Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany

🇩🇪 Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a town in 1705 and named after late Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Prussia, it is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the largest surviving royal palace in Berlin, and the adjacent museums.

Charlottenburg was an independent city to the west of Berlin until 1920 when it was incorporated into "Groß-Berlin" (Greater Berlin) and transformed into a borough. In the course of Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was merged with the former borough of Wilmersdorf becoming a part of a new borough called Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Later, in 2004, the new borough's districts were rearranged, dividing the former borough of Charlottenburg into the localities of Charlottenburg proper, Westend and Charlottenburg-Nord.

Geography Charlottenburg is located in Berlin's inner city, west of the Großer Tiergarten park. Its historic core, the former village green of Alt Lietzow, is situated on the southern shore of the Spree River running through the Berlin glacial valley. The Straße des 17. Juni road, former Charlottenburger Chaussee, which runs eastwards from Charlottenburg Gate through the Tiergarten park to Brandenburg Gate, connects Charlottenburg with the historic centre of Berlin-Mitte.

In the north and west, the Berlin Ringbahn and the Bundesautobahn 100 (Stadtring) mark the border with the Charlottenburg-Nord and Westend suburbs. Adjacent in the south is the territory of Wilmersdorf. Charlottenburg also borders on the district of Halensee in the south-west, as well as on Moabit, Hansaviertel and Tiergarten (all part of the Mitte borough) in the east and on Schöneberg in the southeast.

Borough of Berlin In the 1920s the area around the Kurfürstendamm evolved into the "New West" of Berlin, a development that had already started around 1900 with the opening of the Theater des Westens, the Café des Westens and the Kaufhaus des Westens, followed by several theatres, cinemas, bars and restaurants, which made Charlottenburg the Berlin centre of leisure and nightlife. Artists like Alfred Döblin, Otto Dix, Gottfried Benn, Else Lasker-Schüler, Bertolt Brecht, Max Liebermann, Stefan Zweig and Friedrich Hollaender socialized in the legendary Romanisches Café at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. However the days of the Golden Twenties came to an end with the rise of the Nazi Party. In World War II the area around the Breitscheidplatz was heavily damaged by air raids and the Battle of Berlin.

After 1945 the city was partitioned by the allies and Charlottenburg became part of the British sector during the Cold War. The Kurfürstendamm area quickly regained its importance, as it became the commercial centre of West-Berlin. It was therefore the site of protests and major demonstrations of the late 1960s German student movement, that culminated on 2 June 1967, when student Benno Ohnesorg was shot by a police officer during a demonstration against Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi at the Deutsche Oper. Before the reunification of Berlin, Charlottenburg was the centre of West Berlin, with many high market bars and restaurants. After 1990 German reunification Charlottenburg struggled with the rise of the Mitte borough as Berlin's historic centre. The City West is still the main shopping area, offering several major hotels, theatres, bars and restaurants.

The area around Charlottenburg's Kantstrasse is Berlin's Chinatown in the West, with a high concentration of Asian shops, gastronomy and inhabitants. It is commonly dubbed Kantonstrasse, in reference to the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Overview Beside the palace, Charlottenburg is also home to: • ESCP Business School • the old and new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on the Breitscheidplatz, built in 1895 by Franz Schwechten and in 1961 by Egon Eiermann, the former West Berlin landmark • the Europa-Center, Berlin's first shopping mall opened in 1965 • Bahnhof Zoo, the main railway station in Berlin until the opening of Berlin Hauptbahnhof in 2006 • the adjacent Berlin Zoological Garden, opened in 1844, officially located on the territory of the neighbouring Tiergarten locality • Kurfürstendamm avenue, first laid out about 1542, today together with the Tauentzienstraße Berlin's main shopping area • Technical University of Berlin with about 27,000 students, founded in 1879 • Berlin University of the Arts with about 4,500 students • Charlottenburg Town Hall, built in 1905 • Charlottenburg Gate • Luisenkirche on Gierkeplatz, built in 1823 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel • the Amerika Haus on Hardenbergstraße, built in 1957 by the United States Information Agency • the Malteser-Hilfsdienst (Order of Malta) building at Alt-Lietzow str. • the Literaturhaus on Fasanenstraße and the nearby Institute for Media and Communication Policy • SRH Hochschule Berlin

Theatres • Deutsche Oper Berlin on Bismarckstraße, opened in 1912, one of the three Berlin opera houses with relief in memory of Benno Ohnesorg by Alfred Hrdlicka, 1971 (installed in 1990) • Theater des Westens musical theatre at Kantstraße, built in 1896 • Renaissance-Theater on Hardenbergstraße, 1902, rebuilt in Art deco design by Oskar Kaufmann in 1927 • Schiller Theater, built by Max Littmann in 1906 • Theater am Kurfürstendamm, 1921

Museums • Museum Berggruen for classic modern art • Museum Scharf-Gerstenberg for surrealist art both located in the former Gardes du Corps barracks at Charlottenburg Palace, built by Friedrich August Stüler 1859 • Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum for Pre- and Early History) • Museum of Photography and Helmut Newton Foundation, next to Bahnhof Zoo • Bröhan Museum for Art Nouveau and Art Deco • Literaturhaus Berlin • Käthe Kollwitz Museum on Fasanenstraße • Gipsformerei (Replica workshop) of the Berlin State Museums • Beate Uhse Erotic Museum (closed in September 2014 and searching for new premises.)