Westend (Berlin)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 I 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 The land was developed from 1866 on as a residential area for the wealthy bourgeoisie, originally made up of mansions and villas and named after the West End of London.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.

[edit] Sights

• 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

[edit] Transportation

Westend is served by the Berlin S-Bahn Ringbahn lines S41, S42 and S46 at the stations Westend and Messe Nord/ICC as well as the Westbahn lines S75 and S9 at the stations Eichkamp, Heerstraße, Olympia-Stadion (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).

v • d • e Boroughs and localities of Berlin Boroughs: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf • Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg • Lichtenberg • Marzahn-Hellersdorf • Mitte • Neukölln • Pankow • Reinickendorf • Spandau • Steglitz-Zehlendorf • Tempelhof-Schöneberg • Treptow-Köpenick Boroughs (west), (1920-) 2000: Charlottenburg • Kreuzberg • Neukölln • Reinickendorf • Schöneberg • Spandau • Steglitz • Tempelhof • Tiergarten • Wedding • Wilmersdorf • Zehlendorf Boroughs (east), (1920-) 2000: Friedrichshain • Hellersdorf (1986) • Hohenschönhausen (1985) • Köpenick • Lichtenberg • Marzahn (1979) • Mitte • Pankow • Prenzlauer Berg • Treptow • Weißensee Localities: Adlershof • Britz • Dahlem • Friedenau • Frohnau • Gatow • Grunewald • Hansaviertel • Haselhorst • Heiligensee • Hermsdorf • Karlshorst • Kaulsdorf • Kladow • Lichterfelde • Mariendorf • Marienfelde • Märkisches Viertel • Moabit • Rosenthal • Staaken • Tegel • Wannsee • Westend