Buch () is a German
locality (''Ortsteil'') within the Berlin borough (''Bezirk'') of
Pankow. Situated on the
Panke river, it is the city's northernmost quarter, chiefly known for its historic village centre and extended hospital premises.
Geography
The settlement area is located on the
Barnim Plateau stretching in the northeast of the Berlin city centre up to the
Oder–Havel Canal and the
Oderbruch delta. Berlin's northernmost point is at the ''Rieselfelder'' meadows, a former
sewage farm transformed into a rural area, part of the Buch Forest within the
Barnim Nature Park. The landscape is marked by
hill chains,
sandurs and small lakes such as the Bogensee.
Along its border with the state of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
, Buch is surrounded by the municipalities of
Wandlitz and
Panketal (with the civil parishes of Zepernick, Röntgental and Neu Buch), both in the district of
Barnim. The Berlin localities bordering with Buch in the south are
Blankenfelde,
Französisch Buchholz
Französisch Buchholz (), also known simply as Buchholz, is a German locality (''Ortsteil'') within the Berlin borough (''Bezirk'') of Pankow.
History
First mentioned in 1242 as ''Buckholtz'' in a document, it became the property of Frederick ...
and
Karow. In Karow, a neighbourhood exists which is named ''Stadtrandsiedlung Buch''.
The quarter is centred around
Berlin-Buch station on the
Berlin–Szczecin railway line and the adjacent historic village centre in the east. An extended
Plattenbau housing area stretches along the railway in the south; around the centre, several large hospital and sanatorium areas were laid out in the early 19th century, built according to plans designed by
Ludwig Hoffmann, with
retirement homes,
psychiatric institutions, and a cemetery. Many of the premises have been converted to residential areas.
History
The Barnim Plateau was already settled in the
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...
era. The village of ''Wendeschen Buk'' ("
Wendish", i.e. "
Slavic Buch") was first mentioned in a 1342 deed;
[Historical chronicles about Buch]
it is also documented as ''Buch slavica'' in the 1375 register of Emperor
Chales IV. Probably founded by
Sprevane tribes, Buch gradually became a German village during the ''
Ostsiedlung'' migration, instigated by the
Ascanian margraves
John I and
Otto III of Brandenburg from the early 13th century onwards. The
linear settlement around the village church and Buch manor, parallel to the Panke river with a
watermill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...
. The Slavic affix fell into disuse during the 16th century.
Devastated during the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...
, the Buch area was quickly redeveloped under the rule of the "Great Elector"
Frederick William. The manor became am aristocratic estate, which about 1700 was inherited by the later adventurer and writer Baron
Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz (1692–1775). In the 18th century, the manor house and the church were rebuilt in a
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
style. In the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...
, the premises were plundered by
Russian troops under General
Gottlieb Heinrich Totleben during his
Raid on Berlin in 1760. After the war, King
Frederick the Great promoted
sericulture for a recovery of the local economy. Then held by the Voss noble family, the fate of
Julie von Voss (1766–1789), lady-in-waiting and spouse of King
Frederick William II of Prussia, was perpetuated in the ''
Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg'' by
Theodor Fontane.
In 1815 Buch was incorporated into the newly established Prussian
Province of Brandenburg. The station on the Berlin–Stettin railway line was inaugurated on 26 June 1879. The manor estates were purchased from the Voss family by the City of Berlin in 1898, in order to lay out the ''Rieselfelder'' sewage area according to plans by
James Hobrecht. At the same time, it became the site of several municipal hospitals designed by Ludwig Hoffmann and
Martin Wagner.
Buch remained a Brandenburg municipality until 1920, when it merged into Berlin with the "
Greater Berlin Act". The hospital area from 1928 hosted the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research led by neurologists
Oskar Vogt,
Cécile Vogt-Mugnier and biologist
Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky; from 1931 it had its seat in a newly erected building designed by
Carl Sattler. During the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
era, headed by
Hugo Spatz and
Julius Hallervorden from 1937/38, it played a vital role in
eugenics
Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...
and racist research, and also in the ''
Aktion T4'' "euthanasia" program.
From 1949 to 1990 Buch was part of
East Berlin
East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
.
Transport
The locality is served by the urban rail line
S2, part of the ''
S-Bahn
The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...
'', at the station of
Buch. It is also traversed, at its southern borders, by the Berliner
beltway (
A10, known as "''Berliner Ring''"). Buch is the only Berlin quarter located outside the Berliner Ring. Nearest exit to Buch is the n.36, "
Berlin-Weißensee".
Photogallery
File:Schlossparkteich Berlin-Buch 01.jpg, Panke river at the Schlosspark Buch
File:S-Bahnhof Berlin-Buch (2009).jpg, Berlin-Buch train station
File:Heizkraftwerk Berlin-Buch (2009).jpg, Combined heat and power plant Berlin-Buch.
File:Berlin_Buch_sanatorium.jpg, Former sanatorium
File:Schlosskirche Berlin-Buch 01.jpg, Schlosskirche
References
Literature
* : "''Geschichte der Berliner Vororte Buch und Karow''", Berlin 1927
External links
*
Buch official site
{{Authority control
Localities of Berlin
*
Populated places established in the 1340s