Marzahn is a locality within the borough

Boroughs and localities of Berlin

Berlin is both a city and one of Germany’s federal states. It is made up of twelve boroughs , each with its own borough government, though all boroughs are subject to Berlin’s city and state government.-History:Each borough is made up of several officially recognized localities...

 of Marzahn-Hellersdorf

Marzahn-Hellersdorf

Marzahn-Hellersdorf is the tenth borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former boroughs of Marzahn and Hellersdorf.-Geography:It is situated in the northeast of Berlin...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Berlin's 2001 administrative reform led to the former boroughs of Marzahn and Hellersdorf

Hellersdorf

Hellersdorf is a locality in the borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf in Berlin. Between 1986 and Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was a borough in its own right, consisting of the current area of Hellersdorf as well as Kaulsdorf and Mahlsdorf.-History:...

 fusing into a single new borough. In the north the Marzahn locality includes the neighbourhoods of Bürknersfelde and Ahrensfelde, an overbuilt strip of land which once had belonged to the Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

 municipality of Ahrensfelde

Ahrensfelde

Ahrensfelde is a municipality in the district of Barnim, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 13 km northeast of Berlin ....

 and was incorporated into Berlin in 1990.

Subdivision

Marzahn is divided into 3 zones (Ortslagen):

• Marzahn-Nord (Berlin-Ahrensfelde)
• Marzahn-Mitte
• Marzahn-Süd

History

The historic village of Marzahn was first mentioned as Morczane in a 1300 deed by Margrave Albert III of Brandenburg-Salzwedel, when he granted the estates to the Friedland Cistercian abbey (in today's Neuhardenberg

Neuhardenberg

Neuhardenberg is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the site of Neuhardenberg Palace, residence of the Prussian statesman Prince Karl August von Hardenberg. The municipal area comprises the villages of Altfriedland, Quappendorf and Wulkow...

). After the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

 it fell to Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg

|align=right|Frederick William was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia – and thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia – from 1640 until his death. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as the "Great Elector" because of his military and political prowess...

. The new village church was finished in 1871 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler

Friedrich August Stüler

Friedrich August Stüler was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterwork is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Stadtschloss.-Life:...

, another landmark is the Marzahn post mill

Post mill

The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. The earliest post mills in England are thought to have...

, rebuilt in 1994. The village became part of Greater Berlin

Greater Berlin Act

The Greater Berlin Act , in full the Law Regarding the Reconstruction of the New Local Authority of Berlin , was a law passed by the Prussian government in 1920 that greatly expanded the size of the German capital of Berlin.-History:...

 in 1920, as a locality of the Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg is the eleventh borough of Berlin, Germany. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it absorbed the former borough of Hohenschönhausen.-Overview:...

 district.

Marzahn was the site of a labour camp (today a water treatment plant

Sewage treatment

Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...

), where Roma were interned from July 16, 1936 on, two weeks prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics

1936 Summer Olympics

The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...

 in Berlin, away from visitor's eyes. As a part of the Nazi Porajmos

Porajmos

The Porajmos was the attempt made by Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia, Horthy's Hungary and their allies to exterminate the Romani people of Europe during World War II...

extermination policy, up to 2000 inmates remained there until in 1943 they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

, where most of them were gassed. In 1941 the large factory of the Carl Hasse & Wrede machine tool company (now Knorr-Bremse

Knorr-Bremse

Knorr-Bremse is a manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has operated in the field for over 100 years. The company also produces door systems for rail vehicles and torsional dampers. In 2009, the Group's workforce of over 14,000 achieved worldwide sales of EUR 2.761...

) was erected, where hundreds forced labourers

Unfree labour

Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery as well as all other related institutions .-Payment for unfree labour:If payment occurs, it may be in one or more of the following forms:...

 were employed. The victims were buried at the nearby Parkfriedhof, a memorial marks the site. On April 21, 1945 the district of Marzahn was the first in Berlin to be conquered by the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 under General Nikolai Berzarin

Nikolai Berzarin

Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin was a Soviet Red Army General during the Stalinist era and the Second World War. In 1945 he became commander of the Soviet occupying forces in Berlin.-Family:Berzarin was born the son of a pipefitter and a seamstress...

. The "first freed house" stands on Landsberger Allee.

A part of East Berlin

East Berlin

East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...

 from 1949, Marzahn remained a rural site until from 1977 vast housing estate

Housing estate

A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...

s were built on its fields by order of the East German authorities. The construction, carried out in the typical plattenbau

Plattenbau

Plattenbau is the German word for a building whose structure is constructed of large, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is a compound of Platte and Bau...

 style, dragged on until the late 1980s. In the course of the population growth Marzahn was separated from Lichtenberg in 1979 to become a borough in its own right and in 1986 the new Hellersdorf district (including Kaulsdorf

Berlin-Kaulsdorf

Kaulsdorf is a locality within the borough Marzahn-Hellersdorf of Berlin. Kaulsdorf has been incorporated into Greater Berlin by the Prussian Greater Berlin Act in 1920. From then on it belonged to the former borough of Lichtenberg until 1979, when it became part of the former borough of Marzahn...

 and Mahlsdorf

Mahlsdorf

Mahlsdorf is a locality within the Berlin borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Until 2001 it was part of the former borough of Hellersdorf.-History:...

) was split from it.

In 1987 Marzahn hosted the Berliner Gartenschau a horticulture

Horticulture

Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...

 show on the occasion of Berlin's 750th anniversary. The area today called Erholungspark Marzahn includes the Gärten der Welt (Gardens of the World) project showing a Chinese

Chinese garden

The Chinese garden, also known as a Chinese classical garden, is a style of landscape garden which has evolved for more than three thousand years, and which is inspired by Chinese literature, Chinese painting and Chinese philosophy...

, Japanese

Japanese garden

, that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles....

, Balinese and Korean, labyrinths modelled on Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London; it has not been inhabited by the British royal family since the 18th century. The palace is located south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames...

 and Chartres Cathedral

Cathedral of Chartres

The French medieval Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres is a Latin Rite Catholic cathedral located in Chartres, about southwest of Paris, is considered one of the finest examples of the French High Gothic style...

 as well as a garden of the Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

. After 1989, the Marzahn estate became known for neo-Nazis and "foreigners were warned not even to visit there".

Public transport

Marzahn is served by the S-Bahn

Berlin S-Bahn

The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...

 lines S7

S7 (Berlin)

S7 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Ahrensfelde to Potsdam over:*the Wriezen Railway, completed on 1 May 1898 and electrified to Marzahn in 1976, to Mehrower Allee in 1980 and to Ahrensfelde in 1982,...

 and S75

S75 (Berlin)

S75 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Wartenberg to Spandau over:*a section of the Outer ring, completed in the early 1940s as part of the Outer freight ring,...

 at the stations Springpfuhl, Poelchaustraße, Marzahn, Raoul-Wallenberg-Straße

Raoul-Wallenberg-Straße railway station

Raoul-Wallenberg-Straße is a railway station in the Marzahn-Hellersdorf district of Berlin. It is served by the S-Bahn line ....

, Mehrower Allee and Ahrensfelde. Tramway connections to the inner city are provided by the M6 and M8 lines of the Berlin Straßenbahn.

External links