Gesundbrunnen (, literally "health springs"; colloquially ''Plumpe'', "pump") is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

(''Bezirk'') of Mitte. It was created as a separate entity by the 2001 administrative reform, formerly the eastern half of the former

Wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

district (merged into Mitte) and locality. Gesundbrunnen has the highest percentage of non-German residents of any Berlin locality, at 35.1% as of the end of 2008. In-Berlin-Brandenburg.com
Wie viele Ausländer gibt es in Berlin?
Retrieved 2009-10-27.

Geography

The locality is situated in Berlin's

inner city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...

, at the north-eastern rim of the central Mitte borough. Bernauer Straße separates it from the locality of Mitte in the south and Reinickendorfer Straße from

in the west. In the north Gesundbrunnen borders with

Reinickendorf Reinickendorf () is the twelfth borough of Berlin. It encompasses the northwest of the city area, including the Berlin Tegel Airport, Lake Tegel, spacious settlements of detached houses as well as housing estates like Märkisches Viertel. Subdi ...

(in the

borough) while in the east the Mauerpark and the Nordbahn railway line forms the border with

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incor ...

and

Pankow Pankow () is the most populous and the second-largest borough by area of Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weißensee; the resulting borough retained the name Pankow. ...

, both localities of the Pankow borough. Gesundbrunnen was laid out in what came to be known as the Wilhelmine Ring, an area whose street network was laid out in the

Hobrecht-Plan The Hobrecht-Plan is the binding land-use plan for Berlin in the 19th century. It is named after its main editor, James Hobrecht (1825–1902), who served for the royal Prussian urban planning police ("Baupolizei"). The finalized plan "Bebauun ...

History

The locality adopted its name from a mineral spring first documented by chemist

Andreas Sigismund Marggraf Andreas Sigismund Marggraf (; 3 March 1709 – 7 August 1782) was a German chemist from Berlin, then capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and a pioneer of analytical chemistry. He isolated zinc in 1746 by heating Calamine (mineral), calamine ...

about 1748, later site of the Luisenbad spa, named after Queen Louise of Prussia. The area became a popular destination for day-trippers and, after its incorporation into the city of Berlin in 1861, a densely settled working-class district. From 1905 the sports field near the Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station, later Stadion am Gesundbrunnen, was the home ground of the

Hertha BSC Berlin Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charlo ...

football club.

The ''Humboldthain''

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to r ...

, finished in 1876, from 1942 was the site of two large

flak tower Flak towers (german: link=no, Flaktürme) were large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed by Nazi Germany. There were 8 flak tower complexes in the cities of Berlin (three), Hamburg (two), and Vienna (three) from 1940 on ...

s. The northern tower, due to its location near the

Ringbahn The Ringbahn (German for circle railway) is a long circle route around Berlin's inner city area, on the Berlin S-Bahn network. Its course is made up of a double-tracked S-Bahn ring and a parallel freight ring. The S-Bahn lines S41 and S42 prov ...

tracks, was not blown up after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Partly interred by rubble it today serves as a viewpoint and

climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or any other part of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders), to small boulders. Climbing is done ...

wall with tours through the interior available. From 1949 Gesundbrunnen (as part of Wedding) belonged to the French sector of

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, while the neighbouring localities of Mitte, Pankow and Prenzlauer Berg were parts of East Berlin. The border between the sectors and, from 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall ran along the Nordbahn railway and the divided

Bernauer Straße Bernauer Straße is a street of Berlin situated between the localities of Gesundbrunnen and Mitte, today both belonging to the Mitte borough. It runs from the Mauerpark at the corner of Prenzlauer Berg to the Nordbahnhof. The street's name refe ...

. This street became famous for tunnels dug under it as well as for daring escape jumps from windows of the apartment blocks in the eastern part of the city, down to the street which itself belonged to the French sector. On the evening of 9 November 1989 the border crossing at Bornholmer Straße station was the first to open, allowing East Berliners to pass freely toward the west.

Transportation

The area is one of the few localities of the former western sector served by tramways (lines M10, M13 and 50). It is also served by many

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...

lines ( S1, S2, S25, S4, S8 and S85) and

U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...

( U8 and U9). Its main station is the eponymous one, Gesundbrunnen, which was upgraded in 2006 for long distance trains. Other stations are Bornholmer Straße, Humboldthain, Nordbahnhof (the former Stettiner Bahnhof), Wollankstraße, Nauener Platz, Osloer Straße, Pankstraße and Voltastraße.

Notable people

Harald Juhnke Harald Juhnke () (born Harry Heinz Herbert Juhnke, 10 June 1929 – 1 April 2005), was a German actor, comedian, and singer. Life and career Juhnke was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg. His father was a police officer and his mother came from a ...

(1929–2005), actor *

Theodor Plievier Theodor Otto Richard Plievier (Plivier, until 1933) (12 February 1892, Berlin – 12 March 1955, Avegno, Switzerland) was a German writer and communist, best known for his 1948 anti-war novel . During World War I, he served on the '' SMS Wolf'' ...

(1892–1955), novelist

Photo gallery

File:Soldinerstr.jpg, Soldinerstraße File:Berlin Gesundbrunnen station 2006.jpg, Gesundbrunnen railway station File:Humboldthöhe2.jpg, The hill of Humboldthöhe in the park of Humboldthain File:Gesundbrunnen-Center von Humboldthöhe.jpg, Gesundbrunnen-Center File:Gesundbrunnen Iranische Straße Iranische Straße 2 Krankenhaus der Jüdischen Gemeinde.jpg, Jewish Hospital File:Germany Berlin-Mitte St-Paulskirche.JPG, St.-Pauls Church File:Panke2.jpg, Panke River in Gesundbrunnen File:Badstraße Berlin-Gesundbrunnen.jpg, Badstraße

References

External links

{{Authority control Localities of Berlin *Gesundbrunnen