Schönefeld (meaning ''beautiful field'') is a suburban municipality in the

Dahme-Spreewald Dahme-Spreewald ( dsb, Wokrejs Damna-Błota) is a district in Brandenburg, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the districts of Oder-Spree, Spree-Neiße, Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Elbe-Elster and Teltow-Fläming, and by the city o ...

district,

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 squ ...

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 betwee ...

. It borders the southeastern districts 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 constitu ...

. The municipal area encompasses the old

Berlin Schönefeld Airport Berlin Schönefeld Airport () (formerly ) was the secondary international airport of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It was located southeast of Berlin near the town of Schönefeld in the state of Brandenburg and bordered Berlin's southern bo ...

(SXF) and the new

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Berlin Brandenburg Airport ''Willy Brandt'' (german: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt", , ) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the German capital Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Named after the former ...

(BER).

Geography

It is located about southeast of the Berlin city centre, next to Berlin's only airport,

(BER). In the north, Schönefeld adjoins to the Berlin

boroughs 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 A ...

Tempelhof-Schöneberg Tempelhof-Schöneberg () is the seventh borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former boroughs of Tempelhof and Schöneberg. Situated in the south of the city it shares borders with the boroughs of Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzber ...

Neukölln Neukölln () is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located in the southeastern part from the city centre towards Berlin Schönefeld Airport. It was part of the former American sector under the Four-Power occupation of the city. It featu ...

, and

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 po ...

with the localities of Lichtenrade, Gropiusstadt,

Buckow Buckow ( or ) is a town in the Märkisch-Oderland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. The water cure resort is the administrative seat of the ''Amt'' (municipal association) Märkische Schweiz and located in the centre of the eponymous hill rang ...

, Rudow,

Altglienicke Altglienicke (, literally ''Old Glienicke'') is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the borough (''Bezirk'') of Treptow-Köpenick. Until 2001 it was part of the former borough of Treptow. History The village of ''Glinik'' was first mentioned in ...

, and

Bohnsdorf Bohnsdorf () is a district in the borough Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin, Germany. It is located in the south-east of the city. History The locality was first mentioned in 1375 with the name of ''Benistorp''. Geography Position The locality is situa ...

. In the south, it borders Mittenwalde, in the west,

Blankenfelde-Mahlow Blankenfelde-Mahlow is a municipality in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated approximately south of Berlin. History The municipality shared its borders with the former West Berlin, and so during the period 1961 ...

and in the east,

Schulzendorf is a municipality in the district of Dahme-Spreewald in Brandenburg in Germany. Demography File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Schulzendorf.pdf, Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line ...

and

Zeuthen Zeuthen is a municipality in the district of Dahme-Spreewald in Brandenburg in Germany. Geography It is located near the southeastern Berlin city limits on the western shore of the Dahme River and the Zeuthener See. It borders Eichwalde in the ...

Civil parishes

The Schönefeld municipal area comprises six

districts 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 ...

(''Ortsteile''), former municipalities in their own right which were incorporated in 2003: *Schönefeld proper * Großziethen * Selchow * Kiekebusch * Waltersdorf *

Waßmannsdorf Waßmannsdorf is a village and a civil parish (''Ortsteil'') of the German town of Schönefeld, located in the district of Dahme-Spreewald in Brandenburg. As of 2007 its population was of around 1,000. History First mentioned in 1350 as ''Wasmans ...

The settlement of Kienberg, part of Waltersdorf, was cleared of residents to permit expansion of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport and is to be developed as a commercial area.

History and monuments

The first preserved mention of Schönefeld 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 ...

territory dates back to 1242. ''Sconenfelde'', then a possession held by the Lords of Selchow, is documented in the 1375 ''Landbuch'' (domesday book) of Emperor Charles IV, when he also ruled as

Elector 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 H ...

. The village church, rebuilt in 1904/05 according to plans designed 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 ...

, includes a large

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

altar. Waltersdorf and Waßmannsdorf also have village churches dating to the first half of the 13th century. From 1933 onwards the

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting v ...

aircraft company moved from

Johannisthal Air Field The Johannisthal Air Field, located southeast of central Berlin, between Johannisthal and Adlershof, was Germany's first commercial airfield. It opened on 26 September 1909, a few weeks after the world's first airfield at Rheims, France. Ov ...

to Schönefeld and had three runways laid out next to the village. More than 14,000 warplanes were built at the site until 1945, when the premises were occupied by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

. In the Großziethen cemetery is a memorial to 200

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

and

forced labor 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 ...

ers who died 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The

Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

used the air field from 1946, one year later the Soviet Military Administration ordered the buildup of a civil air service supplying

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 ...

. Before

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 ...

, Schönefeld shared its borders partly with boroughs of former

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 ...

(present-day Neukölln and Tempelhof-Schöneberg), and so from 1961 to 1990 it was separated from it by 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 gover ...

Demography

File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Schönefeld.pdf, Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of Nazi rule; Red Background: Time of Communist rule) File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Schönefeld.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the

Census in Germany A national census in Germany (german: Volkszählung) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, w ...

in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2020-2030 (green line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line)

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport Berlin Brandenburg Airport ''Willy Brandt'' (german: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt", , ) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the German capital Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Named after the former ...

Flughafen BER - Terminal 5 station Frankfurt-Flughafen is a quarter of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the ''Ortsbezirk Süd'' and is subdivided into the ''Stadtbezirke'' Unterwald and Flughafen. Frankfurt-Flughafen contains the whole airport ground of Frankfurt Airpor ...

, opened in 1951 on the Berlin outer ring, is currently served by 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-, Ri ...

lines S45 and S9 * Berlin Brandenburg Airport railway station beneath the airport Terminal 1 served by S-Bahn, Regional Express "Airport Express" and long distance IC trains, and an S-Bahn station at Waßmannsdorf, between there and the existing Schönefeld station served only by the S-Bahn. * The Schönefled interchange connects the

autobahns 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' ...

A13,

A113 A113 (sometimes A-113, A-1-13, A1-13 or A11-3) is an inside joke and Easter egg in media developed by alumni of California Institute of the Arts, referring to the classroom used by graphic design and character animation students. History Student ...

with its A117 branch-off, and A10 (''Berliner Ring''). *

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...

n B96A and B179

Business

The Airport-Center, an industrial area in Waltersdorf, and

are important sources of revenue for Schönefeld. The head office of

Private Wings Private Wings Flugcharter GmbH is a German charter airline that was founded in 1991 and operates chartered corporate, cargo and air ambulance services out of Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Its head office is located in the General Aviation Terminal ...

is located in the General Aviation Terminal (Allgemeine Luftfahrt) on the property of Schönefeld Airport. Before its disestablishment, 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 ...

airline company Interflug had its head office on the grounds of the airport. Bremenfly also had its head office in Schönefeld.

Politics

Seats in the municipal council (''Gemeinderat''): * ''Alle für Eine'' voters' association: 5 * Christian Democratic Union (CDU): 7 *

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been ...

(SPD): 3 * The Left: 2 * Schönefeld citizens' initiative (BIS): 1 * Pro Schönefeld citizens' association: 4

Twin towns — Sister cities

Schönefeld is twinned with Bayangol, a district of Ulaanbataar, since 1999.

Education

Primary schools in the municipality: *Astrid-Lindgren-Grundschule Schönefeld *Paul-Maar-Grundschule Großziethen There is a private secondary school, Evangelische Schule Schönefeld.Evangelische Schule Schönefeld – Gymnasium
" Schönefeld. Retrieved on September 13, 2016.

Notable people

* Rosemarie Clausen, theatrical photographer, born in Großziethen in 1907 *

Rudi Dutschke Alfred Willi Rudolf "Rudi" Dutschke (; 7 March 1940 – 24 December 1979) was a German sociologist and political activist who, until severely injured by an assassin in 1968, was a leading charismatic figure within the West German Socialist Stu ...

, prominent spokesperson of the German student movement of the 1960s

References

Sources

* Bernd Kuhlmann. ''Schönefeld bei Berlin – 1 Amt, 1 Flughafen und 11 Bahnhöfe''. Berlin: Gesellschaft für Verkehrspolitik und Eisenbahnwesen, 1996.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonefeld Localities in Dahme-Spreewald Teltow (region)