Moabit () is an
inner city
The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...
locality in the
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 ...
of
Mitte
Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding.
It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kre ...
,
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 constitu ...
, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former
industrial and
working-class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
neighbourhood is fully surrounded by three watercourses, which define its present-day border. Between 1945 and 1990, Moabit was part of the British sector of
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
and directly bordered
East Berlin
East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...
.
Until the administrative reform in 2001, Moabit was a part of the district of
Tiergarten.
Colloquially, the name ''Moabit'' also refers to the
Central Criminal Court A Central Criminal Court refers to major legal court responsible for trying crimes within a given jurisdiction. Such courts include:
*The name by which the Crown Court is known when it sits in the City of London
*Central Criminal Court of England a ...
(''Strafgericht'') and
detention centre, which deals with all criminal cases in Berlin and is based in Moabit.
Name
The origin of the name ''Moabit'' is disputed. According to one account, it can be traced back to the
Huguenots
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster B ...
, in the time of
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
Frederick William I of Prussia. These French
refugees are said to have named their new residence in reference to the
Biblical description of the
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
in the country of
Moab, where they stayed before being allowed to enter
Canaan
Canaan (; Phoenician: đ€đ€đ€đ€ â ; he, ŚÖ°ÖŒŚ Ö·ŚąÖ·Ś â , in pausa â ; grc-bib, ΧαΜααΜ â ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...
. Other possible origins include the German (
Berlin dialect) "Moorjebiet" (swamp area).
History
First settlements
In the 13th century the waste area along the road to
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 ...
known as ''Grosse Stadtheide'' ("great city
heath
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths withâespecially in Great Britainâa cooler a ...
") was a hunting ground of the
elector
Elector may refer to:
* Prince-elector or elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors
* Elector, a member of an electoral college
** Confederate elector, a member of ...
s of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...
. Settlement began in 1685 with the erection of the ''Staakensetzerhaus'' at the western border of what is now Moabit. 1716 saw the formation of the colony of ''Old Moabit'' by the Huguenots, who were meant to cultivate
white mulberry trees for
silkworms, but failed because of the low
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt
Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty.
Common types of dirt include:
* Debri ...
quality.
Industrialization
In 1818 ''New Moabit'' was founded and grew together with Old Moabit to an industrial suburb district, which was incorporated into the city of Berlin in 1861. The industrialization started in 1820 when, with the financial support of court counsellor Baillif, a simple bridge was built to connect the island to the Berlin mainland. The bridge was followed by factories, a power plant, the Berlin-Spandau Canal, the
Westhafen
The Westhafen (German for ''West Harbor'') is Berlin's largest inland port, located in the district of Moabit.
The Westhafen has an area of 430.000 square meters and it is divided into two parallel harbor basins. It is connected to the Spree and ...
port and the ''
Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof is the former terminus of the BerlinâHamburg Railway in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstrasse in the Moabit district opposite the CharitĂ© hospital. Today it serves as a contemporary art museum, the , part of the Berlin Nati ...
'' train station which connected Berlin with
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. A network of streets was laid out in the
Hobrecht-Plan in an area that came to be known architecturally as the
Wilhelmine Ring. All of that activity resulted in an
exponential growth
Exponential growth is a process that increases quantity over time. It occurs when the instantaneous rate of change (that is, the derivative) of a quantity with respect to time is proportional to the quantity itself. Described as a function, a ...
of the population and the subsequent construction of
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
s in Moabit and neighbouring
Wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
, facilitating the spread of a
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
epidemic.
In consequence, Berlin's city council, exhorted to do so by
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...
, built a second hospital (after the
Charité), the ''Krankenhaus Moabit'' in 1872. In the 1880s,
Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 â 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...
worked here on the
sterilization of surgical instruments and the isolation of the
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
bacterium. A
teaching hospital
A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...
from 1920 on, the ''Krankenhaus Moabit'' employed notable physicians like the
Nobel Laureate Werner Forssmann,
Lydia Rabinowitsch-Kempner and the
resistance fighter
Georg Groscurth.
A first prison, the ''ZellengefÀngnis'' (Cell Prison) on ''Lehrter Strasse'' was built between 1842 and 1849 by order of King
Frederick William IV of Prussia, according to the "
separate system
The separate system is a form of prison management based on the principle of keeping prisoners in solitary confinement. When first introduced in the early 19th century, the objective of such a prison or "penitentiary" was that of penance by the p ...
" of
Pentonville Prison
HM Prison Pentonville (informally "The Ville") is an English Category B men's prison, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not in Pentonville, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury ar ...
. In 1878
Max Hödel
Emil Max Hödel (27 May 1857 â 16 August 1878) was a plumber from Leipzig, Germany, and a propaganda of the deed anarchist, who became known for the failed assassination of the German Emperor, Wilhelm I. A former member of the Leipzig Social- ...
, who had shot at Emperor
Wilhelm I of Germany
William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 â 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the f ...
, was beheaded here. Political activists like
Karl Radek,
Erich MĂŒhsam
Erich MĂŒhsam (6 April 1878 â 10 July 1934) was a German-Jewish antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which h ...
and
Musa CĂ€lil were detained in Moabit.
Wilhelm Voigt
Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt (13 February 1849 â 3 January 1922) was a German impostor who, in 1906, masqueraded as a Prussian military officer, rounded up a number of soldiers under his "command", and "confiscated" more than 4,000 marks from a mu ...
, the "Hauptmann von Köpenick", and the writer
Wolfgang Borchert served their prison sentences in the prison.
The vast building of the
Criminal Court on ''TurmstraĂe'' was erected in 1906. In 1909, architect
Peter Behrens built the
AEG's
Turbine factory at the north-western ''HuttenstraĂe'', one of the first works of
Modern architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...
.
Labour movement and war period
Large parts of Moabit are traditional working-class residential areas. Some areas were known for their political activity during the
Nazi
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 ...
era, such as the ''Red Beusselkiez'' or the neighbouring ''Rostock Kiez''. After the Nazi
Machtergreifung in 1933 they were considered Communist resistance cells.
On 11 April 1928, during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
, the 20-year-old Communist activist
Olga BenĂĄrio and several of her comrades managed to break into Moabit's prison and free the incarcerated
Otto "Li De" Braun, a prominent party member and at the time Benario's lover. Despite being hotly hunted, the two lovers succeeded in escaping to Moscow and later rose (separately) to prominence in the International Communist movement (in Brazil and China respectively).
Between 1941 and 1945, around 1900 Jews were deported predominantly to
Auschwitz,
Theresienstadt or
Minsk
Minsk ( be, ĐŃĐœŃĐș ; russian: ĐĐžĐœŃĐș) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
. Approximately as many survived by escaping abroad.
Post-war and modern days
After the war, between 1945 and 1990, Moabit was part of the British sector of
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
. Due to its new peripheral location adjacent to the
Berlin Wall, Moabit became a remote neighbourhood. Similar to Kreuzberg, it attracted mostly immigrants due to its low rents. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, Moabit's location has anew changed to its former centrality. Post-reunification, Moabit has faced problems such as drug trafficking and abuse (especially around ''Kleiner Tiergarten''), poverty (most notably in its Western parts), and crime. Similar to neighbouring Wedding, lower rents have recently attracted artists and young people, and there are first unmistakable signs of
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
.
At its eastern edge, bordering Mitte, Moabit's
neoclassical train station now serves as Berlin's contemporary art museum, the
Museum fĂŒr Gegenwart.
The Center for
Art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
and
Urbanism
Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and ...
(ZK/U) is located on the grounds of the Stadtgarten Moabit, in the former Berlin-Moabit freight station.
Demographics
For a long time, Moabit was sparsely inhabited. Its population grew considerably after its incorporation into Berlin in 1861:
* 1801: 120 inhabitants
* 1805: 201 inhabitants
* 1861: 6,534 inhabitants
* 1871: 14,818 inhabitants
* 1880: 29,693 inhabitants
* 1910: inhabitants
* 2006: 75,181 inhabitants
*2018: 78,491 inhabitants
Moabit's modern-day population is among Berlin's most diverse. , out of 78,491 inhabitants, 24,354 (31,02%) were non-German citizens. 39,408 (50,2%) had a migration background, making it one of the highest percentages alongside
Gesundbrunnen,
Neukölln,
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...
and
Wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
.
Notable people
*
Kurt Tucholsky, journalist, born 9 January 1890 in Moabit, LĂŒbecker StraĂe 13, died 21 December 1935 in
Gothenburg, Sweden
*
Farin Urlaub, lead singer of German punk rock band
Die Ărzte
Die Ărzte (; ) is a German rock band from Berlin. The band has released 14 studio albums. The group consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B and bass player Rodrigo GonzĂĄlez. All three write and perform their songs.
History Ea ...
, born 27 October 1963 in Moabit
* In 1968/69
Uschi Obermaier and the members of the
Kommune 1 lived in Moabit, StephanstraĂe 60
*
Sawsan Chebli
Sawsan Mohammed Chebli (born 26 July 1978 in West Berlin, Berlin, West Germany) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Early life and education
Chebli was born to Palestinian asylum seekers in Germany and grew up with her ...
, politician, born 1978 in Moabit
In popular culture
Moabit is mentioned in countless books and films taking place in Germany or Berlin, primarily in reference to criminal court cases or incarcerations at the Central Criminal Court (Kriminalgericht) and detention centre. The district features briefly in
Jonathan Franzen's 2015 novel ''
Purity
Purity may refer to:
Books
* ''Pureza'' (novel), a 1937 Brazilian novel by José Lins do Rego
* ''Purity'' (novel), a 2015 novel by Jonathan Franzen
** ''Purity'' (TV series), a TV series based on the novel
*''Purity'', a 2012 novel by Jackson P ...
'' and also extensively in Dan Fespermanâs 2018 novel Safe Houses.
The Berlin-based band No Nebraska! released a song entitled "Moabit is an Island" on their EP "Serves Six" in 2007.
Literature
* Saeger, Olaf, Moabiter Details â Schatten im Paradies, Berlin 1995,
See also
*
Kulturfabrik Moabit
References
External links
*
Moabit in the Berlin district encyclopedia*
Moabit online*
Moabiter Ratschlag*
Online magazine of the quarter management for west MoabitHamburger Bahnhof â Contemporary Art Museum
{{Authority control
Localities of Berlin
1861 establishments in Prussia