Dschungelwelt (Jungle World) at Tierpark Hellabrunn

The Dschungelwelt replaced the old big-cat house of Tierpark Hellabrunn. The zoo and the press date its opening to 1995; German Wikipedia writes 1995 in one place and 1996 in another, which leaves a one-year uncertainty. Under a large tent first called the Dschungelzelt, the building originally housed big cats in its outdoor enclosures (lions, jaguars and cheetahs, later African wild dogs, fishing cats and Pallas's cats) and, indoors, free-flying birds, flying foxes, iguanas and lesser mouse-deer.

The lions moved to a new enclosure in 2022, and the hall closed in October 2022 for a heavy renovation. The building was gutted until summer 2024, apart from the central plant island, which the zoo's gardeners kept tending. The reopening, first planned for 2024, slipped by more than a year according to the zoo and by about two years according to a local report. SBA Architektur und Städtebau carried out the feasibility study and the design work (phases 1 to 7) for Münchner Tierpark Hellabrunn AG. The works, supported by Stadtsparkasse München, cost about 11 million euros; most of the work went into the basement (electrics, ventilation, heating, water lines), and the zoo stayed open throughout.

The hall reopened on 25 June 2026, with a redesigned education programme and a conservation component tied to a breeding centre in Java that the zoo supports.

The building is a tent hall: the architecture firm SBA calls it a striking tent construction, and German Wikipedia describes an 18-metre-high space spanned by a structure of cables and membranes, largely walk-through for visitors. According to SBA, the building amounts to about 12,000 m³ of built volume and 2,100 m² of gross floor area. The covering is made of air-filled ETFE cushions, a fluoropolymer film: the 1995 roof received new cushions, which the zoo describes as a foil roof renewed in part and, in 2025, as a defective cushion roof thoroughly repaired. One report compares the material with that of the Allianz Arena roof.

Beneath the membrane, all the building services were replaced: ventilation, misting, a district-heating connection, floor, wall and facade heating, and heated glass fronts, according to the zoo. On opening day the Süddeutsche Zeitung noted 25 °C and 88 % humidity, while another report gives about 28 °C and 74 %. The artificial hill and its path were kept. A new glass front and a footbridge open underwater views onto the former lion enclosure, and an enlarged basement, with a breeding area at the back, completes the building.

The plant heart of the hall is an island of tropical vegetation at the centre of the building, tended since the opening and enlarged for the 2026 reopening. According to the zoo director quoted by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the challenge of the works was to renovate the entire building without losing the vegetation that had grown inside, plants native to Indonesia's rainforests. Palms and fig trees (ficus) survived the works, and orchids bloom in a terrarium devoted to frogs.

The hall also works as a walk-through aviary, with birds moving freely. At the reopening, 16 of the 36 planned species were in place, among them binturongs, small-clawed otters, fishing cats, lesser mouse-deer, flying foxes, Papuan hornbills and frogs that signal with leg movements. Further Asian birds, including the Bali myna, a Sumatran laughingthrush and Mitchell's lorikeet, are expected once acclimatised, in the breeding area built at the back for the conservation of threatened species.

The Dschungelwelt stands in the park's Asia section, in Thalkirchen, and is visited on the zoo ticket. The zoo presents it as a hall where the jungle atmosphere can be enjoyed in any weather, and a 2025 update calls it very popular, especially in the cold months. The route climbs the hill by a path, then runs along the former lion enclosure on a footbridge with underwater views; beneath the hill, an air-conditioned laboratory with microscopes has replaced the former spider station. To get there, take the U3 metro to Thalkirchen, then bus 52 or, in summer, the Thalkirchner Fähre ferry, or walk along the Isar.