Staaken () is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

at the western rim 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 ...

within the borough of

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 ...

Geography

Staaken borders on the localities of

proper,

Falkenhagener Feld Falkenhagener Feld () is a German locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the borough (''Bezirk'') of Spandau. History The project to build a residential complex in the rural area of west Spandau and close to the village of Falkenhagen, started in 1 ...

and

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 ...

. In the west it shares border with the

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, 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 ar ...

municipalities of

Falkensee Falkensee is a town in the Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany. It is the most populated municipality of its district and it is situated at the western border of Berlin. History The commune Falkensee was formed in 1923 by the merger of Falk ...

and

Dallgow-Döberitz Dallgow-Döberitz is a municipality in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. Geography It consists of the villages of Dallgow-Döberitz, Rohrbeck and Seeburg. To the east it shares border with the Spandau borough of Berlin. Neighbour ...

with the village of Seeburg, part of

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. ...

district. Buildings range from small

detached house A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelli ...

s and a garden city around the historic village centre in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States a ...

s in the east.

Subdivisions

The locality of Staaken includes six sites (german: Ortslagen) or neighbourhoods (''Siedlungen''): *Dorf Staaken ("Staaken Village"), the historic settlement around the Alt-Staaken village church *Albrechtshof, a family home colony in the northwest, around

Berlin Albrechtshof station Berlin-Albrechtshof is a railway station located in Staaken, a locality in the Spandau district of Berlin. It is one of only two Deutsche Bahn stations in Berlin not served by the S-Bahn; Staaken station is the other. Overview The station is sit ...

*Gartenstadt Staaken (

Staaken Garden City The Staaken Garden City is a housing estate located in the Berlin district of Spandau next to the old village of Staaken. It was built between 1914 and 1917 according to the design of the architect Paul Schmitthenner. It is considered one of the m ...

), built from 1914 to 1917 according to plans designed by

Paul Schmitthenner Paul Schmitthenner (born Lauterburg, Elsass-Lothringen, Germany 15 December 1884 – 11 November 1972) was a German architect, city planner and Professor at the University of Stuttgart. During Nazi Germany, Schmitthenner was one of Adolf Hi ...

, today protected as a historic monument *

Neu-Jerusalem The Siedlung Neu-Jerusalem (''New Jerusalem settlement'') is a residential complex along federal route No. 5, here named Heerstraße, in the locality of Staaken, part of Berlin's Borough of Spandau. The ''Deutsche Gartenstadt Gesellschaft'' comm ...

, an early example of

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...

residential construction along western

Heerstraße ''Heerstraße'' is the German word for military road, a type or road that was built to enable the rapid movement of armies. Specific roads built for this purpose include the: * Aachen-Frankfurter Heerstraße * Bernauer Heerstraße * Lüneburger ...

, erected in 1923/24 according to plans by Erwin Anton Gutkind and

Leberecht Migge Leberecht Migge (March 30, 1881 in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) – May 30, 1935 in Worpswede) was a German landscape architect, regional planner and polemical writer, best known for the incorporation of social gardening principles in the ''Siedlu ...

*Neu-Staaken with Louise-Schroeder-Siedlung, several housing estates built in the 1960s and 70s on former allotment land in the east which then belonged to

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 ...

*Siedlung Hahneberg, a family home estate in the southwest.

Transportation

Staaken is served by

RegionalExpress In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

and RegionalBahn trains of 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 ...

at the stations ''Staaken'' and ''Albrechtshof''. A

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...

connection to ''Albrechtshof'' is planned. The

Bundesstraße 5 The Bundesstraße 5 (abbr. B5) is a German federal highway running in a northwesterly to southeasterly direction from the Danish border near Niebüll to Frankfurt (Oder). It provides a direct route for motorists traveling between Berlin and Hamb ...

federal highway runs through the locality along Heerstraße.

History

First mentioned in a 1273 deed as ''Stakene'' (from

Middle Low German Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (autonym: ''Sassisch'', i.e. " Saxon", Standard High German: ', Modern Dutch: ') is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented i ...

: ''staken'', "stakes") in the

Mittelmark The Mittelmark (German for "Middle March") is a historical region in eastern Germany that was the core territory of the Margrave of Brandenburg between the Oder and Elbe rivers. The name refers to the location of the territory between the Altmar ...

region of the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out o ...

, the

linear settlement A linear settlement is a (normally small to medium-sized) settlement or group of buildings that is formed in a long line. Many of these settlements are formed along a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Others form due to physical re ...

probably arose around 1200 in the course of the German eastward migration. The estates were then held by the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nunnery of Spandau; after the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

they fell to the Spandau municipal administration. Zeppelin-Staaken R

The former village became part of Berlin by the Greater Berlin Act of 1920. The development of the area started with the construction of the Staaken garden city by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

in 1914. At the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the

Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German aircraft manufacturing company. It is perhaps best known for its leading role in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, commonly referred to as ''Zeppelins'' due to the company's prominence. The name ...

company acquired large estates in Staaken, where from 1915 on it manufactured

zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

airships and the series of one-off ''Riesenflugzeug'' "giant" multi-engined bombers, among the largest of their day anywhere, culminating in the small series of R.VI

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

strategic bombers A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unlike tactical bombers, ...

built by the firm. In 1919 the regulations of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

finished the production and the area was transformed into an

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

. There had been regular Zeppelin flights to

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

and even to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

from 1919 on, though in the following years most of the

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

moved to

Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport (german: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leav ...

. The former zeppelin manufacturing halls were turned into the Staaken Studios and used as the location for various

film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

s, e.g. parts of

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...

's ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...

''. In 1929 the estate was sold to the City of Berlin, while parts of the airport were still used by the

Deutsche Luft Hansa ''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and th ...

for

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

and maintenance purposes. In ''Albrechtshof'' the

Demag Demag Cranes AG is a German heavy equipment manufacturer now controlled by Japan-based Tadano via a $215 million deal. The roots of Demag date back prior to its formation, but became Märkische Maschinenbau-Anstalt, Ludwig A.-G in 1906 as the ...

(''Deutsche Maschinenfabrik AG'') built

Panther tank The Panther tank, officially ''Panzerkampfwagen V Panther'' (abbreviated PzKpfw V) with ordnance inventory designation: ''Sd.Kfz.'' 171, is a German medium tank of World War II. It was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to ...

s during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

using

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

of over 2,500 prisoners held in the nearby Falkenhagen

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

, a subcamp of the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

Cold War

After World War II Staaken was divided by a territorial exchange contract between the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

of 30 August 1945. The borders of the British occupational sector of Berlin were reshaped so that, that by incorporating the so-called

Seeburger Zipfel The Seeburger Zipfel (Seeburg strip), comprising Weinmeisterhöhe and part of Groß Glienicke, was a Brandenburgian salient into Greater Berlin's city boundary and as such part of a land swap between Britain and the Soviet Union regarding West B ...

it would include the entire former

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

airfield at Berlin-Gatow in the southwestern corner of this sector. In return the so-called ''Dorf Staaken'' (Staaken Village) and ''Albrechtshof'', nowadays called West Staaken (at the most western end of the British Sector) was de jure assigned to the Soviets. The geographically eastern Staaken remained with the political West. However, the de facto administration remained with the Borough of Spandau in the British sector. So all inhabitants of Staaken could vote for West-Berlin's

city state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

elections in 1948 and 1950. On 1 February 1951 East German

Volkspolizei The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a h ...

took over control of West Staaken, including the airfield and adjacent

located there, and ended the administration by the Spandau Borough; instead West Staaken became an

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

of East Berlin's then Borough of Mitte. This gave rise to the confusing fact, that the geographically western Staaken was part of the politically Eastern

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 ...

at the geographically western outskirts of

, while the geographically eastern Staaken remained with the political Western British sector, thus West Berlin. East Germany then moved up its border checkpoint towards West Berlin from Dallgow more eastwards to West Staaken. On 1 June 1952 West Staaken's de facto administration was conveyed to neighbouring East German

, which incorporated West Staaken on 1 January 1961. From 13 August the same year until its opening and removal after 9 November 1989 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 ...

cut through the two parts of Staaken, with one East German

border crossing Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

on Heerstraße. Since 1 January 1971 western Staaken, officially simply named Staaken, formed a municipality of its own, with a population amounting to 4,146 at that time. On 3 October 1990, the day of unification of East Germany, East and West Berlin with the West German

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

both Staakens reunited to form a locality of the Spandau Borough.

Border crossing

Albrechtshof station had been the site of a rail border crossing, it was closed in 1961 after an East German

train driver A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

, Harry Deterling, fled from the GDR by breaking through the barriers towards the ''Gartenstadt Staaken'' in

with a whole train. The event was dramatised in the 1963

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

''Durchbruch Lok 234'' (The Breakthrough). The route to Albrechtshof was only reconnected in 1995 after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

. In 1976 the GDR opened a separate rail border crossing station ''Staaken'' for rail transit to western Germany farther away from the border to West Berlin. Up to 1980 the eastern part of Staaken inside

was served by

. This service was abandoned by the East German

Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...

Headquarters after the big strike of the West Berlin Reichsbahn workers. A reconnection today is highly unlikely. Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F003101-0005, Berlin, Zonengrenze, Grenzübergang

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F003101-0005, Berlin, Zonengrenze, Grenzübergang

The car traffic, travelling along ''F 5'' between West Berlin and the East

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

or the West German

Federal Republic A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. At its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means: "a country that is governed by elected representatives ...

, e.g. to

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, was subject to the

Interzonal traffic {{Unreferenced, date=April 2020 Inter-zonal traffic was the cross-border traffic between the four designated garrison zones in Germany between 1945 and 1973 that were created in 1945 by the victors of the Second World War. History Following the ...

regulations that between West Germany and West Berlin followed the special regulations of the

Transit Agreement (1972) The Transit Agreement ( German: ''Transitabkommen''), signed 17 December 1971, arranged access to and from West Berlin from West Germany, secured the right of West Berliners to visit East Berlin and East Germany, and secured the rights of East ...

. On 1 January 1988 the transit traffic to West Berlin was redirected to the new East German Stolpe checkpoint (a part of today's

Hohen Neuendorf Hohen Neuendorf () is a town in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located north west of Berlin. Geography Hohen Neuendorf is situated upon the Havel river (built on the Oder-Havel Canal) and is bordered by the Berlin areas ...

)/West Berlin-

Heiligensee Heiligensee () is a locality within Reinickendorf, a borough of the German capital, Berlin. Geography Overview Situated at Berlin's north-western border on the shores of the Havel river, Heiligensee shares borders with the towns of Hennigsdorf an ...

. From 1988 to 9 November 1989 the Heerstraße

was open for the highly restricted traffic between West Berlin and East Germany. Highly restricted in this case means citizens of West Berlin had to apply for a visiting permit to visit relatives; while only GDR citizens above the age of 65 could apply to visit relatives in West Berlin. Eastern controls were slowly eased into spot checks and finally abolished on 30 June 1990, the day East and West introduced the union concerning currency, economy and social security (german: Währungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialunion).

Notable people

Katarina Witt Katarina Witt (, ; born 3 December 1965) is a German former figure skater. A two-time Olympic champion, Witt is regarded as one of the greatest ladies' singles figure skaters of all time. Her Laureus profile states "she is remembered most for ...

(born 1965), figure skater, born in the GDR municipality of Staaken

Gallery

File:Staaken_Gartenstadt_church.jpg, Garden City Church File:Staaken_Gartenstadt_Pfarrhof.jpg, Beim Pfarrhof File:Staaken_Gartenstadt_Giebeln.jpg, Zwischen den Giebeln File:Staaken_Gartenstadt_Torweg.jpg, Torweg File:Staaken_Gartenstadt_langen_Weg.jpg, Am langen Weg

References

External links

Staaken info website

Staaken page on www.berlin.de
{{Authority control Localities of Berlin *