Nordeast:
Lankwitz
Village church, manor house, parks and squares – now densely populated, Lankwitz nevertheless offers much to discover and a good quality of life – after all, the oldest woman in Germany lived here.
After Lankwitz bomb night
Reconstruction and tradition
Quality of life and discoveries
If mainly farmland characterized the village at the Lanke until the beginning of the 20th century, then an upswing took place, which led to di hter settlement. At the latest in the post-war period, the gaps between buildings were closed. Old village church, manor house, settlement projects of the post-war period characterize the present.
Geschichtliche Entwicklung Lankwitz
In northeastern direction we move towards Lankwitz. The Slavic settlement, as already mentioned above, is documented as older than Berlin itself and was called Lankowice, i.e. “place on the floodplain”. The village was laid out in the form of a horseshoe. The mention of the village with 44 Hufen indicates a German takeover in 1239, because it had been surveyed (“verhuft”) with them. With the Reformation, the parish village passed from the Benedictine monastery of Spandau into the possession of the Spandau office. From 1786 it belonged to the noble von Pfuel family as a feudal estate.
Later it came to Teltow, and then in 1920 became part of Greater Berlin. For a short time, Mies van der Rohe had his private Bauhaus Berlin architecture school in Birkbuschstrasse, but he had to close it when the National Socialists seized power. It was 85% destroyed in the Lankwitz bombing night (August 23-24, 1943). After the war, all gaps between buildings were gradually closed, so that overall there is hardly any wasteland left. Due to the campus of the Free University (geosciences), Lankwitz is also a university location, while the Business School Berlin Potsdam and the Medical School Berlin as private educational institutions are housed in the Siemens Villa (see there).
Correns Mansion
Director of the Accumalatoren-Fabrik Aktiongesellschaft (later VARTA), Friedrich Christian Correns, had municipal architect Fritz Freymüller design a villa in the style of historicism, the Correns mansion (3 km), today mostly known as the Siemens Villa. It is located at the corner of Calandrellistraße and Gärtnerstraße. Built in 1910 on 3,700m, its walls enclose 80 rooms. The basement alone has 1,000m. Then there are outbuildings, gatehouse and a 27,000m park. The music hall of the villa is famous in classical music circles for its acoustics, which is why it is repeatedly used for sound recordings. After Corren’s death, his widow sold the villa to Werner von Siemens, which is why it is also known as the Siemens Villa. Today, BSP Business School Berlin Potsdam and MSB Medical School Berlin rent the building. The garden and park are listed as historical monuments.
Energy Museum
If you choose an alternative route to Steglitz, you will pass by the interactive Energy Museum (3.5 km; Teltowkanalstraße 9, 12247 Berlin). It’s housed in the former Steglitz Power Station of 1910, the largest battery storage power plant ever operated in Germany (listed as a historical monument). During the Cold War, it was able to provide 17 MW for West Berlin with its island location for about 20 minutes starting in 1984. Obsolete due to reunification and the resulting interconnection of the power grids, it was decommissioned in 1994. Since 2001, a specially founded association has exhibited items from power plant and grid technology, trade fairs, protection and communication, household appliances and public lighting. Admission is free of charge and since it is organized on a voluntary basis, there are no fixed opening hours. So register at energie-museum.de
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Steglitz power plant
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Abrahamsohn factory
Abrahamsohn Villa
Please understand that texts and photos will be posted little by little, as the research and recordings require a not inconsiderable amount of time. Please have a look again soon! Thank you!
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
St. Benedict Church
City Hall Lankwitz
After a few meters north of the center, the walker comes across the Lankwitz Town Hall(3.3 km). The first paid mayor of Lankwitz (1908-1918) Rudolf Beyendorff (also called the “father of Lankwitz”) initiated the construction including post office and police station. In 1911, only the first construction phase for 30,000 inhabitants was realized in the style of the German Renaissance; in view of the war, revolution and the founding of the republic, the second construction phase (with administrative buildings for another 170,000 citizens) could not be started.
The two-winged building is adorned with decorative elements made of sandstone. Especially richly decorated are the balcony and windows of the meeting room and the bay window of the mayor’s office. Heavily destroyed in a night of bombing in 1943, the reconstruction took place in 1953 modified. The imposing tower with town hall clock now features the Lankwitz coat of arms (lion and three ears of corn below) and the weather vane bears the year of reconstruction. The meeting hall was converted into offices. The entrance hall, main staircase and mayor’s office (now the City Council for Social Affairs and Urban Development) were preserved and renovated a few years ago. On the forecourt, strolling is even more fun on Mondays and Fridays, when the weekly market is set up from 08:00 to 13:00.
Bernkastel Square & Cheese bell
Opposite is the “cheese bell” as the entrance to the rose garden. Bernkastler Platz (3.4 km), colloquially known as the ‘Rose Garden’, is listed as an example of Wilhelminian garden art (1890-1918).
The park extends between the railroad embankment (S 25/26, at that time Anhalter Vorortbahn) and Bernkastler Straße. With pergolas, putti on pedestals, and fountains, this corresponded to the desire for representation at the time. The city of Teltow, to which Lankwitz still belonged before its incorporation into Berlin in 1920, initiated this 18,000 m2 trapezoidal green space in 1910-1914.
Fritz Freymüller designed the park apartment house with six apartments, which formed the entrance to the park via an archway. Due to its dome, it is popularly known simply as ‘Käseglocke’ (Leonorenstraße). Today the gateway is closed. After partial destruction in 1943 (The Royal Air Force had lost its way once again.) it was only restored in 1975 based on photographs and postcards. After the war, it served as a teachers’ home, then as a children’s and youth recreation facility until 2004. Since then, it has continued to be run as an independent facility.
Residential complex Leonoren-Str.
Holy Trinity Church
Today’s center of Lankwitz is the intersection of Kaiser-Wilhelm-/Leonoren-/Paul-Schneider-Strasse. If the visitor looks to the south, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Trinity Church) (2.8 km) rises up, often simply called Lankwitz-Kirche (e.g. bus stop). Due to the lack of capacity of the village church (see below), the Protestant parish decided in 1900 to build a new church under the direction of the royal government architect Dähne. Inaugurated in 1906 in the presence of Prince August-Wilhelm of Prussia, it was built in the style of the 15th-century brick buildings of the Mark Brandenburg and has a 55-meter-high tower. Local materials were used, such as limestone and Marches bricks in monastery format.
Church service Sun 11:00,
lankwitzer-kirchengemeinden.de
Heavily damaged in the Lankwitz bombing, the house of worship could only be rebuilt gradually and with much dispute. Immediately after the war, the parish hall served as a people’s kitchen and relief hospital.
Village church Lankwitz
Classically grouped around a village green with the village church (3.7 km) is Alt-Lankwitz. The fieldstone church dates from the second half of the 13th century and with its three-part apse corresponds to one of the oldest ground plan types. In 1757, the church was extensively rebuilt, including the addition of the half-timbered tower.
Destroyed down to the foundation walls by air raids in 1943, it was rebuilt in 1955/56 with slight changes and received a Schuke organ. Only the altarpiece from 1550, on loan from St. Mary’s Church, is older than the otherwise post-war interior. Church service Sundays 11:00. lankwitzer-kirchengemeinden.de
Theodosius Hospital
Hospice Angelicum
Büdner house
Holy Trinity Cemetery
The Trinity Cemetery (3.2 km from IIher accommodation) belongs of course to the Lankwitz Trinity Church. The architect Otto Kuhlmann planned it incl. chapel. The separate bell tower is located a few meters away at Paul-Schneider-Strasse 46/50.
On the 17,000 square meter grounds are approximately 2,400 graves, including 37 individual graves for the victims of war and tyranny.
Community park Lankwitz
The ten-hectare Gemeindepark Lankwitz (2.9 km) had been started by the municipal council in 1909 and opened under the name Beyendorffpark, i.e. before Lankwitz became part of Berlin in 1920. In 1919 it was given the name Gemeindepark, although the Nazis renamed it Beyendorff again in the meantime in 1933-1939. Rudolf Beyendorff had been the first mayor of Lankwitz, also called the “Father of Lankwitz”, who had been very committed to the project. Due to his refusal to join the NSDAP, the Nazis then renounced the name and it was again simply called Gemeindepark.
In 1926 the war memorial for the fallen of the I. WK. was inaugurated (400 Lankwitzer were fallen). However, it is closed due to vandalism, although the Reservistenkameradschaft (Comradeship of Reserve soldiers)Lankwitz had renovated it in 2002. The park has a 4,750 at the large pond, last revitalized in 2017. In addition, the walker encounters bird aviaries and animal enclosures with fallow deer, among others. Sports fields, a trim trail and a miniature golf course can also be used. At its end is the senior citizens’ recreation center “Clubhaus Lankwitz”.
Barracks Malteser Str.
High-rise bunker
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Motorist barracks
Monument to the fallen of the anti-aircraft gun
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Monument to the fallen of the Guard Train Department
Lyzeum Lankwitz
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