Großbeeren is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the district of

Teltow-Fläming Teltow-Fläming () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the southwestern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the east clockwise) Dahme-Spreewald, Elbe-Elster, the districts Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt, the district Potsdam-Mittelm ...

in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 ...

Geography

Located about 3 km south of

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 ...

's city limits. It includes the localities of ''Diedersdorf'', ''Heinersdorf'' and ''Kleinbeeren''.

Demography

File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Großbeeren.pdf, Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of Nazi rule; Red Background: Time of Communist rule) File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Großbeeren.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the

Census in Germany A national census in Germany (, ) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, was the 2011 Europea ...

in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)

History

Großbeeren was first mentioned in a 1271 deed. It was devastated in 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 ...

and again in 1760, when

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

troops in the course of 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 ...

burnt down the church and several houses. On 23 August 1813 the

Sixth Coalition Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six. * The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution * A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel * The fraction A fraction (from , "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, ...

under Crown Prince Charles John of Sweden and General

Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow, Graf von Dennewitz (16 February 175525 February 1816) was a Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. Early life Bülow was born in Falkenberg (Wische), Falkenberg, in the Altmark, and wa ...

defeated three corps of the Imperial French Army under Marshal

Nicolas Oudinot Nicolas Charles Oudinot, duc de Reggio (; 25 April 1767 – 13 September 1847), was a French general of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He is known to have been wounded 34 times in battle, being hit by artillery shells, sa ...

in their advance on Berlin at the

Battle of Großbeeren The Battle of Großbeeren occurred on 23 August 1813 in neighboring Blankenfelde-Mahlow, Blankenfelde and between the Prussian III Corps (German Empire), III Corps under Friedrich von Bülow and the Franco-Saxon VII Corps (Grande Armée), ...

. A memorial tower in the village centre was erected on the hundredth anniversary in 1913. Furthermore, a

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

pyramid from 1906 on a pasture west of Großbeeren is dedicated to General von Bülow. In September 1942 the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

established a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

in Großbeeren, where at least 1197 forced labourers from

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

were killed.

Werner Seelenbinder Werner Seelenbinder (2 August 1904 – 24 October 1944) was a German Communism, communist and amateur wrestling, wrestler. Early years Seelenbinder was born in Szczecin, Stettin, Province of Pomerania (1815–1945), Pomerania (modern-day Polan ...

was imprisoned here in 1943. Grossbeeren church

Großbeeren shared its borders with the former

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

, and so during the period 1961-1990 it was separated from it by the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

. The municipality houses the Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (''IGZ'') of the

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines. Funding and Structure As of 2020, 96 non-u ...

Transport

Großbeeren can be reached via the

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with re ...

101 federal highway. It has also access to the

Berlin–Halle railway The Berlin–Halle railway, sometimes called the Anhalt railway (German: ''Anhalter Bahn''), is a twin-track, electrified main line found in the German city and state of Berlin, and the states of Brandenburg and Sachsen-Anhalt. The railway was o ...

. A large

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

complex serves for storage and distribution of goods addresses to Berlin.

Personalities

* Johannes Reinhold (1897-1971), director of the Institute of Vegetable Production in Großbeeren * Helmut Barthel (born 1953), politician (

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

), lives in Großbeeren * Michael Richter (born 1954), politician ( CDU) lives in Großbeeren

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grossbeeren Localities in Teltow-Fläming Teltow (region)