
Jungfernheide () is an area of forest and
heath
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
land located in
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 ...
in the present-day district of
Charlottenburg-Nord, a locality of the borough of
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf () is the fourth borough of Berlin, formed in an administrative reform with effect from 1 January 2001, by merging the former boroughs of Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf.
Overview
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf covers the ...
. Formerly a large forested area, it was progressively reduced in size through development and military use. The recently closed
Tegel Airport now divides the remainder, with Volkspark Jungfernheide (Jungfernheidepark) to the south, and a larger still-forested region between the airport and
Lake Tegel.
With the creation of
Greater Berlin in 1920, Charlottenburg was joined with the former districts of Heerstraße and Jungfernheide to become the seventh district of Berlin.
Name
The name of the area is a combination of the word ''Heide'', meaning
heath
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
, and ''Jungfer'', meaning "Young noblewoman" or "damsel" (cf.
Junker
Junker (, , , , , , ka, იუნკერი, ) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German , meaning 'young nobleman'Duden; Meaning of Junker, in German/ref> or otherwise 'young lord' (derivation of and ). The term is traditionally ...
), from the
Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
convent
A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community.
The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
that existed in Spandau from 1269 until the 16th century and owned the area. The street ''Nonnendamm'' also relates to the nuns of Spandau.
History
Forest and hunting grounds
The forest and heathland located east of Spandau were used as a royal
hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
ground until 1800. In 1823, the forest areas of
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
and
Tegel were designated as an estate (''Gutsbezirk'').
Military use
Beginning in 1824, the Jungfernheide was used for military drills and shooting grounds. In 1828, the
Reinickendorf artillery grounds were relocated here by
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III (; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved ...
. Barracks were constructed between 1896 and 1901 for the airshipmen battalion ''Luftschiffer-Batallion Berlin-Jungfernheide''.
Detailed plans for the airship battalion
in the archives of the Architecture Museum of Technische Universität Berlin
(TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...
Transit connections
The railway station Berlin Jungfernheide station was opened in 1877. In this year, the western section of the Berlin Ringbahn was also completed, which was primarily built for military purposes. S-train
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 ...
service between Jungfernheide and the Berlin Sonnenallee station stopped from 1980 until 1997 due in part to 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 ...
. Since reopening, Jungfernheide has served as an important junction in the northwest of Berlin, offering transfers between the Ringbahn, the U7 (Berlin U-Bahn), regional trains, local and express buses to the nearby Tegel Airport. Tegel Airport was built after World War II in the heathland of the Jungfernheide.
Water supply
In 1896, the Jungfernheide waterworks were opened, providing drinking water from Lake Tegel. The plant has been mothballed since 2001.
Jungfernheidepark
The Volkspark Jungfernheide is located on of land between the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal and the Heckerdamm, and is bounded to the West by the Jungfernheideweg and to the East by Bundesautobahn 111.
References
{{Parks in Berlin , state=autocollapse
Parks in Berlin
Frederick William III of Prussia