Hundewiesen auf dem Tempelhofer Feld

Three Fenced Areas on the Old Airfield

Tempelhofer Feld is the most obvious address for dog owners from the city center, for a reason that is rare in Berlin: There are fenced areas here. In the Senate’s list, the field is listed with three dog exercise areas. The official usage regulations of the field itself, however, only mention generally designated areas, without specifying location or number, so one must rely on on-site signage. Three meadows are distributed along the eastern, southeastern, and southwestern edges, accessible via the entrances at Tempelhofer Damm and Oderstraße. Anyone looking for a fenced dog run because their own dog cannot be reliably called back will find one of the few inner-city options here. The surrounding space adds to the appeal: More sky stretches over the field than over any other place in the city. The fact that the areas are fenced has another practical side effect: Cyclists, skaters, and kite flyers are active on the open field, and behind the fence, you don’t have to worry about them.

Why a Fence is an Exception in Berlin

To understand this, it’s worth looking at the system. The twelve dog exercise areas in the forest, totaling around 1,220 hectares, all have no fence, and this is intentional: Fenced areas and designated nature reserves are expressly not part of the exercise areas there; fences thus exclude rather than include. Fenced areas in Berlin are the responsibility of the districts, and their data situation is sparse: The Geoportal dataset on dog off-leash areas contains information from only four of the twelve districts. There is officially no total number of all dog exercise areas and off-leash areas at all, because no statistical recording takes place. What applies on the field outside the dog run, however, is clear: Leash rules apply there, and dogs are not allowed on designated sunbathing lawns and playgrounds. If you are looking for the meadow, you should plan that it is well-visited on warm afternoons and not every dog appreciates company in such density. It’s best to bring your own water and waste bags, as there is no official information on the equipment of the three areas.