Eiche is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

with 4480 inhabitants (2008). It was incorporated into the city of Potsdam in 1993.

Geography

Eiche is situated about 4.5 km west of Potsdam city centre on the road to Golm at the foot of several hills, among them ''Großer Herzberg'' (73 m a.s.l) north of the village, ''Kleiner Herzberg'' (67 m a.s. l.) and ''Kahler Berg'' (66 m a.s.l.) to the east and ''Ehrenpfortenberg'' (55 m a.s.l) to the west. Neighbouring places are Golm in the west, Bornim in the north, Bornstedt in the east, and Wildpark in the south, all of them are districts of Potsdam.

History

Eiche was first mentioned in a document dating from 1193. Until the substantial extensions starting in 1881, it remained a

linear settlement A linear settlement is a (normally small to medium-sized) settlement or group of buildings that is formed in a long line. Many of these settlements are formed along a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Others form due to physical r ...

. A new church in neo-classical style was built in 1771 on orders from Frederick the Great to plans by the architect Georg Christian Unger. Until 1935 the village was part of Osthavelland district. On 1 August 1935 it was incorporated into the city of Potsdam, on 25 July 1952 it was split off again in order to join neighbouring Golm in the joint municipality Eiche-Golm in Potsdam-Land district. On 1 January 1962 this municipality was split in its constituent parts, making Eiche an independent municipality again until it was re-incorporated into Potsdam on 6 December 1993. A new residential quarter was built in the 1990s on the fields of ''Altes Rad'' north of the village.

Police barracks

Barracks built on today's Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße in 1890/1891 housed initially an infantry training battalion. In the era of the

Weimar Republic The German Reich, commonly referred to as the Weimar Republic,, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also r ...

the buildings were used by the Prussian higher police school which educated officer candidates for the Schutzpolizei. In 1935 the barracks were transferred to the German air force, and from 1936 on they were rebuilt after a standardised design as a school for

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

s. The main buildings are still standing. In the era of the

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

the barracks were first used by '' Kasernierte Volkspolizei'', later by '' Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft'', in particular the counter-terrorist unit Diensteinheit IX. Now units and facilities of the police of the state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 square ...

are using the premises.

Military barracks

From 1935 to 1938 further barracks were built for the German air force, also after a standardised design. While police officer candidates were initially also taught there, the courses and their participants were transferred to the air force from late 1935. After the death of lieutenant general Walther Wever in an airplane crash near Dresden on 3 June 1936, the barracks were named after him. The major part of the espionage and counter-espionage department of the German military intelligence service moved here after bomb damages to its Berlin central in April 1943. From 1956, Nationale Volksarmee used the premises which extend across ''Ehrenpfortenberg'' hill until today's campus of Potsdam university in Golm where the MfS college was located from 1951 to 1990. Today, these barracks are named ''Havellandkaserne'' and are used by

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

References

.{{cite book , title = Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmale in der DDR. Bezirk Potsdam , editor = Institut für Denkmalpflege , publisher = Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft , location = Berlin , year = 1978 , language = de , pages = 268–269 Geography of Potsdam Districts of Potsdam