Germany's Venice Obsession
Multiple cities and towns have a district designated 'Little Venice' or 'New Venice' - Berlin has two.
My friend Joe at ZenKimchi wrote a post a few days ago lamenting the Korean tourism industry’s promotion of curated, Instagram-ready tourist hotspots while neglecting many unique and more authentic experiences that tourists are more likely to enjoy.
READ: The Fish Versus Ducks Problem in Korean Tourism. ZenKimchi. May 14, 2026.
That made me think of Berlin’s double Venices. Two different districts nicknamed after the Italian city.
Neu-Venedig (New Venice), probably the better known of the two, is a neighborhood in southeast Berlin that is crisscrossed with canals. Residents and visitors get around the neighborhood with canoes and rowboats.
The neighborhood was first developed in 1890 when the city of Köpenick, now part of Berlin, acquired the property of the former Rahnsdorf manor and Hessenwinkel estates. The city originally planned to drain the marshy meadows near the S…
