Havel in the context of "Müggelspree"

The Elbe (Czech: Labe [ˈlabɛ] ; German: [ˈɛlbə] ; Low German: Ilv or Elv; Upper and Lower Sorbian: Łobjo, pronounced [ˈwɔbʲɔ]) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 kilometres (68 miles) northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is 1,094 km (680 mi).

The Elbe's major tributaries include the rivers Vltava, Ohře, Saale, Havel, Mulde, and Schwarze Elster.

Berlin is the capital of Germany, as well as its largest city by both area and population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of Germany, being the third-smallest state in the country by area. Berlin is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and Brandenburg's capital Potsdam is nearby. The urban area of Berlin has a population of over 4.6 million, making it the most populous in Germany. The Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr region, as well as the fifth-biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union.

Berlin was built along the banks of the Spree river, which flows into the Havel in the western borough of Spandau. The city includes lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs, the largest of which is Müggelsee. About one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks and gardens, rivers, canals, and lakes.

Potsdam (German pronunciation: [ˈpɔtsdam] ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of Berlin, and lies embedded in a hilly morainic landscape dotted with many lakes, around 20 of which are located within Potsdam's city limits. It lies some 25 kilometres (16 miles) southwest of Berlin's city centre. The name of the city and of many of its boroughs are of Slavic origin.

Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Emperor until 1918. Its planning embodied ideas of the Age of Enlightenment: through a careful balance of architecture and landscape, Potsdam was intended as "a picturesque, pastoral dream" which would remind its residents of their relationship with nature and reason.

The Spree (/ʃpreɪ, spreɪ/ S(H)PRAY, German: [ʃpʁeː] ; Sorbian languages: Sprjewja, Lower Sorbian: [ˈsprʲɛwʲa], Upper Sorbian: [ˈspʁʲɛwʲa]; in Lower Sorbian also called Rěka) is a river in Germany and the Czech Republic. With a length of approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi), it is the main tributary of the Havel River. The Spree is much longer than the Havel, which it flows into at Berlin-Spandau; the Havel then flows into the Elbe at Havelberg. The river rises in the Lusatian Highlands, in the Lusatian part of Saxony, where it has three sources: the historical one called Spreeborn in the village of Spreedorf [de], the water-richest one in Neugersdorf, and the highest elevated one in Eibau. The Spree then flows northwards through Upper and Lower Lusatia, where it crosses the border between Saxony and Brandenburg. After passing through Cottbus, it forms the Spree Forest (German: Spreewald), a large inland delta and biosphere reserve. It then flows through Lake Schwielochsee before entering Berlin, as Müggelspree [de] (pronounced [ˈmʏɡl̩ˌʃpʁeː] ).

The Spree is the main river of Berlin, Brandenburg, Lusatia, and the settlement area of the Sorbs, who call the river Sprjewja; the name derives ultimately from Proto-Germanic *spreutaną "to spring forth". For a very short distance close to its sources, the Spree constitutes, as Spréva, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic. The Spree's longest tributaries are Dahme (confluence in Berlin-Köpenick) and Schwarzer Schöps (Čorny Šepc; confluence in Boxberg/O.L.-Sprey [de]), other well-known tributaries (since they are Berlin rivers) are Panke and Wuhle.

Spandau (German: [ˈʃpandaʊ] ) is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs (Bezirke) of Berlin, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smallest borough by population, but the fourth largest by land area.

The Semnones were a Germanic people, and more specifically a Suebi people, who lived near the Elbe river in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, during the time of the Roman empire.

The 2nd century geographer Claudius Ptolemy places the Semnones between the Elbe and "Suebos" river. Modern scholars believe that the Suebos was the Oder. However, archaeological evidence suggests they stretched as far as the Spree and Havel rivers in the east, and not quite as far as the Oder. To their north was another part of the Havel, and to the south the Fläming Heath. In present day terms they were therefore in the area between the modern cities of Magdeburg and Berlin.

Royal Air Force Gatow, or more commonly RAF Gatow, was a British Royal Air Force station (military airbase) in the district of Gatow in south-western Berlin, west of the Havel river, in the borough of Spandau. It was the home for the only known operational use of flying boats in central Europe, and was later used for photographic reconnaissance missions by de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks over East Germany. Part of the former airfield is now called General Steinhoff-Kaserne, and is home to the Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr, the German Air Force Museum.

Also on the site of the former Royal Air Force station, but not part of General Steinhoff-Kaserne, is a school, the Hans-Carossa-Gymnasium, as well as houses for government employees of the Federal Republic of Germany. This part of the former airfield has since 2003 been part of the district of Berlin-Kladow.