Berlin is divided into boroughs or districts ( Bezirke ) for administration. The boroughs are further divided into neighborhoods ( Ortsteile ) which are officially recognised but have no administrative bodies of their own. Neighborhoods typically have strong identities that sometimes pre-date their inclusion into the modern boundaries of Berlin. These function differently to other subdivisions in Germany because of the dual status of Berlin as both a city and a federated state of Germany in its own right.
34-591: Friedenau ( German: [ˌfriːdə'naʊ̯] ) is a locality ( Ortsteil ) within the borough ( Bezirk ) of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. Relatively small by area, its population density is the highest in the city. Friedenau is part of the southwestern suburbs, right at the border with the inner city Schöneberg district, separated by the Berlin Ringbahn and the BAB 100 motorway ( Stadtring ). It borders
68-517: A mural crown : 3 towers in red bricks with the coat of arms of Berlin in the middle. Most of the coats of arms of current boroughs have changed some elements in their field : Some of them have created a "fusion" of themes of the merged Bezirke (Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Lichtenberg, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Tempelhof-Schöneberg); others have modified their themes taken from one of the two (or more) former merged boroughs (Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Mitte and Treptow-Köpenick). Only
102-607: A circular road, which is demarcated by four town squares . Some streets in Friedenau were named after rivers in Alsace-Lorraine to commemorate the annexation of this region into the German Empire . The majority of Friedenau's buildings date to the early 20th century. Therefore, the architectural styles are almost uniform. 185 buildings are protected as cultural heritage sites . More recent development does not necessarily match
136-611: A council of mayors ( Rat der Bürgermeister ) led by the city's governing mayor, which advises the Berlin Senate. Each borough is made up of several officially recognized subdistricts or neighborhoods ( Ortsteile in German, sometimes called quarters in English). The number of neighborhoods that form a borough varies considerably, ranging from two ( Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg ) to fifteen ( Treptow-Köpenick ). These neighborhoods typically have
170-727: A former city or municipality; others, such as Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg , were named for geographic features. Minor changes to borough boundaries were made in 1938. After World War II, Berlin was divided into four sectors, with the Western sectors controlled by the United States, Britain, and France, and the Eastern sector controlled by the Soviet Union. In 1961, the SED built the Berlin Wall to divide
204-404: A full-time borough council ( Bezirksamt ), consisting of five councilors ( Bezirksstadträte ) and headed by a borough mayor ( Bezirksbürgermeister ). The BVV assembly is directly elected by the borough's population and therefore acts as a borough parliament , though it is officially part of the executive . It elects the members of the borough council, checks its daily administration, and
238-486: A historical identity as former independent cities, villages, or rural municipalities that were united in 1920 as part of the Greater Berlin Act , forming the basis for the present-day city and state. The neighborhoods do not have their own governmental bodies but are recognized by the city and the boroughs for planning and statistical purposes. Berliners often identify more with the neighborhood where they live than with
272-593: A process of rapid transformation, as the city worked to rebuild and modernize its infrastructure and economy. Many new businesses and cultural institutions were established, and the city became a center of creativity and innovation. By 2000, Berlin comprised twenty-three boroughs, as three new boroughs had been created in East Berlin . Today Berlin is divided into twelve boroughs ( Bezirke ), reduced from twenty-three boroughs before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. An administrative reform in 2001 merged all but three of
306-866: Is Köpenick (34.9 km or 13.5 sq mi), the smallest one is Hansaviertel (53 ha or 130 acres). The most populated is Neukölln (154,127 inhabitants in 2009), the least populated is Malchow (450 inhabitants in 2008). Note that the coats of arms shown for localities in the tables below are historical and no longer in official use, having lost their validity upon incorporation into Greater Berlin or new districts. Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( German : Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ) or Ostzone , lit. ' East Zone ' ; Russian : Советская оккупационная зона Германии , romanized : Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii )
340-513: Is a single municipality ( Einheitsgemeinde ), its districts have limited power, acting only as agencies of Berlin's state and city governments as laid out in the Greater Berlin Act of 1920 . The districts are financially dependent on state donations, as they neither possess any taxation power nor own any property. This is contrast to municipalities and counties in other German states, which are territorial corporations ( Gebietskörperschaften ) with autonomous functions and property. Each district
374-584: Is able to make applications and recommendations. The twelve borough mayors regularly meet in the Council of Mayors ( Rat der Bürgermeister ), led by the city's Governing Mayor ; the council answers to and advises the Senate. The localities have no local government bodies, and the administrative duties of the former locality representative, the Ortsvorsteher , were taken over by the borough mayors. People who live in
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#1732845309910408-491: Is administered by a representatives' assembly ( Bezirksverordnetenversammlung ), directly elected by proportional representation, and a district board ( Bezirksamt ) led by a district mayor ( Bezirksbürgermeister ), elected by the assembly representatives. The district board is in charge of most administrative matters affecting its residents, but its decisions can be revoked by the Berlin Senate . The district mayors form
442-427: Is that of a unified municipality ( Einheitsgemeinde ). The power of the borough governments is limited and their performance of assigned tasks is subject to regulatory supervision by the Senate. Nevertheless, the twelve self-governing boroughs have constitutional status and are themselves subdivided into two administrative bodies: each is governed by the borough assembly ( Bezirksverordnetenversammlung , BVV) and
476-513: The S1 line is actually situated in neighbouring Schöneberg . The locality can also be reached via Bundesautobahn 100 ( Stadtring ) at Wexstraße and Innsbrucker Platz junctions and by Bundesautobahn 103 ( Westtangente ), also Bundesstraße 1 , at Saarstraße . Boroughs of Berlin Since 2001, Berlin has been made up of twelve districts, each with its own administrative body. However because Berlin
510-557: The Wilmersdorf locality to the west and Steglitz to the south. The streets and squares are laid out according to a geometric urban design with an almost complete assembly of Gründerzeit buildings, which survived the bombing of Berlin in World War II . The characteristic feature of Friedenau its Carstenn layout , named after urban developer Johann Anton Wilhelm von Carsten. This symmetrical layout consists of an avenue dividing
544-692: The " Democratic Bloc " (later the National Front ). In April 1946, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) were forcibly merged to form the Socialist Unity Party which later became the governing party of the GDR. The SMAD set up ten "special camps" for the detention of Germans , making use of some former Nazi concentration camps . In 1945,
578-686: The Allied victory. According to the Potsdam Agreement , the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (German initials: SMAD) was assigned responsibility for the middle portion of Germany. Eastern Germany beyond the Oder-Neisse line , equal in territory to the SBZ, was to be annexed by Poland and its population expelled , pending a final peace conference with Germany. By the time armed forces of
612-604: The Soviet occupation zone consisted primarily of the central portions of Prussia . After Prussia was dissolved by the Allied powers in 1947, the area was divided between the German states (Länder) of Brandenburg , Mecklenburg , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia . On 7 October 1949, the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic. In 1952, the Länder were dissolved and realigned into 14 districts (Bezirke) , plus
646-656: The United States and United Kingdom began to meet Soviet Union forces, forming the Line of Contact , significant areas of what would become the Soviet zone of Germany were outside Soviet control. After several months of occupation, these gains by the British and Americans were ceded to the Soviets by July 1945, according to the previously agreed occupation zone boundaries. The SMAD allowed four political parties to develop, though they were all required to work together under an alliance known as
680-426: The borough that governs them. The neighborhoods are further subdivided into statistical tracts, which are mainly used for planning and statistical purposes. The statistical tracts correspond roughly but not exactly with neighborhoods recognized by residents. When Greater Berlin was established in 1920, the city was organized into twenty boroughs, most of which were named after their largest component neighborhood, often
714-433: The cemetery a mourning chapel, an office, a gardener's house, a flower shop, benches and a fountain as well as a net of paths replicating the streets net in Friedenau. Since June 1913 the cemetery was accessible via the so-called cemetery train line ending at Stahnsdorf station . Friedenau joined with the town of Schöneberg in 1920 – under the latter's name – as the former 11th administrative borough of Greater Berlin . In
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#1732845309910748-659: The cemetery happened to be in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and later in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), thus with the increasing Eastern interdiction of West Berlin the cemetery grew inaccessible for the Friedenauers. On 5 April 1986 a bomb exploded at the La Belle discothèque in a former cinema on Hauptstraße 78, killing a Turkish woman and two U.S. servicemen and injuring numerous people. A plaque marks
782-578: The city, effectively separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany. Three new boroughs were created in East Berlin: Marzahn was split off from Lichtenberg in 1979, Hohenschönhausen from Weissensee in 1985, and Hellersdorf from Marzahn in 1986. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and the city was reunified. This marked the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new era in Berlin's history. After reunification, Berlin underwent
816-500: The denotation had already been established and became the official municipal name. Friedenau opened its own non-denominational municipal cemetery, today's Städtischer Friedhof III , which soon grew too small. So in 1909 Friedenau bought a tract of land in Güterfelde (today a component of Stahnsdorf ) as additional graveyard, with the first burial taking place in 1913. Friedenau's municipal construction councillor Hans Altmann designed for
850-788: The district of East Berlin . In 1952, with the Cold War political confrontation well underway, Joseph Stalin sounded out the Western Powers about the prospect of a united Germany which would be non-aligned (the " Stalin Note "). The West's lack of interest in this proposal helped to cement the Soviet Zone's identity as the GDR for the next four decades. "Soviet zone" and derivatives (or also, "the so-called GDR") remained official and common names for East Germany in West Germany, which refused to acknowledge
884-412: The existing boroughs into the current 12 boroughs, as listed below. The three boroughs that were not affected were Spandau , Reinickendorf and Neukölln , as the population of each was already exceeding 200,000. All the coats of arms of Berliner boroughs (the current as of the ones in the period 1990 to 2001) have some common points: The shield has a Spanish form and the coronet is represented by
918-537: The first tier of the so-called Hauptverwaltung (central administration). In the second tier, the boroughs enjoy a certain grade of autonomy—though in no way comparable to the German Landkreise districts or independent cities , nor even to the local government of a common municipality as a legal entity, as according to the Berlin Constitution the legal status of the city as a German state itself
952-623: The former West Berlin tend to vote for the CDU and the SPD, While voters in the former East Berlin tend to vote for Linke and the AfD. As of 2012, the twelve boroughs are made up of a total of 97 officially recognized neighborhoods or localities ( Ortsteile ). Almost all of these are further subdivided into several other zones (defined in German as Ortslagen, Teile, Stadtviertel, Orte etc.). The largest Ortsteil
986-583: The short time from 29 April to 30 June 1945, when the Red Army occupied all Berlin, it was a borough in its own right, until it was reunified with Schöneberg as one borough within the American Sector of West Berlin . The Güterfelde cemetery, since 1920 called Forest Cemetery of Schöneberg was operated since 1935 by Berlin's Borough of Wilmersdorf , called Wilmersdorf Forest Cemetery Güterfelde ( German : Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Güterfelde ). After 1945
1020-593: The site. Friedenau has always been home to creative artists, especially of authors. Prominent residents include: Friedenau has access to the Berlin U-Bahn network at Innsbrucker Platz station ( U4 ) as well as at Bundesplatz , Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz and Walther-Schreiber-Platz ( U9 ). S-Bahn service is available at the Bundesplatz and Innsbrucker Platz stations of the Ringbahn . The nearby Friedenau station of
1054-437: The surrounding cityscape, since the reconstruction efforts after World War II , especially in the earlier years, gave little consideration to the preservation of architectural uniformity. In 1871 it was founded as an affluent commuter town on the estates of the former Deutsch- Wilmersdorf manor. The German name Friedenau , referring to Frieden (peace) and the suffix -au meaning floodplains (hence "floodplain of peace"),
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1088-453: The unchanged boroughs of Neukölln, Reinickendorf and Spandau have not changed their field. The coat of arms of Pankow was created with a new design in 2008, having been the only district without an emblem for 7 years. The borough government is part of the two-tier administration of the Berlin city-state , whereby the Senate and its affiliated agencies, institutions, and municipal enterprises form
1122-521: Was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly referred to in English as East Germany , was established in the Soviet occupation zone. The SBZ was one of the four Allied occupation zones of Germany created at the end of World War II with
1156-564: Was proposed by Hedwig Hähnel, wife of the architect Hermann Hähnel, in memory of the 1871 Peace of Frankfurt , which ended the Franco-Prussian War . It was adopted by Mr. Hähnel, then the director of the Landerwerb- und Bauverein auf Actien (inc.), which developed the real estate in the area. When in 1874 the area constituted as an independent municipality within the Province of Brandenburg ,
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