Westend (Berlin)

Westend is a locality of the Berlin borough Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf situated on the "Spandauer Berg", the northern peak of the Teltow plateau between the river valleys of Spree and Havel.

In 1806 Napoleon had a military camp here, though he himself chose Charlottenburg Palace for accommodation. The land was developed from 1866 on as a residential area for the wealthy bourgeoisie, originally made up of mansions and villas and named after the West End of London. Today it is a quite densely settled, still affluent territory adjacent to the inner city area of Charlottenburg in the east.

The locality also icludes the neighbourhoods of "Neu-Westend" and "Ruhleben", a suburban housing area of the 1920s. The site of the former Ruhleben P.O.W. Camp, a World War I civilian prisoner of war camp, today is part of the adjacent Spandau district. Furthermore the areas of "Pichelsberg", "Heerstraße" and "Eichkamp" at the northern rim of the Grunewald forest belong to Westend. It is home of the Berlin trade fairs like the "Internationale Funkausstellung" and of the former "Reichssportfeld" area of the 1936 Summer Olympics.

ights

* Funkturm, 1926
* Haus des Rundfunks by Hans Poelzig, 1931, today broadcasting centre of the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)
* Deutschlandhalle arena, 1935
* Olympic Stadium with Bell Tower ("Glockenturm") and "Waldbühne" amphitheatre by Werner March, 1934-36
* Unité d'Habitation with Modulor scale by Le Corbusier, part of the Interbau exhibition 1957
* Studio of sculptor Georg Kolbe, 1929, with museum
* International Congress Centre (ICC), 1979
* Mommsen Stadium, 1930, home of the Tennis Borussia Berlin football club
* Westend hospital of the German Red Cross
* Spandauer Berg water tower, 1909
* Villas along the street "Am Rupenhorn" by Erich Mendelsohn, 1930 and Wassili and Hans Luckhardt, 1932

Transportation

Westend is served by the Berlin S-Bahn "Ringbahn" lines S41, S42 and S46 at the stations "Westend", "Messe Nord/ICC" and "Westkreuz" as well as the "Westbahn" lines S75 and S9 at the stations "Messe Süd", "Heerstraße", "Olympiastadion (Süd)" and "Pichelsberg".

U-Bahn connection to the inner city is provided by the U2 line with the stations "Kaiserdamm", "Theodor-Heuss-Platz", "Neu-Westend", "Olympia-Stadion (Ost)" and "Ruhleben".

The A100 ("Berliner Stadtring") motorway marks Westend's eastern border. The federal highways Bundesstraße 2 and Bundesstraße 5 together run through the locality along the streets "Kaiserdamm" and "Heerstraße". Near the S-Bahn station "Messe Nord/ICC" is Berlin's Central Bus station "Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof" (ZOB).