Administrative history of Berlin

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The administrative history of Berlin compiles the administrative structure of Berlin up to the reorganization on January 1, 2001.

The current structure of the districts has its origins in the Greater Berlin Act of April 27, 1920, when the merger of what was then Berlin with seven other cities, 59 rural communities and 27 manor districts created the city of Greater Berlin with 20 districts at the time. This administrative structure has been preserved in its basic features across all historical twists and turns. The role of district administrations and their political weight, however, was in the changing political systems in the Weimar Republic during 1920-1933 from, Nazi rule 1933-1945, in the four sectors the city after the war ended in 1945, as amended by the wall split City from 1961–1989 and now subject to constant changes as the capital of the reunified Berlin. There has also always been a controversial debate about strengthening local self-government on the one hand and greater centralization of the Berlin administration on the other.

Before 1920

The Prussian town order as part of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms brought radical changes to the municipal administrative structure of Berlin at the beginning of the 19th century . For the first time, elements of civil self-government were introduced. This city order provided for larger cities to be divided into districts with several thousand inhabitants. Each of these districts had an honorary, unpaid district head , an arbitrator , and a poor and an orphan commission . The chiefs were elected according to the Prussian three-class suffrage and were usually local dignitaries . Berlin was initially divided into a hundred districts, the number of which increased over time as the city grew. The districts were grouped into districts , although there were no significant municipal institutions at the district level. In 1920 there were more than 450 districts. Their number was reduced to 20 by the Greater Berlin Act .

Development of the urban area
Period Districts Area
in ha		 Total area
in ha
until 1681 01. Alt-Berlin
0 2. Cölln b. Berlin
0 3. Friedrichswerder
0 4. Neucölln a. Water
0 5. Inner Dorotheenstadt 		0077
0052
0026
0019
0043



00000217
until 1825 06. Friedrichstadt
0 7. Inner Luisenstadt
0 8. Inner Stralau suburb
0 9. Inner royal town
10. Spandau suburb
(5.) Extended Dorotheenstadt		 0210
0379
0320
0085
0134
0055




00001400
until 1841 11. Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt
12. Oranienburger Vorstadt
13. Rosenthaler Vorstadt
14. Outer Royal City
15. Outer Stralauer Vorstadt
16. Friedrichsvorstadt
17. Outer Luisenstadt		 0055
0321
0505
0665
0220
0154
0190





00003510
until 1861 18. Wedding u. Gesundbrunnen
19. Moabit
20. Tempelhofer Vorstadt
21. Schöneberger Vorstadt
(5.) Outer Dorotheenstadt		 1072
0600
0483
0185
0077



00005920
until 1915 22. Tiergartenviertel
(14.) Central cattle yard
(18.) Jungfernheide 		0274
0132
0246

00006572

The Greater Berlin Law

Greater Berlin Act of 1920

With the Greater Berlin Act of April 27, 1920, 20 administrative districts were formed with effect from October 1, 1920. They were given an official key number that was used in various ways for official and private organization.

When Greater Berlin was formed by the Greater Berlin Act of April 27, 1920, seven surrounding independent cities as well as 59 rural communities and 27 manor districts from the districts of Niederbarnim , Teltow and Osthavelland were incorporated into the city of Greater Berlin. When the law came into force on October 1, 1920, the new urban area was divided into twenty administrative districts (colloquially: "districts"). The old Berlin urban area including the manor district of Schloß and the rural community of Stralau was divided into six districts (*). Another fourteen districts (**) emerged from summaries of the incorporated cities, rural communities and manor districts. These districts got their name from the largest incorporated city or rural community in terms of population. Except for five of the six inner city districts and the Charlottenburg district , all districts were officially subdivided into districts, with the districts in most cases corresponding to the incorporated cities and communities. The numbers 1 to 6 were given the six original districts (1 = center), the outer districts were numbered counterclockwise from 7 (Charlottenburg) to 20 (Reinickendorf):

Berlin territorial reform 1938

Border changes in the Berlin districts on April 1, 1938

With effect from April 1, 1938, numerous straightening of the district boundaries and some major area changes were made. This came among other things

  • the Eichkamp settlement from the Wilmersdorf district to the Charlottenburg district
  • the western part of Ruhleben from the Charlottenburg district to the Spandau district
  • the part of the Jungfernheide from the Charlottenburg district to the Reinickendorf and Wedding districts north of the Berlin-Spandau shipping canal
  • Martinikenfelde from the Charlottenburg district to the Tiergarten district
  • the area around Wittenbergplatz and Nollendorfplatz from the Charlottenburg district to the Schöneberg district
  • the area south of Kurfürstenstrasse from the Tiergarten district to the Schöneberg district
  • a large part of the Grunewald from the Wilmersdorf district to the Zehlendorf district
  • part of Dahlem from the Zehlendorf district to the Wilmersdorf district
  • the eastern edge of the Zehlendorf district (only a narrow strip in Dahlem, widening towards the south to a larger area in the southeast) to the Steglitz district
  • Späthsfelde from the Neukölln district to the Treptow district
  • Bohnsdorf from the Köpenick district to the Treptow district
  • Oberschöneweide and the Wuhlheide from the Treptow district to the Köpenick district
  • the areas of Boxhagen-Rummelsburg and Friedrichsberg to the west of the Ringbahn from the Lichtenberg district to the Friedrichshain district, then Horst-Wessel-Stadt.
  • Wilhelmsruh from the Reinickendorf district to the Pankow district
  • the area around Wollankstrasse west of the Berlin Northern Railway from the Pankow district to the Wedding district.

Already in 1928 and 1937 there had been shifts between Schöneberg and Tempelhof.

Immediately after the end of World War II , for reasons unknown today , the Soviet military administration made Friedenau the 21st district between April 29 and June 30, 1945 with Willy Pölchen ( KPD ) as district mayor; after that, Friedenau became a district of Schöneberg again as before. Correspondingly, the Friedenau District Court existed at the time .

Time of the division of Berlin

The four sector city (after 1986)

The administrative districts were the basis for the division of Berlin after the Second World War . To round off the British military airfield Gatow (Spandau district), the part of the municipality of Groß Glienicke east of the Glienicker See will be attached to Gatow in West Berlin . In return, West Staaken comes to the Soviet occupation zone .

Since the administrative districts concerned the status rights of the Allies, something was changed only rarely and to a small extent. A total of two exchange agreements were made with the GDR:

  1. June 1972 - among others:
  2. March 31, 1988; on July 1, 1988 - including:
  • In 1991 Staaken-West came back to Staaken -Ost in Berlin-Spandau as part of the former GDR .

At the Yalta Conference , the Allies had already agreed to divide Berlin into sectors (later: four- sector city ), the sector boundaries being based on existing district boundaries. Although Berlin was initially to be administered jointly after the Second World War, the irreconcilable differences between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union led to the city being divided. With a time lag, the two separate administrations of East and West Berlin developed from this .

In 1952, in East Berlin, the term “district” was replaced by the “ city ​​district ” in order to make the difference to the “ districts ” created at the same time in the GDR clear.

Due to the establishment of large new building areas in the east of the city in the 1970s and 1980s, three new districts were created in East Berlin in addition to the number of 20 districts set by the Greater Berlin Act of 1920: Marzahn (1979 from the Lichtenberg districts of Marzahn , Biesdorf , Kaulsdorf , Hellersdorf and Mahlsdorf ), Hohenschönhausen (1985 from parts of Weißensee) and Hellersdorf (1986 from parts of Marzahn). In order to maintain the independence and appropriate size of Weißensee as a district, the Pankow districts ( Heinersdorf , Blankenburg and Karow ) were divided into Weißensee when Hohenschönhausen was separated .

East Berlin

East Berlin boroughs

West Berlin

West Berlin districts

(the ordinal numbers in square brackets)

The delimitation of 1920 was essentially preserved for a long time; only on April 1, 1938, a number of district boundaries were adjusted by Reich law:

There are also minor straightening. A total of 7.2% of the urban area or 6,369  hectares are affected.

The district boundaries were originally often in the middle of streets or blocks according to the historical municipality boundaries. This proved to be problematic for civil engineering works, road repairs and private construction projects, as two districts were responsible for handling the same measure. This has been remedied in many cases by "exchanging areas"; It has long been the aim that the district boundaries coincide with the boundary between public roads and private property.


In the GDR , the administrative districts were known as the “ city ​​district ”. In 1979 the GDR began to subdivide further districts 21-23 in order to represent new development areas appropriately. In each case, sparsely populated areas were reassigned to the division of 1920.

  • On March 30, 1979, Marzahn was established as the 21st district.
  • In 1985 the district of Hohenschönhausen was formed. Pankow gives the districts of Blankenburg , Heinersdorf and Karow to the district of Weißensee .
  • 1986 a new district of Hellersdorf is founded.

After reunification

Split between reunification and reorganization
The twelve districts of Berlin

After the reunification of Germany and Berlin in 1990, all districts were initially continued unchanged and again consistently called district . Until 2000, the now 23 districts had very different sizes and populations. As part of the administrative reform in 2001, twelve new districts were created through the amalgamation of districts, which - similar to the method of counting according to the Greater Berlin Act ( see above ) - were numbered using a so-called district key. Usually two previously independent districts were merged into a new district, only the districts of Neukölln, Reinickendorf and Spandau remained unchanged. The newly structured districts of Pankow and Mitte each emerged from three previous districts. In the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Mitte districts, districts of the former East and West Berlin were merged into new districts.

The dispute over the naming of the new administrative districts and their district coats of arms lasted a long time in some districts. Many names of public institutions still refer to the old districts. The Tiergarten District Court , the Tiergarten public swimming pool and the Wedding District Court are located in the newly merged Mitte district, namely in the districts of Moabit and Gesundbrunnen. The traffic signs are also often based on the older, more detailed district names.

District reform

With effect from January 1, 2001, the districts were merged into twelve "merger districts" through an administrative reform , with three districts remaining in their shape.

No. Name (1920–2000) Alles. Representation in the article Merger District 2001 Remarks
1 center soy center center
2 Zoo brit Zoo center
3 Wedding French Wedding center
4th Prenzlauer Berg soy Prenzlauer Berg Pankow until 1921 "Prenzlauer Tor"
5 Friedrichshain soy Friedrichshain Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg 1933–1945 "Horst-Wessel-Stadt", also "District Horst Wessel "
6th Kreuzberg at the Kreuzberg Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg until 1921 "Hallesches Tor"
7th Charlottenburg brit Charlottenburg Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
8th Spandau brit Spandau - -
9 Wilmersdorf brit Wilmersdorf Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
10 Zehlendorf at the Zehlendorf Steglitz-Zehlendorf
11 Schöneberg at the Schöneberg Tempelhof-Schöneberg
12 Steglitz at the Steglitz Steglitz-Zehlendorf
13 Tempelhof at the Tempelhof Tempelhof-Schöneberg
14th Neukölln at the Neukölln - -
15th Treptow soy Treptow Treptow-Koepenick
16 Koepenick soy Koepenick Treptow-Koepenick
17th Lichtenberg soy Lichtenberg Lichtenberg
18th Weissensee soy Weissensee Pankow
19th Pankow soy Pankow Pankow
20th Reinickendorf French Reinickendorf - -
21st Marzahn soy Marzahn Marzahn-Hellersdorf since 1979
22nd Hohenschoenhausen soy Hohenschoenhausen Lichtenberg since 1985
23 Hellersdorf soy Hellersdorf Marzahn-Hellersdorf since 1986

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Schwenk: Lexicon of Berlin Urban Development, p. 144; ISBN 3-7759-0472-7
  2. ↑ History trail Papestrasse (PDF; 5.2 MB), Tempelhof-Schöneberg district office (2006)
  3. ↑ Maps and photos ( Memento of the original from August 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on berlin.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / berlin.de
  4. ↑ Map ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 3.7 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berlin.de
  5. ↑ Honecker ring twice . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1988 ( online ).
  6. ↑ After the Second World War, from April 29 to June 30, 1945 , Friedenau was under Soviet occupation and was administered from the Friedenau Town Hall as an independent 21st district of Berlin by the non-party lawyer Georg von Broich-Oppert as the district mayor. After the Berlin districts were divided up among the victorious Allied powers , Friedenau was again part of the Schöneberg district.