Pankow () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') 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 the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

(''Bezirk'') of

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. P ...

. Until 2001 it was an autonomous district with the localities of Karow,

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 ...

Wilhelmsruh Wilhelmsruh () is a German locality (''Ortsteil'') within the borough (''Bezirk'') of Pankow, Berlin. It is the city's smallest locality, after Halensee and Hansaviertel. History In the locality, originally part of Rosenthal, it was built a co ...

, Rosenthal,

Blankenfelde Blankenfelde () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') located within the Berlin borough (''Bezirk'') of Pankow. Of the city's 95 localities, it is the least densely populated. History Blankenfelde was founded around 1375 and was integrated into Berlin in ...

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 * ...

and

Französisch Buchholz Französisch Buchholz (), also known simply as Buchholz, is a German locality (''Ortsteil'') within the Berlin borough (''Bezirk'') of Pankow. History First mentioned in 1242 as ''Buckholtz'' in a document, it became the property of Frederick Wi ...

History

The village of Pankow is named after the small

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, a tributary of the

Spree Spree may refer to: Geography * Spree (river), river in Germany Film and television * ''The Spree'', a 1998 American television film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace * ''Spree'' (film), a 2020 American film starring Joe Keery * "Spree" (''Numbers' ...

. The settlement was first mentioned in a 1311 deed by the

Margraves of Brandenburg This article lists the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg during the period of time that Brandenburg was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark, or ''March'', of Brandenburg was one of the primary constituent states of the Hol ...

, though the " Four Evangelists"

fieldstone church A fieldstone church (german: Feldsteinkirche) is a type of church, built using fieldstone of glacial erratics and glacial rubble. Such cathedrals and monasteries occur mostly in areas where the ice ages have deposited such rock material on the on ...

had already been erected about 1230. In 1691 Elector Frederick III acquired

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 ...

, in neighboring

, from the heirs of General

Joachim Ernst von Grumbkow Joachim Ernst von Grumbkow (1637 – 26 December 1690) was a general and statesman of Brandenburg-Prussia. Grumbkow came from a family of Pomeranian nobility whose first mention was the brothers Bisbranus, Gneomarus and Tezlaus in 1277. Grumb ...

, which promoted the development of the Pankow village. As Pankow grew, due to

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

, in the 19th century, it became a suburb – and popular day-trip destination – of Berlin. It was finally incorporated into the city by the Greater Berlin Act of 1920. In 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 ...

period, from 1949 to 1990, Pankow, together with Niederschönhausen, was a prominent quarter of

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

. From 1949 to 1960 Schönhausen Palace was the presidential residency of East Germany, and throughout the period many embassies were located in the vicinity.
Die Geschichte Pankows

he history of Pankow He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

. Bezirksamt Pankow. ''Berlin.de''. Retrieved 18 September 2016.

Geography

Pankow is situated in the south-western side of its district. It borders the localities of

, Karow, Heinersdorf, Weissensee,

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 Gesundbrunnen. Between 1961 and 1990, the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

passed through Pankow (in

) and Gesundbrunnen (in

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 ...

Transportation

The locality is served by the Berliner S-Bahn lines S1, S2, S25, S85; by the

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 ...

line U2, and by several lines of tramway.

Photogallery

File:Dorfkirche Pankow 05.jpg, Pankow Church File:Georgskirche-pankow.jpg,

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

church of St.George File:Berlin_Pankow_Maelzerei.jpg, Former malthouse File:Berlin Pankow orphanage.jpg, Former Jewish orphanage File:Abzweig-nordgraben.jpg, The canal of Blankenburg

References

External links