Grunewald () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') within the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

(''Bezirk'') of

Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf () is the fourth borough of Berlin, formed in an administrative reform with effect from 1 January 2001, by merging the former boroughs of Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. Overview Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf covers the w ...

. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of

Wilmersdorf Wilmersdorf (), an inner-city locality of Berlin, lies south-west of the central city. Formerly a borough by itself, Wilmersdorf became part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. History The vi ...

. Next to Lichterfelde West, Dahlem and

Westend Westend may refer to: * Westend (Trevilians, Virginia), an historic house in Virginia listed on the NRHP * Westend (Berlin), a locality of Berlin in Germany * Westend (Frankfurt am Main), a borough of Frankfurt am Main in Germany * Westend, Espoo, ...

, it is part of the affluent Berlin "Villenbogen", a row of 19th century suburbs completely made up of mansions.

Geography

The locality is situated in the western side of the city and is separated from

Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs () 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 ...

by the river

Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe and long. However, the direct distance from its source to its mo ...

. It borders with the localities of

, Halensee,

Schmargendorf Schmargendorf () is a south-western locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Until 2001 it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf. Geography Schmargendorf borders with the localities o ...

Wilhelmstadt Wilhelmstadt () is a German locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the borough (''Bezirk'') of Spandau. History In the year 1945 the allied armed forces from the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom accomplished an exchange of territory, among the ...

Gatow Gatow (), a district of south-western Berlin is located west of the ''Havelsee'' lake and has forested areas within its boundaries. It is within the borough of Spandau. On 31 December 2002, it had 5,532 inhabitants. History Gatow's existence was ...

(both in Spandau district),

Nikolassee Nikolassee () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the borough (''Bezirk'') of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, named after the small Nikolassee lake. Located in the affluent Southwest of the city, the area comprises parts of the Schlachtensee neighbou ...

, Zehlendorf and Dahlem (all three in

Steglitz-Zehlendorf Steglitz-Zehlendorf () is the sixth borough of Berlin, formed in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by merging the former boroughs of Steglitz and Zehlendorf. Home to Free University of Berlin, the Berlin Botanical Garden, and a variety of mu ...

district). The Grunewald forest is 10 km away from

Berlin-Mitte Mitte () (German for "middle" or "center") is a central locality () of Berlin in the eponymous district () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Alt-Berlin centered on the chu ...

(Germany's capital).

History

Etymology

The name derives from the Grunewald hunting lodge of 1543, the oldest preserved castle in Berlin, which is, however, officially located within the adjacent Dahlem locality. It was erected in an Early

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

style by order of Elector Joachim II Hector of Brandenburg and named ''Zum Gruenen Wald'', the umlaut spelt with a following "e" instead of a

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

as depicted above the main entrance. A

corduroy road A corduroy road or log road is a type of road or timber trackway made by placing logs, perpendicular to the direction of the road over a low or swampy area. The result is an improvement over impassable mud or dirt roads, yet rough in the bes ...

leading from the Berlin Stadtschloss to the lodge was laid out, which later would be known as the Kurfürstendamm boulevard.

Overview

The neighbourhood developed out of a so-called "mansion colony" at the western end of the Kurfürstendamm. Promoted by

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

, Grunewald was found to be a preferred residential area from the 1880s onward. Grunewald was incorporated into

Greater Berlin The Greater Berlin Act (german: Groß-Berlin-Gesetz), officially Law Regarding the Creation of the New Municipality of Berlin (german: Gesetz über die Bildung einer neuen Stadtgemeinde Berlin), was a law passed by the Prussian state government i ...

in 1920. Today, the social structure of Grunewald is still influenced by these origins. The

Rot-Weiss Tennis Club The Lawn-Tennis-Turnier-Club "Rot-Weiß" (abbr.: LTTC, ''red-white'') is a tennis club located in Grunewald, part of a district in Berlin, Germany. The club was founded in 1897 as ''Lawn Tennis Turnier Club'', and was the origin for careers of ma ...

, home of the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

German Open German Open is a name given to many sports events established in Germany, and include: *German Open (badminton), an annual badminton tournament held since 1955. *German Open (golf), was a golf tournament on the European Tour *German Masters, a snook ...

, has been located in the district since 1897. On June 24, 1922 Foreign Minister of Germany Walther Rathenau was assassinated by ultra-nationalist radicals of the Organisation Consul in a curve of the main street called ''Koenigsallee.'' A memorial stone marks the scene of the crime. Since 1981 the Grunewald district is the home of the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin. It also houses the embassies of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

. Within the Grunewald forest lies the artificial

Teufelsberg Teufelsberg (; German for ''Devil's Mountain'') is a non-natural hill in Berlin, Germany, in the Grunewald locality of former West Berlin. It rises about above the surrounding Teltow plateau and above the sea level, in the north of Berlin's Gr ...

hill, once a listening station of the US

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

. At the shore of the Havel the

Grunewaldturm The Grunewald Tower or is a historical tower in the Grunewald forest of southwestern Berlin, Germany, built in 1897-99 according to plans designed by Franz Heinrich Schwechten. The viewing platform offers a view over the Havel at a height of . ...

, built by

Franz Heinrich Schwechten Franz Heinrich Schwechten (12 August 1841 – 11 August 1924) was one of the most famous German architects of the Wilhelmine era, and contributed to the development of historicist architecture. Life Schwechten was born in Cologne, the son of a d ...

in 1898, offers panoramic views over the

Havelland Geographically, the Havelland is the region around which the River Havel flows in a U-shape between Oranienburg to the northeast and Rhinow to the northwest. The northern boundary of the Havelland is formed by the River Rhin and the Rhin Canal. ...

region.

Deportation memorial

Bahnhof Berlin-Grunewald Messingplakette am Mahnmal Gleis 17 mit Trauerkranz

Between October 1941 and February 1945 more than 50,000 Jews were deported by German

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

to extermination camps from the Grunewald freight railway station and murdered. Memorials from the district of

and the

Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...

("Gleis 17") commemorate this spot in Grunewald's history. The area is accessible by the

Berlin-Grunewald station Berlin-Grunewald is a railway station in the upper class Grunewald district of Berlin. It is served by the S-Bahn line . In the Second World War, the station was the principal location for deporting Berlin Jews to the East during The Holocaust. ...

Transport

Grunewald railway station is served by the S7 line of the Berlin S-Bahn, which connects the locality to

Berlin Mitte Mitte () (German for "middle" or "center") is a central locality () of Berlin in the eponymous district () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Alt-Berlin centered on the chu ...

Ahrensfelde Ahrensfelde is a municipality in the district of Barnim, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the Barnim Plateau at the city limits of Berlin, about northeast of the city centre. The municipal area comprises the villages of Ahrensfelde, Blum ...

and

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, 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 B ...

. The M19, M29, X10, N10, 110, 115, 186, 249, 310 and 349 bus lines all run through or terminate within the Grunewald locality. One of Germany's busiest freeways, the AVUS

Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...

, runs through the locality and was used as a marathon and bike path during the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

Mansions (choice)

File:Berlin-Grunewald Bismarckallee 22.jpg, Villa Nathan Samuel File:Berlin Schlosshotel Grunewald.JPG, Castle Hotel Grunewald (Palais Pannwitz) File:Grunewald Griegstraße Botschaft Kuwait.jpg, Embassy of

File:Loewenpalais B-Grunewald 07-2017.jpg, Löwenpalais ("Lions Palace") File:Berlin-Grunewald Königsallee64 Residenz türkischen Botschafters.jpg, Residence of the

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

ambassador in Berlin

Notable residents

Fritz Ascher Fritz Ascher (17 October 1893 in Berlin, Germany – 26 March 1970 in Berlin, Germany) was a German artist, whose work is characterized by Expressionist and Symbolist sensitivity. In paintings, works on paper and poetry he explored existential q ...

, Bismarckallee 26 * Berthold Auerbach, Auerbacher Straße *

Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her fa ...

, Hasensprung 2, Koenigsallee 35 * Vicki Baum, Koenigsallee 43–45 *

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...

, Delbrückstraße 23 * Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Wangenheimstraße 14 *

Arno Breker Arno Breker (19 July 1900 – 13 February 1991) was a German architect and sculptor who is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where they were endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made official ...

, Koenigsallee 65 * Isadora Duncan *

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. Feuchtwanger's Ju ...

, Regerstraße *

Samuel von Fischer Samuel Fischer, later Samuel von Fischer (24 December 1859 – 15 October 1934), was a Hungarian-born German publisher, the founder of S. Fischer Verlag. Fischer was born in Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus/Liptószentmiklós (now Liptovský Mikuláš), ...

, Erdener Straße 8 *

Carl Fürstenberg Carl Fürstenberg (August 28, 1850 in Danzig – February 9, 1933 in Berlin) was one of the most prominent German bankers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and was responsible for the revival of the German mining industry d ...

, Koenigsallee 53 *

Maximilian Harden __NOTOC__ Maximilian Harden (born Felix Ernst Witkowski, 20 October 1861 – 30 October 1927) was an influential German journalist and editor. Biography Born the son of a Jewish merchant in Berlin he attended the '' Französisches Gymnasium'' u ...

, Wernerstraße 16 * Gerhart Hauptmann, Trabener Straße, Hubertusallee * Heinrich Himmler, Hagenstraße 22 * Engelbert Humperdinck, Trabener Straße *

Harald Juhnke Harald Juhnke () (born Harry Heinz Herbert Juhnke, 10 June 1929 – 1 April 2005), was a German actor, comedian, and singer. Life and career Juhnke was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg. His father was a police officer and his mother came from a ...

, Richard-Strauss-Straße 26, Lassenstraße 1 * Helmut Käutner, Koenigsallee 18g * Alfred Kerr, Gneiststraße 9, Höhmannstraße 6, Douglasstraße 10 *

Harry Graf Kessler Harry Clemens Ulrich Graf von Kessler (23 May 1868 – 30 November 1937) was an Anglo-German count, diplomat, writer, and patron of modern art. English translations of his diaries "Journey to the Abyss" (2011) and "Berlin in Lights" (1971) reve ...

, Höhmannstraße 6 * Hildegard Knef, Bettinastraße 12, Brahmsstraße 12 *

Else Lasker-Schüler Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German-Jewish poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressi ...

, Humboldtstraße 13 *

Otto Lessing (sculptor) Otto Lessing (24 February 1846 – 22 November 1912) was a prominent German Historicist sculptor whose work largely shaped the appearance of Berlin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the son of history and landscape painter ...

, Wangenheimstraße 10 *

Brigitte Mira Brigitte Mira (, 20 April 1910 – 8 March 2005) was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, later in her career with Rainer Werner Fassbinder on many occasions. Believed to have been born in Hamburg, she moved early on to Berli ...

, Koenigsallee 83 *

Friedrich Olbricht Friedrich Olbricht (4 October 1888 – 21 July 1944) was a German general during World War II and one of the plotters involved in the 20 July Plot, an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. He was a senior staff officer, with the rank of ...

, Wildpfad * Ernst Oppler and Alexander Oppler, Hagenstraße 8 * Max Pechstein, * Max Planck, Wangenheimstraße 21 * Walther Rathenau, Koenigsallee 65 *

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he i ...

, Fontanestraße 8 * Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Herthastraße 11 *

Ulrich Schamoni Ulrich Schamoni (9 November 1939 – 9 March 1998) was a German film director, screenwriter, actor and media proprietor. Biography Schamoni began his career as an assistant director, among others for William Dieterle. He was a signatory of the Ob ...

, Furtwänglerstraße 19 * Romy Schneider, Winkler Straße 22 *

Angelika Schrobsdorff Angelika Schrobsdorff (24 December 1927 – 30 July 2016) was a German writer. Life Schrobsdorff's was born the daughter of Else Kirschner (1893–1949), an assimilated Jew from Berlin, and her second husband Erich Schrobsdorff (1893–1952 ...

, Johannaplatz 3 * Werner Sombart, Humboldtstraße 35a *

Hermann Sudermann Hermann Sudermann (30 September 1857 – 21 November 1928) was a German dramatist and novelist. Life Early career Sudermann was born at Matzicken, a village to the east of Heydekrug in the Province of Prussia (now Macikai and Šilutė, i ...

, Bettinastraße 3 *

Grethe Weiser Grethe Weiser (; 27 February 1903 – 2 October 1970) was a German actress. Biography Born in Hanover, she spent her childhood in Dresden. She escaped from her dominant and sometimes violent father by marrying a Jewish confectionery manufactu ...

, Herthastraße 17a

Transportation

Grunewald has access to the

Berlin S-Bahn The Berlin S-Bahn () is a rapid transit railway system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under this name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff area ''Berliner Stadt-, Ring ...

network at the

(lines S7).

Forest

The forest of Grunewald, located mainly in the quarter but also in

, Zehlendorf, and in a minor percentage in Dahlem and

is, with 3,000 ha, the greatest green area in the city of Berlin.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Localities of Berlin * 1880 establishments in Germany