Looking to cool off right in the middle of the city? There are various options in Berlin—whether it’s at the “Swim Along” demonstration this Thursday in the Spree or right in front of one of the city’s most famous theaters. But where can the kids cool off while splashing and playing? We have a special tip for you today: The Plansche Singerstraße is a free water playground right in the heart of Berlin-Mitte. Its history is particularly fascinating: The facility dates back to the 1960s, underwent extensive renovations over several years, and was completely reopened in 2024. Today, it combines water fun and play areas with green spaces and a multigenerational outdoor fitness park.
The water playground is located on Singerstraße in 10179 Berlin-Mitte, south of Karl-Marx-Allee and in the Alexanderplatz district. The district office specifies the location as Singerstraße, across from the Max-Planck-Gymnasium at Singerstraße 8a. The Plansche itself covers an area of 930 m². Today, it is not simply a traditional wading pool but has been designed as a modern water playground. Among other features, it includes water jets, showers, and fountain poles that allow children to cool off on hot summer days.
Its history is also unusual. The Plansche wasdesigned in 1962–63 by landscape architect Rolf Timmler . Generations of children from the residential area around Karl-Marx-Allee grew up there. The original concept was heavily influenced by the enthusiasm for space travel at the time. The first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into space in 1957—and it was precisely this new space age that influenced the design of the Plansche.
The artist Baldur Schönfelder designed a special piece of playground equipment called the “Moon Station” for the original water playground. However, this historic climbing structure no longer exists today. During the redesign, the landscape architecture firm Levin Monsigny revisited this history—only this time, the Moon has become Mars.
The new site features a Mars station made of shiny stainless steel, designed to evoke the former space-themed play structure. The design of the ground also picks up on this theme: the red surface is meant to evoke the surface of Mars. This gives the wading pool a pretty cool visual angle: a historic GDR water playground with a space theme has been reimagined as a modern “Mars” playground after more than 60 years .
The old facility was in dire need of renovation and was closed in 2019. Construction finally began in December 2021. After more than three years of renovation, the new water play area was officially opened on June 20, 2024. Financially, the redesign was also a major project. The official project overview lists total costs of 2.025 million euros. In a later report on the reopening, the district office cites approximately 2.5 million euros for the redesign of the entire site. Funding came from federal and state urban development grants.
