Dahlem ( or ) is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in southwestern

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a part of the former borough of Zehlendorf. It is located between the mansion settlements of Grunewald and Lichterfelde West. Dahlem is one of the most affluent parts of the city and a center for

academic research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

. It is home to the Freie Universität Berlin, with its architecturally significant Philological Library ''("The Brain")''. Several other research institutions and museums, as well as parts of the Grunewald forest with its

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

hunting lodge, are located in Dahlem. The U3 line of the

Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of suburban tra ...

system connects Dahlem to central Berlin.

History

The first written account of Dahlem dates to the year 1275. The history of the village is connected to the Dahlem Demesne (''Domäne Dahlem'') first mentioned in 1450. Its estates were sold to the state of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

in 1841 and developed by dividing it into lots for building villas and mansions, similar to the development of the older mansion settlements of Lichterfelde West and Grunewald. The Demesne buildings today house a working farm and an agricultural open-air

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

. In 1920 the village was amalgamated into Greater Berlin. From 1931 on Martin Niemöller, a leader of the

Confessing Church The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German ...

, was

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

of the United Protestant ''Sankt-Annen-Kirche'' until he was arrested by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s in 1937. During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

Dahlem belonged to the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Sector of West Berlin. From 1945 to 1991 the seat of the Allied Kommandatura of Berlin was in Dahlem on ''Kaiserswerther Straße''. Today it serves as the office for the president of the

local university Local colleges and universities (LCUs) are higher educational institutions that are being run by local government units in the Philippines. A local government unit (LGU) maybe a barangay, a municipality, city, or a province that puts up a post-sec ...

. Until 1994, the headquarters of the United States Army Berlin command and the Berlin Brigade were located on ''Clayallee'' street. Parts of the building are still used by the

Embassy of the United States in Berlin The Embassy of the United States of America in Berlin is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Federal Republic of Germany. It started in 1797, with the appointment of John Quincy Adams to Berlin, the capital of Prussia. T ...

. The former library and ''Outpost'' theater across the street today house the Allied Museum. Because many of Berlin's artistic, cultural, and educational institutions were located in the city's historical center in the former eastern part of Berlin, West Berlin authorities established many duplicates in Dahlem - above all the Freie Universität Berlin (literally the " Free University Berlin") in 1948, which was established by students and scholars as an

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