Spandau

Altstadt Spandau is the historic centre (old town) of the Spandau borough in the western suburbs of Berlin, situated on the right bank of the Havel river by its confluence with the Spree tributary. It arose near the site of a former Slavic gord during the German eastward expansion (Ostsiedlung) in the early 13th century. A castle at Spandowe, erected on a Havel island to secure the eastern borderlands of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, was already documented in an 1197 deed issued by the Ascanian margrave Otto II. The city itself was first mentioned on 7 March 1232, when the Spandau citizens were vested with further privileges by the Brandenburg margraves John I and Otto III. A first church is documented in 1240; the present-day Saint Nicholas Church was built in the late 14th century. It became the initial point of the Protestant Reformation in Brandenburg, when on 1 November 1539 Elector Joachim II Hector converted to Lutheranism and celebrated the first communion under both kinds here. A Jewish community in Spandau existed since the 13th century, a synagogue is documented since 1342. The Hohenzollern elector also had the city protected from attacks by the Spandau Citadel, a Renaissance fortress erected at the site of the medieval castle from about 1560 onwards. The walled-up Altstadt quarter became the nucleus of the larger Spandau Fortress, built under Prussian rule after the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century, also a centre of the German arms industry. Today the Altstadt quarter is served by Rathaus Spandau and Altstadt Spandau stations on the Berlin U-Bahn line . Berlin-Spandau station, served by S-Bahn, regional and intercity railway routes, is situated to the south of the Altstadt.

Altstadt Spandau is a station in the Spandau district of Berlin, on that city's U-Bahn line . It takes its name from the Altstadt Spandau, the historic central area of the former independent city of Spandau. The station was opened on 1 October 1984 (architect R.G.Rümmler) with the line's extension from Rohrdamm to Rathaus Spandau. It lies between Rathaus Spandau and Zitadelle stations. The next station is Zitadelle.The station was, like many U-Bahn stations at that time, very elaborately and magnificently designed by Rainer G. Rümmler. In March 2017, it was announced that the station - along with six other northern U7 stations - would be heritage listed. This happened at the end of 2018. It lies at a depth of 14 metres (46 ft), as to the east the nearby river Havel had to be crossed. Therefore the caisson method was used to construct the station. In the direction of Spandau Town Hall, the then unusual shield tunneling method was used to preserve the historical buildings in Spandau's Altstadt (Old Town). A barrier-free extension of the station, including a lift, is planned for the end of 2019.

St. Marien am Behnitz is the second-oldest Catholic church in the area of Berlin, Germany, after St. Hedwig's Cathedral. It was built in Spandau on a design by August Soller, and consecrated in 1848. Restored in 2002–2003 by private owners, it is a registered monument, used mostly for musical and literary events.

Spandau (German: [ˈʃpandaʊ̯] (listen)) is a locality (Ortsteil) of Berlin in the homonymous borough (Bezirk) of Spandau. The historic city is situated, for the most part, on the western banks of the Havel river. As of 2020 the estimated population of Spandau was 39,653.

The Spandau Citadel (German: Zitadelle Spandau) is a fortress in Berlin, Germany, one of the best-preserved Renaissance military structures of Europe. Built from 1559–94 atop a medieval fort on an island near the meeting of the Havel and the Spree, it was designed to protect the town of Spandau, which is now part of Berlin. In recent years it has been used as a museum and has become a popular tourist spot. Furthermore, the inner courtyard of the Citadel has served as an open air concert venue in the summertime since 2005.

The Rathaus Spandau (German: [ˈʁaːtˌhaʊ̯s ˈʃpandaʊ̯] (listen)) is the town hall of the borough of Spandau in the western suburbs of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It was designed by Heinrich Reinhardt and Georg Süßenguth, and was built between 1910 and 1913. Until 1920, when Spandau was incorporated into Greater Berlin, it was the city hall of the independent city of Spandau. The Rathaus Spandau is situated on Carl-Schurz-Straße at the southern edge of the Altstadt Spandau. The Rathaus Spandau station, on U-Bahn line , and the Berlin-Spandau station, served by S-Bahn, regional and intercity railway routes, are both situated nearby.

Rathaus Spandau (Spandau Town Hall) is one of the western termini of Berlin U-Bahn line U7 (the other one being Rudow). It was opened on 1 October 1984 with the line's extension from Rohrdamm to Rathaus Spandau. The station takes its name from the nearby Rathaus Spandau, the historic city hall of Spandau. Close to the U-Bahn station Rathaus Spandau is the Berlin-Spandau station of the Berlin S-Bahn line S5 and the Deutsche Bahn for regional and intercity transport. The next station on the U7 line is Altstadt Spandau.The station was built in a box under a cover in order to minimise the disturbance of surface traffic. With its two island platforms, the station, which was designed by Rainer G. Rümmler, has almost monumental dimensions. It has a big hall with high ceilings, much light and 64 lamps, columns with black granite and a parquet floor like floor. The southern end of its platforms are spanned by a gallery for the movement of passengers to the surface and from which the entire station can be seen. The U-Bahn station also includes a signal control centre for the line to Paulsternstraße. U-Bahn line U7 uses the inner tracks, which are built for large profile trains, while the track beds of the outer tracks, which are built for the operation of small profile trains on a planned extension of the U-Bahn line U2, which currently runs only as far as Ruhleben, are currently empty. Uniquely for the Berlin U-Bahn, this line would run to the left of the platforms to improve interchanges for the planned extensions of the U7 to Staaken and the U2 to Falkenhagener Feld. An extension of the U7 south to Heerstraße is currently being planned, with a projected completion date in the mid-2030s. In 2021, the 4.26km, 5-station extension was projected to cost €578 million. Although the station is very close to Spandau S-Bahn station, it has kept its name. Nevertheless, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe buses always show the destination as S+U Rathaus Spandau, but the S-Bahn station is only signed as Spandau.

Spandau Synagogue ("Synagoge Spandau") was a synagogue at 12 Lindenufer in the Old Town area of Spandau, Berlin, Germany. It was also known as Spandauer Vereinssynagoge (i.e. Spandau private synagogue). The synagogue was built in 1894–95 and was destroyed on 9 November 1938 (Kristallnacht) when it was set on fire. The ruins were removed, probably in 1942. The site is now marked by a memorial tablet, installed in 1988. The congregation maintained a Jewish cemetery, on Spandau's Neue Bergstrasse, which was closed in 1940.

Berlin-Spandau station is a Deutsche Bahn station in the Berlin district of Spandau on the south-western edge of the old town of Spandau. The railway junction station is one of the 80 stations classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 2 station. It has the longest train shed (440 metres) in Germany. The high-traffic station with six platform tracks is a transfer point between long-distance passenger services—Intercity-Express (ICE), Intercity (IC) and EuroCity (EC)—and regional services (S-Bahn, Regionalbahn and Regional-Express). It also provides connections to the inner city by the public transport services operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe: buses and U-Bahn line U7 at the adjacent Rathaus Spandau station. The Berlin–Hamburg railway from the northwest and the Berlin–Lehrte railway from the west join together west of the station and the combined lines, after passing through the station, runs over a bridge over the Havel and continues to the east and then runs jointly with the Ringbahn (Ring Railway) for some distance on its way to Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The line running from the station was initially parallel with the Spandau Suburban Line of the S-Bahn, which connects with the Berlin Stadtbahn to reach Berlin Hauptbahnhof by a different route. Spandau station is also the terminus of the S-Bahn line, although there is a proposal to extend it into the Havelland. The Bahnhof Spandau and Rathaus Spandau bus stops in front of the station entrance are served by more than ten regional bus lines and city bus lines and they constitute the most important bus node in Berlin after Hardenbergplatz next to Berlin Zoologischer Garten station.

Charlotten Bridge (German Charlottenbrücke) in Spandau links the old town of Spandau on the west bank of the Havel with the east bank. It was one of the few bridges over which some of the German garrison of Berlin were able to escape during the night of 1 May 1945 just hours before the city fell to Soviet forces (see Battle in Berlin).

The Spree (German: [ˈʃpʁeː] (listen); Sorbian languages: Sprjewja, Czech: Spréva) is, with a length of approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi), the main tributary of the River Havel. The Spree is much longer than the Havel, which it flows into at Berlin-Spandau; the Havel then flows into the Elbe at Havelberg. The river rises in the Lusatian Highlands, that are part of the Sudetes, in the Lusatian part of Saxony, where it has three sources: the historical one called Spreeborn in the village of Spreedorf, the water-richest one in Neugersdorf, and the highest elevated one in Eibau. The Spree then flows northwards through Upper and Lower Lusatia, where it crosses the border between Saxony and Brandenburg. After passing through Cottbus, it forms the Spree Forest, a large inland delta and biosphere reserve. It then flows through Lake Schwielochsee before entering Berlin, as Müggelspree (listen ). The Spree is the main river of Berlin, Brandenburg, Lusatia, and the settlement area of the Sorbs, who call the River Sprjewja. For a very short distance close to its sources, the Spree constitutes, as Spréva, the border between Germany (Saxony), and the Czech Republic (Bohemia). The Spree's longest tributaries are Dahme (confluence in Berlin-Köpenick) and Schwarzer Schöps (confluence in Sprey), other well-known tributaries (since they are Berlin rivers) are Panke and Wuhle.

The Karlslust dance hall fire (also known as Loebel's Restaurant fire) occurred on 8 February 1947 in Hakenfelde, a locality of Spandau in what was then the British sector of Berlin. With its death toll of 80 to 88, it marks possibly the worst fire disaster in Germany since the Second World War. The death toll is today considered to be 81: 80 guests and the owner of the restaurant, Julius Loebel, who died while attempting to save a cashbox.