From the industrial Schöneweide out to the recreation area in Friedrichshagen, Treptow-Köpenick is a working and day-trip borough. On both sides of the Görlitzer Railway – the Berlin-Görlitz stretch that goes through the once single borough of Treptow – industrial areas were being developed a long time ago. At 3.7%, the proportion of unemployed is particularly low here, while in Neukölln, for example, it is 9.9%. Perhaps as compensation, opportunities for a well-earned battery recharge are Köpenick’s plentiful green areas around the Müggelsee.
The borough is not yet very attractive for EU foreigners. Only about 4% of the population come from other EU countries, i.e. 10,893. Their numbers are bigger in Treptow than in Köpenick.
Who governs?
Oliver Igel is the social democratic (SPD) mayor of Treptow-Köpenick. His party won 15 seats for the BVV in 2016. The Left Party (Die Linke) has 14 borough councillors, followed by the right-wing populist AfD with 12 seats, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) with 7 seats and the Greens (Die Grünen) with 5 seats. The FDP (Free Democrats) has two seats in the BVV.
On 26 September 2021, all EU citizens have the opportunity to vote for the borough assembly. You can find out hhttp://voteberlin.eu/en/informationere what it is all about and how it works in eight different languages.
A date
21 June 1933 marked the beginning of the “Köpenicker Blutwoche” (week of blood). The SA (Sturmabteilung: “storm troopers”) – the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party – arrested and tortured more than 500 people from the workers’ movement, among them many members of the SPD. There were many fatalities. The SPD was banned across Germany on the following day.
A film
“Der Hauptmann von Köpenick” (The Captain of Köpenick) is a German classic. The film is inspired by the true story of Wilhelm Voigt, a cobbler who, dressed in an army captain’s uniform, occupied Köpenick’s city hall (at that time Cöpenick) and stole the city treasuries. The film was German cinema’s first big hit after World War II.
An attraction
The Sowjetische Ehrenmal (Soviet War Memorial) in Treptower Park is the final resting place of 7,000 soldiers. While the fallen are watched over by a 3m-high, grieving statue of Mother Russia, another statue depicts a soldier treading on broken swastikas. This unusual memorial, like others in Berlin (Straße der 17. Juni and Schönholzer Heide in Pankow), were built after the Second World War in honour of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers who died in 1945 in the Battle of Berlin.
An unusual attraction
The Funkhaus Nalepastraße (Nalepastraße studios) is quite an unknown part of East Berlin’s past. The building was constructed in 1951 as the headquarters of official (and propagandising) broadcasting in the east. The Milk Bar and the large studio are the building’s two main attractions, but walking its many corridors is also worth the effort. Today, the Funkhaus is a cultural centre.
Which is your favourite place in Treptow-Köpenick? 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!