated swamp forest, and a network of peat-cutting ponds bordered by reeds where open water and emergent vegetation coexist.

The site's vegetation structure is sharply layered. On the low ground, typical wetland species dominate, while the artificially elevated areas in the south-east have been colonised by warmth-loving plants typical of drier substrates, including elements characteristic of semi-dry grasslands, an unusual vegetation type in a setting otherwise defined by peatland and swamp. Scattered pollarded willows add a structurally old and biologically rich element to the landscape.

The reserves also contains herb-rich grassland communities and varied transitional zones between wet meadow, reed bed, swamp forest, and dry mound. These transitions create the edge habitats that support many of the site's animal species, particularly invertebrates, amphibians, and birds. The combination of water, reed, open meadow, woodland, and dry grassland within a single small site gives Malchower Aue a disproportionately high ecological richness for its area.

The wildlife of Malchower Aue reflects the diversity of its habitats and the proximity of the reserve to larger wetlands associated with the Malchower See and Berlin's broader waterway network. More than 300 species of higher plants have been recorded, alongside roughly 40 bird species, six amphibian species, seven fish species, and the larvae of about 20 different dragonflies.

Among the more notable bird species are breeding or regularly occurring wetland and scrub species such as the kingfisher, penduline tit, reed warbler, reed bunting, and tufted duck, and the area also hosts transient and feeding visitors such as the white stork. The mix of wet meadow, reeds, and adjacent dry grassland supports whinchat, goldfinch, and common nightingale, while the swamp-forest patches and wooded edges attract woodpeckers, including the green woodpecker.

Amphibians are particularly well represented, reflecting the importance of the peat-cutting ponds as breeding habitat. Common toads and common frogs breed in and around the open water, while dragonfly larvae thrive in the still, vegetated pools. Fish populations include the three-spined stickleback, which tolerates the shallow, variable conditions of the ponds. The reserve's small mammals include the harvest mouse, often associated with tall reed and grass stands. Pollinators and other invertebrates are also notable, with recorded species such as the swallowtail butterfly, the common blue, and the six-spot burnet moth.

The conservation significance of Malchower Aue lies in its role as a refuge for a peatland-related ecosystem inside a heavily urbanised capital city. Designated as a Naturschutzgebiet on 7 March 1995 under the code NSG-27, it protects one of the few surviving fragments of lowland bog and alder swamp forest within Berlin's Lichtenberg district.

The reserve is valued for preserving the chain of small peat-cutting ponds and their fringe of reeds, which are now a scarce habitat type in the city. Equally important is the site's small remnant of true Bruchwald, or waterlogged alder swamp forest, a habitat that has been historically reduced across Brandenburg and Berlin through drainage and conversion to other land uses.

The 1995 designation was also aimed at halting further damage to the remaining peat meadows and at stabilising the unique juxtaposition of wet and dry habitats that had emerged after decades of peat extraction, dumping, and partial recovery. Because of these qualities, Malchower Aue is recognised not only as a local nature reserve but as an element within the larger network of protected sites across Berlin contributing to the conservation of wetland and peatland habitats in a metropolitan setting.

Malchower Aue sits within the historic village landscape of Berlin-Malchow, one of the older rural settlements that was gradually absorbed into the expanding city. The traditional relationship between the village and its surrounding wet land shaped centuries of land use, from meadowland farming to the drainage works of the eighteenth century that still define the area's hydrology today.

A particularly distinctive late-modern chapter is the reserve's role in Berlin's Rieselfeld system, the sewage irrigation fields that operated from 1884 to 1969. Although most Rieselfelder have since been redeveloped, the Malchower Aue preserves a small fragment of that infrastructure's legacy within a predominantly natural context. The site's allotment gardens, founded in 1931 and expanded in 1951, also reflect a broader German tradition of small-scale urban gardening that continues in many neighbourhoods.

The reserve's network of named paths, marked with green signs and white lettering in the style of city streets, is a more recent cultural expression. This naming system echoes urban Berlin traditions and makes the protected area feel like an extension of the local community's everyday space. The Max-und Herta Naujocks-Weg, the most prominent of these paths, links the reserve to the village, the lake, and the wider district, reinforcing the sense that Malchower Aue is as much a part of local identity as it is a piece of ecological infrastructure.

A compact nature reserve that combines surviving lowland bog, alder swamp forest, and a chain of peat-cutting ponds with a surprisingly dry, warm-loving grassland on old spoil mounds. A protected fragment of the Barnim glacial plateau in the middle of eastern Berlin, with more than 300 recorded plant species and a rich dragonfly and amphibian fauna. A layered cultural landscape telling the story of drainage, sewage irrigation, peat extraction, post-war housing construction, and reunification-era restoration. A named network of walking and cycling paths, including the Max-und Herta Naujocks-Weg, that integrate the reserve into the everyday life of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Malchower Aue can be appreciated throughout much of the year, but the warmer months generally bring out its character most fully. Late spring and early summer highlight the wetland edges, when reeds and meadow plants are in full growth and amphibians are most active around the peat-cutting ponds. Summer offers the best chance to see dragonflies and butterflies along the transition zones between wet and dry habitat, and to experience the warm-loving grassland on the spoil mounds at its most expressive.

Autumn brings its own appeal through the changing colours of the alder swamp forest and the arrival of migratory and wintering waterbirds associated with the broader wetland network around the Malchower See. In winter the open landscape is largely exposed, the ponds and reeds become quieter, and the elevated viewpoint on the spoil mound offers one of the clearest overviews of the reserve's shape and structure. Because the site has a network of formal paths integrated into the urban fabric, quiet weekday visits can be especially rewarding for those seeking close observation of birds, amphibians, and insects.