Pankow () is the most populous and the second-largest

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 ...

by area of

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 ...

. In

Berlin's 2001 administrative reform Berlin is both a city and one of Germany’s federated states (city state). Since the 2001 administrative reform, it has been made up of twelve districts (german: Bezirke, ), each with its own administrative body. However, unlike the municipaliti ...

, it was merged with the former boroughs of

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incorp ...

and Weißensee; the resulting borough retained the name Pankow. Pankow was sometimes claimed by the Western Allies (United States, United Kingdom, and France) to be the capital of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), while the German Democratic Republic itself considered East Berlin to be its capital.

Overview

The borough, named after the

Panke The Panke is a small river in Brandenburg and Berlin, a right tributary of the Spree, originating from the Barnim plateau. It has a length of 29 km, of which 20,2 are within the area of Berlin. Consequently, the Panke is the third longest ...

river, covers the northeast of the city region, including the inner city locality of Prenzlauer Berg. It borders

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-Kreuzb ...

and

Reinickendorf Reinickendorf () is the twelfth borough of Berlin. It encompasses the northwest of the city area, including the Berlin Tegel Airport, Lake Tegel, spacious settlements of detached houses as well as housing estates like Märkisches Viertel. Subdi ...

in the west,

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg () is the second borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former East Berlin borough of Friedrichshain and the former West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg. The historic Oberbaum Bridge, formerly a Berlin border cro ...

in the south, and

Lichtenberg Lichtenberg () is the eleventh borough of Berlin, Germany. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it absorbed the former borough of Hohenschönhausen. Overview The district contains the Tierpark Berlin in Friedrichsfelde, the larger of Berlin ...

in the east. Pankow is Berlin's largest borough by population and the second largest by area (after

Treptow-Köpenick Treptow-Köpenick () is the ninth borough of Berlin, Germany, formed in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by merging the former boroughs of Treptow and Köpenick. Overview Among Berlin's boroughs it is the largest by area with the lowest popul ...

). Between 1945 and 1960,

Schönhausen Palace Schönhausen Palace (german: Schloss Schönhausen) is a Baroque palace at Niederschönhausen, in the borough of Pankow, Berlin, Germany. It is surrounded by gardens through which the Panke river runs. The palace is maintained by the Prussian Pal ...

and the nearby

Majakowskiring The Majakowskiring (named after Vladimir Mayakovsky) is an ellipse-shaped street in the Pankow district of Berlin, Germany, in the Niederschönhausen locality. It was famous as the residence of many senior figures in the government of the German D ...

street in the

Niederschönhausen Niederschönhausen (, literally "Lower Schönhausen") is a locality (''Ortsteil'') within the borough (''Bezirk'') of Pankow in Berlin, Germany. It is also known as "Pankow-Schönhausen" to differ it from Hohenschönhausen in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Fr ...

locality of Pankow was the home to many members of the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

government. Western writers therefore often referred to ''Pankow'' as a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...

for the East German regime—as reflected by

Udo Lindenberg Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, drummer, and composer. Career Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...

's song ''

Sonderzug nach Pankow "Sonderzug nach Pankow" (, ''Special Train to Pankow'') is a song by the German rock singer Udo Lindenberg, released as a single on 2 February 1983. It was a reaction to the refusal of the West German singer's wish to perform a concert in East ...

''. The

Rykestrasse Synagogue Rykestrasse Synagogue, Germany's largest synagogue, is located in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood in the Pankow borough of Berlin. built the synagogue in 1903/1904. It was inaugurated on 4 September 1904, in time for the holidays of and around ...

, Germany's largest

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

, is located in the Prenzlauer Berg locality. The

Weißensee Cemetery Weißensee (German: ''white lake'') may refer to: Places * Weissensee (Berlin), a district of Berlin *Weißensee, Thuringia, a town in Thuringia, Germany * Weissensee, Austria, a municipality in Carinthia, Austria * Weissensee (Carinthia), a lake i ...

is one of the largest

Jewish cemeteries A Jewish cemetery ( he, בית עלמין ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' ...

in Europe. In northern Prenzlauer Berg, the ''Wohnstadt'' ("residential town") ''

Carl Legien Carl Legien (1 December 1861 – 26 December 1920) was a German unionist, moderate Social Democratic politician and first President of the International Federation of Trade Unions. Biography Legien was born in Marienburg, Province ...

'' is part of the Berlin

Modernist Housing Estates Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (german: Siedlungen der Berliner Moderne) is a World Heritage Site designated in 2008, comprising six separate subsidized housing estates in Berlin. Dating mainly from the years of the Weimar Republic (1919–193 ...

UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Weißer See is the borough's largest natural body of water.

Subdivision

The Pankow borough consists of 13 localities:

Politics

District council

The governing body of Pankow is the district council (''Bezirksverordnetenversammlung''). It has responsibility for passing laws and electing the city government, including the mayor. The most recent district council election was held on 26 September 2021, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Lead candidate ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , align=left, Cordelia Koch , 56,349 , 24.7 , 4.1 , 16 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (LINKE) , align=left, Sören Benn , 44,351 , 19.4 , 1.6 , 12 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD) , align=left, Rona Tietje , 38,984 , 18.1 , 3.0 , 11 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align=left, Denise Bittner , 28,165 , 12.3 , 0.4 , 8 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alternative for Germany (AfD) , align=left, Daniel Krüger , 17,822 , 7.8 , 5.5 , 5 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align=left, Thomas Enge , 13,241 , 5.8 , 1.9 , 3 , 1 , - , colspan=8 bgcolor=lightgrey, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Tierschutzpartei , align=left, , 6,053 , 2.7 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...

, align=left, , 5,310 , 2.3 , 0.3 , 0 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, dieBasis , align=left, , 4,236 , 1.9 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Volt Germany Volt Germany (, mostly known by the abbreviated name Volt) is a social-liberal pro-European, eurofederalist political party in Germany. It is the German branch of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level. Italian And ...

, align=left, , 3,980 , 1.7 , New , 0 , New , - , , align=left, The Greys , align=left, , 3,429 , 1.5 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Free Voters Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...

, align=left, , 2,315 , 1.0 , New , 0 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Klimaliste Klimaliste ( en, Climate List) is the name of various microparties and voter groups in Germany that advocate climate protection measures to meet the 1.5 °C IPCC and Paris Agreement warming limit target. They see themselves as a grassroots mo ...

, align=left, , 1,885 , 0.8 , New , 0 , New , - , , align=left, Renters' Party , align=left, , 1,523 , 0.7 , 0.9 , 0 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Ecological Democratic Party The Ecological Democratic Party (german: Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei, ÖDP) is a conservative and ecologist minor party in Germany. The ÖDP was founded in 1982. The strongest level of voting support for the ÖDP is in Bavaria, where in ...

, align=left, , 459 , 0.2 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 228,102 ! 99.3 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 1,561 ! 0.7 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 229,663 ! 100.0 ! ! 55 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 310,049 ! 74.1 ! 7.3 ! ! , - , colspan=8, Source
Elections Berlin

District government

The district mayor (''Bezirksbürgermeister'') is elected by the Bezirksverordnetenversammlung, and positions in the district government (Bezirksamt) are apportioned based on party strength. Sören Benn of The Left was elected mayor on 27 October 2016. Since the 2021 municipal elections, the composition of the district government is as follows:

Transportation

Motorised transportation

Pankow's road network is characterised by three radial axes to and from the city centre at

Alexanderplatz () ( en, Alexander Square) is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the nort ...

- all of them running in a north/north-eastern direction: B96a (

Schönhauser Allee Schönhauser Allee in Berlin is one of the most important streets of the Prenzlauer Berg district. Schönhauser Allee begins at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in the south and ends at Schonensche Straße in the north. Many of the side streets of Schönha ...

/Berliner Straße), B109 (

Prenzlauer Allee Prenzlauer Allee is a major avenue in the Prenzlauer Berg district of the German capital Berlin and one of the main thoroughfares of the north-eastern Pankow borough. The arterial road connects the centre of former East Berlin at Alexanderplatz via ...

/Prenzlauer Promenade) and B2 (Greifswalder Straße/Berliner Allee). B109 leads to A114; Pankow is also the only borough in Berlin which is directly served by the Berliner Ring A10. The ring roads of Danziger Straße (within the Berlin S-Bahn circle line) and Ostseestraße - Wisbyer Straße - Bornholmer Straße also of high importance.

Public transportation

Pankow is served by the S-Bahn lines S1, S2, S25, S26, S41, S42, S8 and S85. The northeastern part of 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 ...

circle line is located in Pankow, which includes the stations of Storkower Straße, Landsberger Allee, Greifswalder Straße,

and

. Bornholmer Straße station and Wollankstraße station border the borough of

, while Schönholz station and Wilhelmsruh station border

. The Stettiner Bahn serves

Pankow Pankow () is the most populous and the second-largest borough by area of Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weißensee; the resulting borough retained the name Pankow. ...

, Pankow-Heinersdorf,

Blankenburg Blankenburg may refer to: Places * Blankenburg am Harz, a German town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt * Blankenburg Castle (Harz), the castle in Blankenburg am Harz (see above) * Bad Blankenburg, a German town in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt dis ...

, Karow and

Buch Buch (the German word for book or a modification of the German word '' Buche'' for beech) may refer to: People * Buch (surname), a list of people with the surname Buch Geography ;Germany: *Buch am Wald, a town in the district of Ansbach, Bavaria ...

. In addition to the S-Bahn, five

U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...

stations are located in the borough of Pankow: Senefelderplatz, Eberswalder Straße, Schönhauser Allee, Vinetastraße and Pankow. At Schönhauser Allee and Pankow, travellers can change to S-Bahn services.

Twin towns – sister cities

Pankow is twinned with: *

Ashkelon Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border wit ...

, Israel (1994) *

Kołobrzeg Kołobrzeg ( ; csb, Kòlbrzég; german: Kolberg, ), ; csb, Kòlbrzég , is a port city in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in north-western Poland with about 47,000 inhabitants (). Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast o ...

, Poland (1994)

Gallery

Rathaus_Pankow_(2009).jpg, Pankow town hall Berlin Synagoge Rykestrasse Eingang.JPG, Rykestrasse Synagogue

References

External links

Official website

Official website of Berlin

tic-berlin: tourist & historical information about Pankow district
{{Authority control Districts of Berlin Former boroughs of Berlin