- Staaken
Staaken is a locality at the western rim of
Berlin within the borough ofSpandau . In the west it shares border with theBrandenburg municipalities ofFalkensee andDallgow-Döberitz in theHavelland district. Buildings range from smalldetached house s in the west to larger 1960s and 1970shousing estate s in the east. The locality of Staaken also includes the neighborhood of "Albrechtshof".History
First mentioned in a 1273 deed as "Stakene" the former village became a part of Berlin by the
Greater Berlin Act of 1920. The development of the area started with the construction of the Staaken garden city byarchitect Paul Schmitthenner in 1914.At the beginning of
World War I theLuftschiffbau Zeppelin company acquired large estates in Staaken, where from 1915 on it manufacturedzeppelin airships and R.VIbiplane strategic bombers . In 1919 the regulations of theTreaty of Versailles finished the production and the area was transformed into anairfield . There had been regular Zeppelin flights toFriedrichshafen and even toLondon from 1919 on, though in the following years most of theaviation moved toTempelhof Airport . The former zeppelin manufacturing halls were locations for variousfilm production s, e.g. parts ofFritz Lang 's Metropolis. In 1929 the estate was sold to the City of Berlin, while parts of the airport were still used by theLufthansa airline forflight training , competition and maintenance purposes. In "Albrechtshof" theDemag ("Deutsche Maschinenfabrik AG") builtPanther tank s duringWorld War II usingforced labour of over 2,500 prisoners held in the nearby Falkenhagen labour camp, a subcamp of theSachsenhausen concentration camp .After World War II Staaken was divided by a territorial exchange contract between the Allies
United Kingdom andSoviet Union fromAugust 30 ,1945 . The western half with the former airport became a municipality in theSoviet occupation zone and in 1952 a part of the formerPotsdam district within theGDR , while the eastern half remained inWest Berlin . In exchange territories of the East German municipality of Groß-Glienicke with therunway s ofGatow Airport were transferred to Berlin's British sector. From 1961 to 1989 theBerlin wall ran through Staaken. Both parts were reunited as a locality of the Spandau borough with theGerman reunification on October 3, 1990.Transportation
Staaken is served by
RegionalExpress andRegionalBahn trains of theDeutsche Bahn AG at the stations "Staaken" and "Albrechtshof". A S-Bahn connection to "Albrechtshof" is planned. This station had also been the site of a railroad border crossing, it was closed in 1961 after East Germanrailroad engineer Harry Deterling fled from the GDR by breaking through the barriers with a whole train. The event was dramatized in the 1963 West Germanfilm "Durchbruch Lok 234" (The Breakthrough). A new border crossing opened in 1976 at the "Staaken" station.The
Bundesstraße 5 federal highway runs through the locality along the "Heerstraße", the road border crossing for transit traffic toHamburg from 1951 to 1982.Fort Hahneberg
The area south of the "Heerstraße" is the site of a large
fortification , built between 1882 and 1888 on and inside the "Hahneberg" hill. It was meant to protect the Spandauarms industry and the only realized one of a planned four fortresses system. The fort lost itsmilitary significance shortly afterwards due to the development of brisant explosive shells. Until 1945 it was used asbarracks housing troops of the Spandaugarrison .Notable people
Figure skater
Katarina Witt was born in the GDR municipality of Staaken on December 3, 1965.ee also
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Challenge 1930
*Challenge 1932
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