Wilmersdorf, an inner-city locality of Berlin, lies south-west of the central city. Formerly a borough by itself, Wilmersdorf became part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform.

History

The village near Berlin was first mentioned in 1293 as Wilmerstorff, probably founded in the course of the German Ostsiedlung under the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. From the 1850s on Deutsch-Wilmersdorf was developed as a densely settled, affluent residential area, which in 1920 became a part of Greater Berlin. The former borough of Wilmersdorf included the localities of Halensee, Schmargendorf and Grunewald. During the era of the Weimar Republic Wilmersdorf was a popular residential area for artists and intellectuals. In 1923 the foundation stone for the first mosque in Germany was laid on the initiative of some Islamic students in Wilmersdorf. It was completed in 1925. The so called Wilmersdorfer Moschee (Mosque of Wilmersdorf) is still owned and maintained by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. In 1933, the year in which Hitler came to power, 13.5% of the population was Jewish; many of them were deported by the Nazis from Berlin-Grunewald Station. Deutsche Bahn established a memorial on 27 January 1998 at the historic track 17 ("Gleis 17"), where most of the deportation trains departed. The synagogue of Wilmersdorf in the Prinzregentenstraße was destroyed by the Nazis in the Reichspogromnacht on 9–10 November 1938. A memorial plaque commemorates the former synagogue. A new synagogue and community centre was established 2007 in the Münstersche Straße for the growing Jewish community in Wilmersdorf. During World War II, Wilmersdorf was the location of a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After 1945 Wilmersdorf was located in the British Zone of occupation.

Sights

Education

Higher education

Primary and secondary schools

Weekend schools

Notable people

Photogallery