Schöneberg () is a
locality of
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Germany. Until
Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of
Friedenau. Together with the former borough of
Tempelhof it is now part of the new
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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
...
of
Tempelhof-Schöneberg.
History

The village was first documented in a 1264 deed issued by
Margrave
Margrave was originally the Middle Ages, medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or a monarchy, kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain Feudal ...
Otto III of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
. In 1751,
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
n
weavers
Weaver or Weavers may refer to:
Activities
* A person who engages in weaving fabric
Animals
* Various birds of the family Ploceidae
* Crevice weaver spider family
* Orb-weaver spider family
* Weever (or weever-fish)
Arts and entertainment
...
founded Neu-Schöneberg also known as Böhmisch-Schöneberg along northern Hauptstraße. During the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...
on 7 October 1760 Schöneberg and its village church were completely destroyed by a fire due to the joint attack on Berlin by
Habsburg and
Russian troops.
Both Alt-Schöneberg and Neu-Schöneberg were in an area developed in the course of industrialisation and incorporated in a street network laid out in the
Hobrecht-Plan in an area that came to be known architecturally as the
Wilhelmine Ring. The two villages were not combined as one entity until 1874 and received
town privileges in 1898. In the following year it was disentangled from the ''
Kreis'' of Teltow, and became a Prussian
Stadtkreis (
independent city
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
Historical precursors
In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
). Many of the former peasants gained wealth by selling their acres to the settlement companies of growing Berlin and built luxurious mansions on Hauptstraße. The large town hall,
Rathaus Schöneberg
Rathaus Schöneberg is the City and town halls, city hall for the Boroughs of Berlin, borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. From 1949 until 1990 it served as the seat of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin, state senate of West Berlin a ...
, was completed in 1914. In 1920, Schöneberg became a part of
Greater Berlin. Subsequent to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the Rathaus served as the city hall of
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
until 1991 when the administration of the reunited City of Berlin moved back to the
Rotes Rathaus
The Red Town Hall ( ) is the town hall of Berlin, Germany, located in the Mitte (locality), Mitte district on Rathausstraße near Alexanderplatz. It is the home to the Governing Mayor of Berlin, governing mayor and the government (the Senate of B ...
in
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-Kreuz ...
.
Gay life
The area around
Nollendorfplatz has been the heart of
gay life in Berlin, since the
1920s and early–1930s during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
.
The
Eldorado nightclub on
Motzstraße was closed down by the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
on coming to power in December 1932.
Holocaust survivor
Elsa Conrad co-ran the lesbian bar ''Mali und Igel.'' Inside the bar, was a club called ''
Monbijou des Westens.''
The club was exclusive and catered for Berlin's lesbian, intellectual elite; one famous guest was the actress
Marlene Dietrich.
Each year the club hosted balls with up to 600 women in attendance.
The painter and printmaker
Otto Dix used patrons of this establishment as subjects for some of his works.
Christopher Isherwood lived just around the corner on Nollendorfstraße. This apartment was the basis for his book ''
Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939) and later the musical ''
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...
'' (1966), and the film version of ''
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...
'' (1972) is commemorated by a historic plaque on the building.
Quarters
The locality of Schöneberg includes the ''Stadtquartiere''s of Bayerisches Viertel (English: “”; an affluent residential area with streets named after
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
n towns) and the
Rote Insel (English: “red island”) as well as Lindenhof and the large natural park area Südgelände (English: “south grounds”) on the outside of the
Ringbahn railway circle line.
Popular sights
* Dorfkirche, the old village church, built in 1766
*
Rathaus Schöneberg
Rathaus Schöneberg is the City and town halls, city hall for the Boroughs of Berlin, borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. From 1949 until 1990 it served as the seat of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin, state senate of West Berlin a ...
on
John-F.-Kennedy-Platz (formerly Rudolph-Wilde-Platz, built in 1914), where, on 26 June 1963, U.S. President
John F. Kennedy held his "''
Ich bin ein Berliner''" speech in front of hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic spectators.
[ Andreas Daum, Kennedy in Berlin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008, , pp. 125‒56, 223‒26.]
* Headquarters of the
RIAS Berlin (Radio in the American Sector) from 1948 to 1993, then headquarters of DeutschlandRadio Berlin from 1994 until the station was renamed
Deutschlandradio Kultur in 2005. The building was erected in 1941 by the
IG Farben
I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German Chemical industry, chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical co ...
conglomerate.
* Former headquarters of the
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), the public transport company of Berlin, on Potsdamer Straße
*
Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe), the largest department store in continental Europe, at
Wittenbergplatz
* Heinrich-von-Kleist-Park, first laid out in 1656 by
Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg as a
nursery, later Berlin's
Botanical Garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
, which in 1910 moved to
Dahlem. The
Kammergericht appellate court building was erected within the park in 1913, together with two
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
s by
Carl von Gontard from 1780, which had been moved here from the
Alexanderplatz. On 8 August 1944 it was the site of the ''
Volksgerichtshof''
show trial
A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...
of members of the
20 July plot led by judge-president
Roland Freisler. From 1945 onward, the building served as the seat of the
Allied Control Council
The Allied Control Council (ACC) or Allied Control Authority (), also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allies of World War II, Allied Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones in Germany (1945–1949/1991) and Al ...
in Berlin. When the Soviet representatives left the Council in 1948, the
Berlin Air Safety Centre remained there as the only
four-power authority (besides
Spandau Prison), while the rest of the building was empty. Today it again serves as the seat of the Kammergericht.
* Pallasstraße
Hochbunker, a former air-raid shelter, built in 1943 by
forced laborers. A large
social housing
Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
estate was built in 1977 to partially bridge over the bunker and to cross the street, the former site of the
Berlin Sportpalast. This is where
Joseph Goebbels held his 1943
"Total War" speech. It was demolished in 1973. The present housing estate is known to Berliners as the Sozialpalast ("Social Palace").
* Lutherkirche at Denewitzplatz, which now houses the
American Church in Berlin.
File:Gebäude des RIAS und Deutschlandradio Kultur in Berlin Schöneberg 2012.jpg, The RIAS building in Berlin-Schöneberg
File:KaDeWE Wittenbergplatz.jpg, Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe), department store
File:Motzstrassenfest2006.jpg, Lesbian and Gay City Festival near Nollendorfplatz
File:RudolphWildePark Berlin 2.JPG, Rudolph-Wilde-Park
File:Torbogenblick April 2007.JPG, Residential area Ceciliengärten
File:Potsdamer strasse 157 159.JPG, Squatted houses at Potsdamer Strasse
File:Gasometer Berlin Schöneberg 2011.jpg, up''Gasometer'', a landmark of ''Rote Insel'', as of 2022 in redevelopment into a building
Notable people
Born in Schöneberg
*
Kitty Kuse, German lesbian activist and economist, born 17 March 1904, died 7 November 1999
[Ilse Kokula: "Ganz normal anders und engagiert". In: Baerbel Becker (Hrsg.): ''Bad Women. Luder, Schlampen und Xanthippen''. Elefanten Press, Berlin 1989, , pp. 130–131 (131). Cited in : Sigrid Wiegand]
"Kitty Kuse – Mit dem Strom und doch gegen den Strich"
''Stadtteilzeitung Schöneberg'', 1 March 2016.
*
Blixa Bargeld, musician, born 12 January 1959
*
Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German Marxist theorist and politician. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he has been both condemned and praised as a "Revisionism (Marxism), revisi ...
, lived 1850-1932, Socialist economist and politician, member of Reichstag
*
Marlene Dietrich, actress, born 27 December 1901, Sedanstraße 65 (today: Leberstraße 65), Rote Insel, died 6 May 1992 in Paris; buried in the
Städtischer Friedhof III cemetery, Friedenau
*
Gisèle Freund, photographer, born 19 December 1908, Bayerisches Viertel, died 31 March 2000 in Paris
*
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor, born 25 January 1886, Maaßenstraße 1 at
Nollendorfplatz, died 30 November 1954 in Ebersteinburg,
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
*
Alfred Lion, co-founder of the
Blue Note jazz record label, born 21 April 1909, Gotenstraße 7, died 2 February 1987 in New York City
*
Ernst Hermann Meyer, composer and musicologist, born 8 December 1905, died 8 October 1988 in Berlin
*
Helmut Newton, photographer, born 31 October 1920, Innsbrucker Straße 24, died 23 January 2004 in
West Hollywood; buried in the
Städtischer Friedhof III cemetery, Friedenau
*
Jürgen Ohlsen (1917–1994), child actor best-remembered for the role of Heini Völker in
''Hitlerjunge Quex'' (''Our Flag Leads Us Forward'') (1933).
*
Christian Ried (born 1979), racing driver
*
Nelly Sachs, writer, holder of the 1966
Nobel Prize for Literature, born 10 December 1891, Maaßenstraße 12, died 12 May 1970 in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
*
Margarete Seeler (1909–1996), was a German-born American artist, designer, educator, and author; known for her
cloisonné
Cloisonné () is an ancient technology, ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inla ...
work.
*
Willi Stoph, politician, born 9 July 1914, Rote Insel, died 13 April 1999 in Berlin
Lived in Schöneberg
*
Hans Baluschek, painter, Ceciliengärten housing estate, 1929–1933
*
August Bebel (1840–1913) Hauptstraße 97
*
Gottfried Benn (1886–1956) Bozener Straße 20
*
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
(1947–2016) Hauptstraße 155, 1976–1978
*
Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...
(born 1947) Hauptstraße 155, 1976–1978
*
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
(1866–1924)
Viktoria-Luise-Platz 11, buried at
Städtischer Friedhof III cemetery,
Friedenau
*
Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992), actress; born and lived with her husband and her family in Schöneberg before they finally left Germany in 1933.
*
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
(1879–1955) Haberlandstraße 5, 1919-1933
*
Hans Fallada (1893–1947) Luitpoldstraße 11
*
Sepp Herberger (1897–1977) Bülowstraße
*
Hilde Hildebrand (1897–1976) actress, Voßbergstraße 2, 1930–1932
*
Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) Nollendorfstraße 17, 1930–1932
*
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor. Equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality, he appeared in over 130 film roles in a ...
(1926–1991), actor, Wartburgstraße 3, 1930–1944
*
Hildegard Knef (1925–2002), actress, Sedanstraße 68
*
Else Lasker-Schüler (1869–1945) poet,
Motzstraße 7
*
Friedrich Luft (1911–1990)
theater critic, author and broadcaster, Maienstraße 4
*
Alice Michaelis (1875–1943) painter and educator, Speyerer Straße 2
*
Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919) Naumannstraße
*
Annemarie Renger (1919–2008) President of the Bundestag, Bülowstraße
*
Ruth Margarete Roellig (1878–1969) writer
*
Jean Ross (1911–1973) Nollendorfstraße 17, 1930–1932
*
Rudolf Steiner and
Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Motzstraße 30, 1903–1923
*
Claire Waldoff, singer, (1884–1957) Bamberger Straße, Starnberger Straße 2, Landshuter Straße 14, Regensburger Straße 33 1919–1933, Haberlandstraße 7
*
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and ver ...
(1906–2002)
Viktoria-Luise-Platz 11, 1927–1928
*
Paul Zech (1881–1946), writer, Naumannstraße 78
File:Stolperstein Treuchtlinger Str 5 (Schöb) Lilli Henoch.jpg, ''Stolperstein
A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...
'' of Lilli Henoch, embedded at Treuchtlinger Straße 5
File:Gedenktafel Nollendorfstr 17 (Schönb) Christopher Isherwood.JPG, Plaque at Nollendorfstraße 17 about Christopher Isherwood
References
External links
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoneberg
Localities of Berlin
*
Former boroughs of Berlin