Plötzensee is part of a chain of lakes stretching from the northeast to the Spree valley, formed in the last ice age. Today Cultural center located in the first public bath, opened about 1850. Over the years, there has been an army sporting ground, a man-made beach, an inn, and the conversion of the shore into a public park in the 1920s.
Plötzensee also gives its name to Plötzensee Prison, built nearby in the 19th century, which reached its height of notoriety in the time of Nazi Germany.
