In no other borough are the Berlins of yesteryear and of today so well combined as in Tempelhof-Schöneberg. In the Berlin of the golden 1920s, life was a cabaret – and the cabarets were in Schöneberg. Even back then, homosexuals were warmly welcomed in the clubs. Many artists and authors made the borough their home. Even David Bowie lived there in the 1970s. Today, Schöneberg is still well known for its gay parties.
The Tempelhofer Field also happens to be Berlin’s largest open space.
As of 31.12.2020, non-German EU-citizens made up 7.1% of the total population here, i.e. 25,030 people. In recent years, the proportion has fallen, which can be explained by the influx of people from other boroughs. Here, the Schöneberg borough is more popular than the other boroughs.
Who governs?
The mayor of Tempelhof-Schöneberg is a Social Democrat and her name is Angelika Schöttler. In the last BVV election in 2016, the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) won 15 seats, while the Greens came second with 13 seats. The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) won 12 seats, followed by the AfD (Alternative for Germany) with 6 seats. The Left Party entered the BVV with 5 seats, the FDP (Free Democratic Party) with 4 seats.
On 26 September 2021, all EU citizens have the opportunity to vote for the borough assembly. You can find out here what it is all about and how it works in eight different languages.
A date
On 26 June 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, at that time President of the United States of America, gave a historic speech. Who today does not know the line “Ich bin ein Berliner”? He gave this speech in front of Rathaus Schöneberg, at that time also known as the West-Berliner Rathaus (city hall).
A film
“Der Himmel über Berlin” (Wings of Desire) is perhaps the best-known film by director Wim Wenders. The story concerns the angel Damiel who, out of love for a mortal, wants to give up his immortality. The film has moved countless film lovers. The scene on the bridge was shot in Schöneberg on the Langenscheidtbrücke.
An attraction
Tempelhof Airport was built between 1936 and 1937. Hitler’s National Socialists wanted to make it an internationally important airport. Its architecture is exemplary of the Third Reich’s ideological convictions that became a counter movement to modern architecture.
An unusual attraction
The Schwerbelastungskörper (heavy load-bearing body) in Schöneberg was a test. To be able to construct the 117m-high triumphal arch sketched by Hitler, architect Albert Speer first had to solve a little problem: how to deal with the fact of Berlin’s very watery substructure. The Schwerbelastungskörper was built for this purpose. It is a cylinder measuring 14 meters high, 18 meters deep, and weighs 12,000 tonnes.
Which is your favourite place in Tempelhof-Schöneberg? What could the borough do better, how should it change? Your comments are part of the political discussion leading up to the BVV (local) election!