The Viktoriapark is an urban park in the district of Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany.
It is situated on the northern slope of the Teltow moraine plateau overlooking the glacial valley with Berlin's city centre. The major landmark of the park is a cast iron monument dedicated by King Frederick William III of Prussia to the "liberation battles" (Befreiungskriege) of the War of the Sixth Coalition fought at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It provides an excellent viewpoint over much of the central and southern portions of the city. In summer an artificial waterfall originates at the foot of the monument and continues down the hillside to the intersection of Großbeerenstraße and Kreuzbergstraße.
A historic wine-growing area, the park today again includes a small vineyard, where the local "Kreuz-Neroberger" wine is cultivated from grapevines donated by Kreuzberg's twin towns Wiesbaden and Ingelheim am Rhein. About 600 bottles are pressed each year.
The park was originally opened in 1821 when the Neoclassical Nationaldenkmal by architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel was inaugurated at the top of the 66 m (217 ft) promontory west of the road to Tempelhof, then known as Tempelhofer Berg. The hill adopted the name Kreuzberg from the Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz) at the top of the monument, it became the name giver of the Kreuzberg borough created by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act.
As the surrounding area incorporated into Berlin in 1861 had become a densely built-up suburb, the police president decreed a maximum height of buildings in the adjacent streets to uphold the visibility of the monument. The ordinance however was annulled by the groundbreaking 1882 "Kreuzberg judgement" of the Prussian administrative court, stating that the police had exceeded its authority to ensure public security.
A re-design in 1888 by then city parks director Hermann Mächtig resulted in the current mountainesque character including the construction of the 24 m (79 ft) waterfall modeled on the Podgórnej waterfall (Hainfall) in the Karkonosze mountain range. The water is pumped to the top of the hill and finally received in a small pool adorned with a bronze sculpture - fisherman and mermaid - designed by Ernst Herter in 1896.
Between 1913 and 1916, the western section of the park was significantly expanded by landscape architect Albert Brodersen. The extension included the layout of a playing field, the present-day Katzbach Stadium, homeground of the Türkiyemspor Berlin football club.
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