WILMERSDORF:

The new district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf exists since the 1st of January, 2001, when the two Berlin districts Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf were joined together. The districts are a good match and offer a whole variety of advantages of modern city life. The Kurfürstendamm is no longer a border but rather a pulsated centre of the district.

The district has much to offer; Gedächtniskirche (the memorial church), Teufelsberg (the landscape rubble mountain, highest elevation in Berlin), Havelstrand (the Havel landscape), Technische Universität (the Technical University), Olympiastadion (the Olympic Stadium), Horst-Dohm-Eisstadion (the ice stadium), Schloss Charlottenburg (the Charlottenburg Palace), Volkspark Wilmersdorf (the National Park in Wilmersdorf), Deutsche Oper and Schaubühne (the German Opera and the Old Theatre).

There has always been a relation between Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. For instance, the priests of the 1293 first officially mentioned village of Wilmersdorf had to cater for the small village of Lietzow (centre of a district, later known as Charlottenburg) until 1708. This explains why what is today called the Brandenburgische Straße was mentioned as Priesterweg in the old city map. The Wilmersdorfer Straße, nowadays a shopping centre in Charlottenburg, is part of this relation.

In 1239, the Lietzow village became known as Lucene. The village was very important, due to the Lietzenburg Palace, which was built in 1695. Kurfürst Friedrich III, who became King Frederick I of Prussia, presented his wife Sophie Charlotte with the Lietzow community and its surroundings, to be established as a summer residence. South of the palace, today the Schlossstraße, a small settlement of palace attendants (servants) was situated. After the death of the King in 1705, the palace and the settlement were named Charlottenburg. In 1720, the Lietzow village became a part of Charlottenburg, as well.

At the end of the 19th century, the Kurfürstendamm was built to become a very popular boulevard in Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf, and to compete with the old city of Stadtmitte and Friedrichstraße, which had already been a lively and busy boulevard at that time. The Kurfüstendamm became the most attractive city in Berlin within a short period of time, due to its fascinating mixture of shopping centres, an entertainment centre with cafés and restaurants, cultural events and big apartments with its elegant streets. In 1896, the "Theater des Westens" was built; in 1907 the "Schiller Theater" and the "Kaufhaus des Westens" also came into existence, followed by the "Opernhaus" in 1912, which became the "Deutsche Oper Berlin" in 1961.

In the 20s of the 20th century, "Berlin W" around the Kurfüstendamm in Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf reached its climax of being a long dawdle area of temporarily even international fame, with modern cinema houses, theatres, cabarets, musical show houses, cafés, and beautiful and luxurious shops which attracted both tourists and the citizens of Berlin. An American author even called the Kurfürstendamm "the biggest coffee house in Europe".

Those who are interested in historical Berlin should visit the Alexanderplatz through Unter den Linden up to the Brandenburger Gate. And those who want to see the international and modern Berlin are recommended to roam around the Memorial Church, "Rund um die Gedächtniskirche rum", which is also the title of a famous musical show.

The 1920 Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf community was not only a city of the western part of Berlin but had also exclusive residential areas like Westend and the Grunewald, an expansion of rich and middle-class residential areas like in Schmargendorf, in Rheingauer Viertel around the Rüdesheimer Platz, in Eichkamp or the Heerstraße. There were also large allotments, and the larger part of the Grunewald remains the famous destination for many citizens in Berlin. The Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf of the 1920 also had a trade fair centre with a radio tower, which opened in 1926, the first automobile traffic and testing course (opened in 1921 to be Germany´s first motor racing circuit), and the Olympiastadion, which was built in 1931, established for the Olympic Games in 1936.


Monuments and Emblems

The expulsion and the murdering of a great part of the Jewish population by the "National Socialists" destroyed many things in Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. In the 1920s, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf had the highest proportion of the Jews, compared with the rest of Berlin. Many of them were business people, artists, intellectuals and authors, and were patrons of the international aura of the Berlin West.

The foundations of this success were inwardly destroyed, when the Jewish population was permanently being excluded in almost every area of public life. During the Second World War, their valuable buildings and assets were also outwardly destroyed. The Gedächniskirche stands as a symbol of these times. A visible outcome of the removal of the ruins is the Teufelsberg, 115 metres high, having the same altitude as the highest natural rubble mountains of Berlin, the "Müggelberge" in Berlin-Köpenick .

After World War Two, new residential areas were built, as for instance the Corbusier-Haus in 1958, in 1960 the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung and, in 1972, the spectacular state motorway with a superstructure in the Schlangenbader Straße.

Due to the division of the town, the former city became the new city for the western part of Berlin, a sort of a showcase for the west. New emblems like the Europa Centre and the International Congress Centre were built. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the two Berlin cities are competing again, which is actually a good thing, because it is especially the different varieties that make Berlin so attractive.

The western part of the city profits from the attractions of the historical centre. The historical centre includes the governmental area and the old city centre (Mitte). It also gains from the unlimited attractions of the western part of the city.

You can say today that knowing the western part of the city Berlin is not all to Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The district has much to offer; the Waldbühne (Forest Theatre), good bars, Grunewaldturm (The Grunewald Tower), Volkspark Jungfernheide (National Park in Jungfernheide), Schmargendorf, Plötzensee, Rheingauviertel and Stößensee.

Scouting and guiding in Wilmersdorf :

Askanier Group[Website in German] of the Guide and Scout Union (BdP)