Spandau

History

The history of Spandau begins in the 7th century or 8th century, when the Slav Heveller first settled in the area and later built a fortress there. It was conquered in 928 by the German King Henry I, but returned to Slavic rule after the rebellion of 983.

In 1156, the Ascanian Earl Albrecht von Ballenstedt ("Albrecht the Bear") took possession of the region. 1197 marked the first mention as Spandowe in a deed of Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg – thus forty years earlier than the Cölln part of medieval Berlin. Spandau was given city rights in 1232.

During Ascanian rule the construction of Spandau Citadel began, which was completed between 1559 and 1594 by Joachim II of Brandenburg. In 1558 the village of Gatow became part of Spandau. In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, Spandau was surrendered to the Swedes. In 1689, a commune of French Huguenots and Waldensians was established.

In 1806, after the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt, French troops under Napoleon took possession of the city and stayed there until 1807. In 1812, Napoleon returned, and the Citadel was besieged the following year by Prussian and Russian troops.

From 1849 the poet and revolutionary Gottfried Kinkel was an inmate of Spandau town prison, until he was freed by his friend Carl Schurz in the night of 6 November 1850.

Before World War I, Spandau Arsenal was a seat of large government cannon foundries, factories for making gunpowder and other munitions of war, making it a centre of the arms industry in the German Empire. It was also a garrison town with numerous barracks, home of the 5th Guard Infantry Brigade and the 5th Guard Foot Regiment of the German Army. In 1920, Spandau (whose name had been changed from Spandow in 1878) was incorporated into Greater Berlin as a borough.

During World War II, Spandau was the location of a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, mostly for Polish and Hungarian women.

After World War II, it was part of the British sector of West Berlin. Spandau Prison, which had been rebuilt in 1876, was used to house Nazi war criminals given custodial sentences at the Nuremberg Trials. After the death of Spandau Prison's last inmate, Rudolf Hess, in 1987, it was completely demolished by the Allied powers and later replaced by a shopping mall.

Gatow airfield, in the south of the district, was used by the Royal Air Force during the post-war Allied occupation, most notably during the Berlin Airlift. Since 1995 the airfield has been the Gatow Museum of Military History.

Geography

Outside Berlin, Spandau borders the districts (Kreis) of Oberhavel to the north, and Havelland to the west, and the city of Potsdam, Brandenburg, to the southwest. Within Berlin, it borders the boroughs of Steglitz-Zehlendorf to the south, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf to the east, and Reinickendorf to the northeast. Its land area of 91.91 km² (35.49 sq mi) is the fourth-largest of the twelve boroughs.

Subdivisions

Spandau Borough is divided into nine quarters (Ortsteile):

• Spandau
• Haselhorst
• Siemensstadt
• Staaken
• Gatow
• Kladow
• Hakenfelde
• Falkenhagener Feld
• Wilhelmstadt

Demographics

As of 2010, Spandau had a population of 223,962, the smallest of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. 62,000 of those were migrants or other non-ethnic Germans, comprising 27% of Spandau's population.

Politics

District council

The governing body of Spandau is the district council (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung). It has responsibility for passing laws and electing the city government, including the mayor. The most recent district council election was held on 26 September 2021, and the results were as follows:

District government

The district mayor (Bezirksbürgermeister) is elected by the Bezirksverordnetenversammlung, and positions in the district government (Bezirksamt) are apportioned based on party strength. Carola Brückner of the SPD was elected mayor on 4 November 2021. Since the 2021 municipal elections, the composition of the district government is as follows:

Sports

The Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 have traditionally been an immensely powerful water polo team. They have been the most successful ball sports team in Europe with 85 national and international titles. Hagen Stamm, longtime captain of the team, was German champion fourteen times in a row from 1979 to 1992, and winner of the German cup twelve times and won the European Cup in 1982, 1985, 1986 and 1989. He is currently the president of the association (as of 2020). The team's home games do not take place in the district, but in the Sportzentrum Schöneberg. For 2027, the team plans to move to the then newly constructed arena in Spandau.

In 1939, LSV Spandau won the title of the first German basketball championship, which was won by a clear 47:16 victory over Bad Kreuznach. After 1945, the association was dissolved.

Notable people

• Bela B. (born 1962), musician
• Hans Berndt (1913–1988), football player
• Helmut Bonnet (1910–1944), athlete
• Käthe Heinemann (1891–1975), pianist
• Robert Hoyzer (born 1979), football referee
• Käthe Itter (1907–1992), actress
• Paul Kellner (1890–1972), swimmer
• Henning Alexander von Kleist (1707–1784), Governor of Spandau citadel, died there
• Rosa Lindemann (1876–1958), communist
• Arthur Löwenstamm (1882–1965), Spandau Synagogue's first and only rabbi from 1917 to 1938
• Moriz von Lyncker (1853–1932), Prussian officer and Chief of the Military Cabinet of Kaiser Wilhelm II
• Christian Friedrich Neue (1789–1886), philologist
• Oliver Petszokat (born 1978), better known by his stage name Oli.P, singer, actor and TV presenter
• Hans von Plessen (1841–1929), Prussian Colonel-General
• Ivan Rebroff (1931–2008), singer
• Erna Sack (1898–1972), coloratura soprano, known as the German Nightingale for her high vocal range.
• Sıla Şahin (born 1985), actress
• Richard Schulze-Kossens (1914–1988), SS commander during the Nazi era
• Elke Sommer (1940-)
• Franz Hermann Troschel (1810–1882), zoologist
• Carl Albert Weber (1856–1931), botanist
• Kai Wegner (born 1972), politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU)

Twin towns – sister cities

Spandau is twinned with:

• Ashdod, Israel (1968)
• Asnières-sur-Seine, France (1959)
• İznik, Turkey (1987)
• Luton, United Kingdom (1959)
• Nauen, Germany (1988)
• Siegen, Germany (1952)
• Siegen-Wittgenstein, Germany (1952)