Staaken

Staaken is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau. In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz in the Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing estates 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 by architect Paul Schmitthenner in 1914.

At the beginning of World War I the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company acquired large estates in Staaken, where from 1915 on it manufactured zeppelin airships and R.VI biplane strategic bombers. In 1919 the regulations of the Treaty of Versailles finished the production and the area was transformed into an airfield. There had been regular Zeppelin flights to Friedrichshafen and even to London from 1919 on, though in the following years most of the aviation moved to Tempelhof Airport. The former zeppelin manufacturing halls were locations for various film productions, e.g. parts of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. In 1929 the estate was sold to the City of Berlin, while parts of the airport were still used by the Lufthansa airline for flight training, competition and maintenance purposes. In "Albrechtshof" the Demag ("Deutsche Maschinenfabrik AG") built Panther tanks during World War II using forced labour of over 2,500 prisoners held in the nearby Falkenhagen labour camp, a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

After World War II Staaken was divided by a territorial exchange contract between the Allies United Kingdom and Soviet Union from August 30, 1945. The western half with the former airport became a municipality in the Soviet occupation zone and in 1952 a part of the former Potsdam district within the GDR, while the eastern half remained in West Berlin. In exchange territories of the East German municipality of Groß-Glienicke with the runways of Gatow Airport were transferred to Berlin's British sector. From 1961 to 1989 the Berlin wall ran through Staaken. Both parts were reunited as a locality of the Spandau borough with the German reunification on October 3, 1990.

Transportation

Staaken is served by RegionalExpress and RegionalBahn trains of the Deutsche 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 German railroad engineer Harry Deterling fled from the GDR by breaking through the barriers with a whole train. The event was dramatized in the 1963 West German film "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 to Hamburg 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 Spandau arms industry and the only realized one of a planned four fortresses system. The fort lost its military significance shortly afterwards due to the development of brisant explosive shells. Until 1945 it was used as barracks housing troops of the Spandau garrison.

Notable people

Figure skater Katarina Witt was born in the GDR municipality of Staaken on December 3, 1965.

ee also

*Challenge 1930
*Challenge 1932