Wedding (german: der Wedding; ) is a locality 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 ...

of Mitte,

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 ...

, Germany and was a separate borough in the north-western

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 ...

until it was fused with Tiergarten and Mitte in

Berlin's 2001 administrative reform Berlin is both a city and one of Germany’s federated states (city state). Since the 2001 administrative reform, it has been made up of twelve districts (german: Bezirke, ), each with its own administrative body. However, unlike the municipaliti ...

. At the same time the eastern half of the former borough of Wedding—on the other side of Reinickendorfer Straße—was separated as the new locality of Gesundbrunnen.

History

In the 12th century, the manor of the nobleman Rudolf de Weddinge was located on the small Panke River in the immediate vicinity of today's Nettelbeckplatz. The farmstead, which burned down more than once, remained abandoned in the forest until the 18th century. In the mid-18th century, while Gesundbrunnen was being built up as a health resort and spa town,

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

and prostitution moved into Wedding, transforming it into a pleasure district. In 1864, Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering established the Schering pharmaceutical company on Müllerstraße; the company has been a part of Bayer since 2006. A large hospital at the western rim of the locality was built between 1898 and 1906 on the initiative of

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...

. The Rotaprint plant was initiated in Wedding in 1904 and became one of the largest employers locally with about 1,000 staff at its height. Coat of arms de-be wedding 1955

The constant migration of country-dwellers into the city at the end of the 19th century converted Wedding into a working-class district. The labourers lived in cramped

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

blocks, many in the Wilhelmine Ring. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Wedding was known as "Red Wedding" as it was renowned for its militant, largely Communist working class; it was the scene of violent clashes between paramilitary groups such as the KPD's

Roter Frontkämpferbund The (, translated as "Alliance of Red Front-Fighters" or "Red Front Fighters' League"), usually called (RFB), was a far-left paramilitary organization affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic. It was of ...

and the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

's Sturmabteilung in the late 1920s, including the

Blutmai Blutmai (, ) refers to several days of police brutality against KPD supporters in early May 1929 that led to violence between the communist demonstrators and members of the Berlin Police which was under the control of the Social Democratic Pa ...

riots of 1929 in which the Social Democratic-controlled Berlin Police killed 33 Communists. 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 ...

, Wedding and

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 ...

together made up the French sector of Berlin. The buildings on the north side of Wedding's

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 ...

and the street, including sidewalks, were in the French sector, while the buildings along the southern side were in Soviet territory. When the Berlin Wall was being built in August 1961, many who lived in these buildings frantically jumped from their windows before the buildings could be evacuated and their windows bricked up. Wedding was also the western terminus of one of the first refugee tunnels dug underneath the Berlin Wall. It extended from the basement of an abandoned factory on Schönholzer Straße in the

Soviet sector The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

underneath

to another building in the west. Though marvelously well constructed and kept secret, the tunnel was plagued by water from leaking pipes, and had to be shut down after only a few days of operation. A section of the wall has been reconstructed near the spot on Bernauer Straße (since 2001 part of the locality of Gesundbrunnen) where the tunnel ended. Two sections of wall run parallel to one another down the street with a "death strip" in the middle. A nearby museum documents the history of the wall.

Wedding today

Today, Wedding is one of the poorest areas of Berlin, with a high

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

rate (almost 26%). Almost 17% of the population live on

social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

; 27% live below the poverty line. Foreigners make up 30% of the population. Low rental costs accompany the poverty in Wedding. Therefore, like many inexpensive areas in large cities, it is home to a vibrant artists' community. Many galleries have been founded by artists to provide a space for themselves and their peers to showcase their works. Wedding has so far not experienced the boom and development of the 1990s in post-reunification Berlin. Unlike many other 19th-century working class districts like

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 ...

, the original character of Wedding has been mostly preserved. Recently, however, more and more students and artists have moved to Wedding due to lower rental costs and a fairly high level of quality of life. As a result, many new Bohemian cafés, restaurants and clubs, organic food stores and markets have been established, an art-house cinema and an urban gardening project has successfully started and high-brow galleries have moved into the neighborhood. It is still said though to be a place to find the ''Schnauze mit Herz'' (big mouth and big heart) of the Berlin working class.

Demographics

Along with

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...

, Wedding is one of the most ethnically diverse localities of Berlin. The

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

atmosphere is visible in the bilingual shop signs (predominantly German and Turkish or German and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

). In recent years Wedding has seen a significant influx of Africans, many of whom have settled in the

Afrikanisches Viertel The ''Afrikanisches Viertel'' ( en, African Quarter) is a neighborhood in Wedding, a locality of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. It is bounded by Müllerstraße, Seestraße, Volkspark Rehberge, Goethepark, and the border with the neighboring borough ...

, or African Quarter. Wedding is also home to an East Asian community, mostly from China, which is reflected in many Asian and African stores and restaurants. As of 2011, the ethnic make-up of Wedding was 52% of German origin, 18%

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

, 6% Sub-Saharan African, 6%

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

, 6%

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

, 5% former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

, and 4.5%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

Cityscape

Many buildings are relics of European post-war

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. The ''Schillerpark'' estate in northern Wedding is part of the Modernist Housing Estates World Heritage Site. Beside monolithic housing blocks, several old buildings survived the war and urban renewal and still have

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

-fired heating. A green oasis marks the west borders of the "old red" district, with Volkspark Rehberge, Goethepark and the idyllic Plötzensee, a lake in the southwest. It is a popular summer hang-out offering sandy beaches and long lawns. A section of the beach is reserved for

Freikörperkultur The Freikörperkultur (FKK) is a social and health culture that originated in the German Empire; its beginnings were historically part of the '' Lebensreform'' social movement in the late 19th century. The ''Freikörperkultur'', which translates ...

, a German nudist movement. Near Scharnweberstraße 158/159 is Germany's last inner-city dune dating back to the last

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

Notable people

Jérôme Boateng Jérôme Agyenim Boateng (born 3 September 1988) is a German professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for French Ligue 1 club Lyon. Boateng started his career at Hertha BSC where he developed from the youth ranks to the first team. Aft ...

(born 1988), football player and 2014 FIFA World Cup winner *

Kevin-Prince Boateng Kevin-Prince Boateng (; born 6 March 1987), also known as Prince, is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or forward for club Hertha BSC. Born in Germany, he represented the Ghana national team. Coming through the youth system, ...

, German footballer for the Ghana national football team and

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

, grew up in the area. * Hans Coppi (1916-1942), German resistance fighter *

Thomas Dörflein Thomas Dörflein (13 October 1963 – 22 September 2008) was a German zookeeper at the Berlin Zoological Garden for 26 years. After the baby polar bear Knut was abandoned by his mother shortly after his birth in 2006, Dörflein—who cared for b ...

(1963–2008), Zookeeper, best known for raising

Knut Knut (Norwegian and Swedish), Knud ( Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used w ...

the polar bear. *

Martin Held Martin Held (1908–1992) was a German television and film actor. Partial filmography * '' Dark Eyes'' (1951) - Alexander Grabner * ''Homesick for You'' (1952) - Direktor Petermann * '' Canaris Master Spy'' (1954) - Obergruppenfuehrer Heydrich ...

(1908-1992), German actor *

Otto and Elise Hampel Otto and Elise Hampel were a working class German couple who created a simple method of protest against Nazism in Berlin during the middle years of World War II. They wrote postcards denouncing Hitler's government and left them in public pla ...

, a working-class couple who created a simple method of protest while living in Wedding, Berlin during the early years of World War II. They were eventually caught, tried, and executed. *

Martina Hill Martina Hill (born 14 July 1974) is a German actress and comedian. She has been awarded the German Comedy Award, the Deutscher Fernsehpreis, German TV Award, as well as the Adolf-Grimme-Preis and the Bambi Award. Biography Hill was born in Berl ...

(born 1974), German actress *

Niko Kovač Niko Kovač (; born 15 October 1971) is a Croatian professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Bundesliga club VFL Wolfsburg. Kovač was the long-standing captain of the Croatia national team until his retire ...

(born 1971), Croatian football player *

Luise Kraushaar Luise Kraushaar ( Szepansky; 13 February 1905 – 10 January 1989) was a German political activist who became a Resistance campaigner against National Socialism and who also, after she left Germany, worked in the French Resistance. She later beca ...

(1905-1989), political activist, Resistance campaigner against

Nazism 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) i ...

. * Marie Kunert (1871–1957), German socialist politician and educator *

Hardy Krüger Hardy Krüger (; born Eberhard August Franz Ewald Krüger; 12 April 1928 – 19 January 2022) was a German actor and author, who appeared in more than 60 films from 1944 onwards. After becoming a film star in Germany in the 1950s, Krüger increa ...

(1928-2022), German actor *

Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 u ...

, German longtime head of the East German Secret Police *

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

(1902-2003), German film director, actress and photographer * Silvia Rodgers, writer and political activist

Photo gallery

File:2009-03-20 661 Rathaus Wedding fec AMA.B.JPG, Wedding City Hall File:Berlin-wedding nazareth-kirche 20050415 453 part.jpg, Protestant old Nazareth Church (by Schinkel) on Leopoldplatz File:Kapernaumkirche (Berlin).jpg, Protestant

Capernaum Church Capernaum Church (german: link=no, Kapernaum-Kirche) is one of the two places of worship of the Lutheranism, Lutheran Capernaum Congregation, a member of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia, an umbrella comprising ...

on Seestraße File:Lessing-Gymnasium (Berlin) 2008.jpg, Lessing-Gymnasium high school File:20080715 14995 DSC01768 Siedlung Schillerpark Bristolstraße 5 bis 11.JPG, Schillerpark housing estate (by

Bruno Taut Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...

) on Bristolstraße File:2006-07-30 Urnenfriedhof Seestr.jpg, Cemetery and ''Memorial for the Victims of the

Uprising of 1953 in East Germany The East German uprising of 1953 (german: Volksaufstand vom 17. Juni 1953 ) was an uprising that occurred in East Germany from 16 to 17 June 1953. It began with a strike action by construction workers in East Berlin on 16 June against w ...

'' File:Leopoldplatz Wedding nazar-kirchstr 1.JPG, Typical houses in Wedding at Leopoldplatz File:Wedding Oudenader Straße.jpg, Typical houses in Wedding, Oudenarder Straße File:Krematorium Innenhof Urnenfriedhof Gerichtstraße.jpg, Former crematorium is today an art gallery File:Osramhoefe.jpg, Osramhöfe, former lightbulb plant, now used for various commercials

Literature

* Komander, Gerhild: ''Der Wedding – Auf dem Weg von Rot nach Bunt.'' Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2006, . * Schmiedecke, Ralf: ''Berlin-Wedding – Neue Bilder aus alter Zeit.'' Sutton, Erfurt 2005, (Reihe ''Archivbilder''). * Simon, Christian: ''750 Jahre Wedding – Eine Chronik.'' Berlin 2001, . * Werning, Heiko: ''Mein wunderbarer Wedding. Geschichten aus dem Prekariat.'' Edition Tiamat, Berlin 2010, . * Scheer, Regina: ''Den Schwächeren helfen, stark zu sein. Die Schrippenkirche im Berliner Wedding 1882–2007.'' Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag, Berlin, .

References

External links

{{Authority control Localities of Berlin *Wedding Former boroughs of Berlin Schering AG 1861 establishments in Prussia