Havel - Badestelle Kuhhorn

Kuhhorn bathing spot: wild Havel beach under Grunewald pines

Kuhhorn is a headland on the eastern bank of the Lower Havel, about half a kilometer north of the Grunewald Tower. Those who swim here do so not in a lake, but in a federal waterway: The Lower Havel stretches from Pichelsdorfer Gmünd to the state border in Jungfernsee, is fed by the Upper Havel and Spree, and is accordingly busy with traffic, from passenger ships to sailboats. Surrounding it is the Grunewald, under a triple protection status: a landscape protection area according to the Grunewald Protection Ordinance, a Fauna-Flora-Habitat area, and a bird sanctuary. To protect these areas, the shore has deliberately remained undeveloped: no sunbathing lawns, no jetties, no snack bar. This is precisely why people come here. You walk from the Havelweg through pines to the water, find small bays and a narrow strip of sand, and often have only coots for company on weekdays. Opposite lies Gatow, in the evening the sun sets directly over the western bank, and because the shore faces west, the water stays warm well into the evening.

Freely accessible, but without supervision or infrastructure

An important classification for Kuhhorn is that it is not an officially designated bathing spot. Swimming is permitted in this section of the Havel according to the Berlin Bathing Water Ordinance, but there is no official water monitoring, no bathing traffic light, no water rescue, no toilets, and no kiosk here. If you value tested values, walk 600 meters further to the Grunewald Tower, which is an official bathing spot with an excellent rating. Two rules apply regardless: swimming is not allowed in the fairway or its immediate vicinity, nor within 50 meters of jetties and ferries. For the entire Lower Havel, it also applies that larger blue-green algae accumulations can form in late summer and that after heavy rain, overflows from the combined sewer system can reduce water quality. Admission is free; you must bring everything yourself, including a bag for your own trash. Additionally, there is a special feature of the Lower Havel: because the Ruhleben sewage treatment plant discharges a partial flow of disinfected clear water into the Spree, hygiene here can only be partially assessed based on typical germ counts alone. By bus 218 to Schildhorn, it’s about a 900-meter walk along the shore.