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Bernau bei Berlin

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Bernau bei Berlin
Town
Coat of arms of Bernau bei Berlin
Coat of arms
Location of Bernau bei Berlin within Barnim district
AhrensfeldeAlthüttendorfBernau bei BerlinBiesenthalBreydinBritzChorinEberswaldeFriedrichswaldeHohenfinowJoachimsthalLiepeLunow-StolzenhagenMarienwerderMelchowNiederfinowOderbergPanketalParsteinseeRüdnitzSchorfheideSydower FließWandlitzWerneuchenZiethenBrandenburg
CountryGermany
StateBrandenburg
DistrictBarnim
SubdivisionsHauptort und 4 Ortsteile
Government
 • MayorAndré Stahl (Die Linke)
Area
 • Total
103.73 km2 (40.05 sq mi)
Elevation
68 m (223 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[1]
 • Total
43,685
 • Density420/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
16321
Dialling codes03338
Vehicle registrationBAR, BER, EW
Websitewww.bernau-bei-berlin.de

Bernau bei Berlin (English Bernau by Berlin, commonly named Bernau) is a German town in the Barnim district. The town is located about 10 km (6.2 mi) northeast of Berlin.

History

Archaeological excavations of Mesolithic prove the fact that this area has been inhabited since about 8800 BC. The city was first mentioned in 1232. The true reasons of its founding are not known. According to a legend Albert I of Brandenburg permitted the founding of the city in 1140 because of the good beer which was offered to him. It is true that beer has been brewed with the water of the river Panke. Therefore, it was forbidden by law to pollute this river with waste and excrements before the days the brewing took place.

Bernau had its boom years before the Thirty Years' War. Large parts of the defensive wall with town gate and wet moats are relics of that time. These helped Bernau defend itself successfully against attackers, e.g. the Hussites in 1432. Following the plague and war Bernau was poor and bleak. Frederick I of Prussia settled 25 Huguenotic families (craftsmen, farmers, traders and scientists) in 1699.

In 1842 a railway line was opened. One of the first electrical suburban railway lines in the world began operation in 1924. This line of the Berlin S-Bahn connected Bernau with the Stettiner Bahnhof (today Berlin Nordbahnhof) in Berlin. The Bundesschule des Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, (ADGB Trade Union School), designed by Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer, opened in 1930. The Waldsiedlung (engl. residential area in the wood) is a district of the city where the political leaders of the GDR lived isolated from the people.

Local District Court
Pulverturm (Armory).
Church of St. Mary.
Timber framed houses and Plattenbauten.

Demography

  • 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)
    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)
  • Recent Population Development (Blue Line) and Forecasts
    Recent Population Development (Blue Line) and Forecasts
Bernau bei Berlin:
Population development within the current boundaries (2013)[2]
Year Population
1875 8 060
1890 9 583
1910 12 364
1925 13 403
1933 17 671
1939 20 256
1946 19 678
1950 20 482
1964 20 545
1971 20 511
Year Population
1981 24 318
1985 25 386
1989 25 145
1990 24 532
1991 24 491
1992 24 693
1993 24 744
1994 24 913
1995 25 428
1996 27 208
Year Population
1997 29 609
1998 31 231
1999 32 506
2000 33 086
2001 33 507
2002 33 882
2003 34 379
2004 34 995
2005 35 235
2006 35 546
Year Population
2007 35 859
2008 36 059
2009 36 154
2010 36 338
2011 35 843
2012 36 020
2013 36 222

Main sights

Monument for the victims of witch-hunt in Bernau

Museums

The museum of local history has two locations. One is the town gate with the former prison Hungerturm (engl. Tower of Hunger). It is one of formerly three town gates, that were part of the defensive wall. Today armours and instruments of torture of the Middle Ages are shown there. Common furniture of several epochs and utensils of the executioner are exhibited in the Henkerhaus (engl. executioner's house) to demonstrate the life in the small town.

In 2005 the Wolf Kahlen Museum opened. Media art from 40 years is shown.

In 2005 Annelie Grund created the monument for the victims of witch-hunt.

Buildings

The church St. Marien (Late Gothic style) dominates the skyline of the town. The nave was built in the 15th century.

Large parts of the defensive walls and wet moats of the Middle Ages are preserved. The defensive wall is supplemented by several lookout houses, the Pulverturm (armoury) and a town gate.

Until the 1960s the city centre, enclosed by the defensive wall, consisted of small old buildings with timber framed construction. Most of them were in a bad state because no funds were available in the GDR to renovate these buildings. It was decided to change Bernau into an exemplary city of socialist architecture. Nearly all the old houses were torn down in the 1960s and 1970s and new so-called Plattenbauten (buildings constructed of prefabricated concrete slabs) were built. The new houses had a maximum of four storeys to fit in with the architecture to the historic structure of the city.

The former ADGB school is located in the northeast of the town. It is the largest building in the Bauhaus style besides the Bauhaus itself.

  • Breitscheidstraße

Transportation

See also: Bernau bei Berlin railway station

The line S2 of the Berlin S-Bahn (suburban railway) connects Bernau with Berlin Friedrichstraße's station, in the center of that city Regional rail services connect Bernau with Eberswalde, Schwedt, Stralsund, Frankfurt (Oder) in northbound direction and with Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin Lichtenberg and Elsterwerda in southbound direction. Long-distance trains go to Stralsund, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Amsterdam.

The Bundesautobahn A11 from Berlin to Prenzlau and Szczecin has the two exits Bernau Nord (number 15) and Bernau Süd (number 16).

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Twin towns — sister cities

Bernau bei Berlin is twinned with:

Personalities

Honorary citizen

  • Konrad Wolf(1925-1982), film director, President of the Academy of Arts, was the first city commander of Bernau after the Second World War (April 1945) at the age of 19, honorary citizen since 1975

Sons and daughters of the city

People associated with Bernau

See also

References

  1. ^ "Bevölkerungsentwicklung und Bevölkerungsstandim Land Brandenburg Dezember 2022" (PDF). Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). June 2023.
  2. ^ Detailed data sources are to be found in the Wikimedia Commons.Population Projection Brandenburg at Wikimedia Commons
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