Britz () is a German

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

(''Ortsteil'') within the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

borough (''Bezirk'') of

Neukölln Neukölln (), officially abbreviated Neuk, is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located south-east of Berlin's center and stretches from the inner city southward to the border with Brandenburg, encompassing the eponymous quarter of Neu ...

History

The village of ''Britzig'' was first mentioned in 1273. It was incorporated by the 1920

Greater Berlin Act The Greater Berlin Act (), officially Law Regarding the Creation of the New Municipality of Berlin (), was a law passed by the Prussian state government in 1920, which greatly expanded the size of the Prussian and German capital of Berlin. Hist ...

. It is known for being the site of the ''Hufeisensiedlung'' ("Horseshoe Estate"), part of the UNESCO

Berlin Modernism Housing Estates Berlin Modernism Housing Estates () is a World Heritage Site designated in 2008, comprising six separate subsidized housing estates in Berlin. Dating mainly from the years of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), when the city of Berlin was particul ...

World Heritage Site since 2008.Historical infos about Britz

Public transport

Britz is served by the

U7 (Berlin U-Bahn) The U7 is a rail line on the Berlin U-Bahn. It runs completely underground for a length of through 40 stations and connects Spandau, via Neukölln, to Gropiusstadt and Rudow. The U7 was originally the south-eastern branch of the ( U6) that ra ...

traveling North / South from and to the terminus at Rudow (Berlin U-Bahn).

Sights

*Village church with foundation walls from the 13th century *

Schloss Britz The Schloss Britz (Britz castle) is the former manor-house of the historical ''Rittergut'' (country estate) and village Britz, now a district of Berlin-Neukölln. Today it is the headquarters of the cultural organization ''Kulturstiftung Schloss ...

(Britz Manor), rebuilt in 1883, former residence of Prussian statesman

Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg (2 September 172522 May 1795) was a Prussian statesman. Early life Hertzberg, who came of a noble family which had been settled in Pomerania since the 13th century, was born at Lottin (present-day Lotyń, a ...

*Britz

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

built in 1866 *

Britzer Garten The Britzer Garten (English: Britzer Garden) is a large park in Berlin, named after Britz, a neighborhood of the borough of Neukölln. It was constructed for the Bundesgartenschau 1985, in order to provide a new landscape park to the citizens in ...

, site of the 1985

Bundesgartenschau The Bundesgartenschau (; BUGA) is a biennial federal horticulture show in Germany. It also covers topics like landscaping. Taking place in different cities, the location changes in a two-year cycle. About once every ten years, an international ...

Hufeisensiedlung

The

subsidized housing Subsidized housing is a subsidy aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housing". Forms of subsidies include d ...

estate was built on the fields of Britz manor between 1925 and 1933 according to plans by

Bruno Taut Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author. He was active during the Weimar period and is known for his theoretical works as well as his building designs. Early l ...

and Martin Wagner. The project was initiated by a

housing cooperative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity which owns real estate consisting of one or more residential buildings. The entity is usually a cooperative or a corporation and constitutes a form of housing tenure. Typically hou ...

established to combat the shortage of affordable living space. Numerous blocks and terraced houses in

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...

style with colorful facades include more than 1,000 apartments, situated in spacious gardens designed by landscape architect Leberecht Migge.

Transmission facility

The transmission facility of the newly founded RIAS – present-day

Deutschlandradio Deutschlandradio (DLR; ) is a national German public radio broadcaster. History ''Deutschlandfunk'' was originally a West German news radio targeting listeners within West Germany as well as in neighbouring countries, ''Deutschlandfunk Kultur'' ...

– was built on a site in Britz in 1946 by the American military administration. Several temporary structures were replaced in 1948 with the current, 100-metre high steel masts. These were later extended to heights of 160 m and 144 m.

Short-wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (appr ...

transmissions were made from Britz starting in 1949. In 1978 a medium-wave transmission aerial was added to allow better reception across the whole of the

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

's territory, especially at night.

Blub

The disused Blub ("Berliner Luft- und Badeparadies") water park is situated in Britz, near the Teltow Canal. It has become a site of interest to those interested in ruined architecture. It is due for redevelopment in the near future.

References

External links

Britz official website

Neubritz website
{{Authority control Localities of Berlin *