A small kettle-bog nature reserve in southeast Berlin, anchored by the cold-water Teufelssee.
Teufelsseemoor Köpenick
Teufelsseemoor Köpenick is a small nature reserve in the Köpenick district of Berlin, Germany, recognized both as a protected area under German nature conservation law and as a Natura 2000 site of European importance. Covering roughly 6.4 hectares, it sits at the northern foot of the Müggelberge hill range, between the Müggelheimer Damm road to the north and the wooded slopes of the Müggelberge to the south. The reserve is best known for its glacial origins: it formed inside a kettle hole left behind by a retreating Weichselian ice sheet, which after filling with meltwater and accumulating organic matter over centuries became a kettle bog dominated by peat mosses and small sedge communities.
The site is centered on the Teufelssee, the lake that fills the original dead-ice depression, and the surrounding wetland transitions into sedge mats, moors, and alder swamp forest. Its protected status reflects both the rarity of intact kettle-bog ecosystems in a major urban setting and the ecological value of the habitats it preserves. Despite its modest size, the reserve supports an unusual concentration of peatland flora and bog-related fauna, including sundews, large white-faced dragonflies, moor frogs, and protected amphibians such as the northern crested newt.
Teufelsseemoor Köpenick also has a layered human history. It once received thousands of tons of postwar construction debris, which was later removed in a major cleanup, and it now offers visitors a wooden boardwalk and a forest education trail managed by the Berlin Forestry Office. The combination of glacial geology, remnant peatland habitats, conservation significance, and accessible interpretation infrastructure gives this small urban reserve a distinctive identity within Berlin's broader protected-area network.
