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Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs (Bezirke) of Berlin, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smallest borough by population, but the fourth largest by land area.
Rathaus Spandau, Spandau's seat of government, was built in 1913. Other landmarks include the Renaissance-era Spandau Citadel, the 1848 St. Marien am Behnitz Catholic church designed by August Soller, and Spandau arsenal. That arsenal's Spandau machine gun inspired the slang Spandau Ballet to describe dying soldiers on barbed wire during the First World War, and later was applied to the appearance of Nazi war criminals at Spandau Prison. In 1979, the English New Romantic band Spandau Ballet again re-purposed the term for its name.
In 1156, the Ascanian Earl Albrecht von Ballenstedt ("Albrecht the Bear") took possession of the region. 1197 marked the first mention as Spandowe in a deed of Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg – thus forty years earlier than the Cölln part of medieval Berlin. Spandau was given city rights in 1232. During Ascanian rule the construction of Spandau Citadel began, which was completed between 1559 and 1594 by Joachim II of Brandenburg. In 1558 the village of Gatow became part of Spandau. In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, Spandau was surrendered to the Swedish Empire. In 1689, a commune of French people Huguenots and Waldensians was established.
In 1806, after the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt, French troops under Napoleon took possession of the city and stayed there until 1807. In 1812, Napoleon returned, and the Citadel was besieged the following year by Prussian and troops.
From 1849 the poet and revolutionary Gottfried Kinkel was an inmate of Spandau town prison, until he was freed by his friend Carl Schurz in the night of 6 November 1850.
Before World War I, Spandau Arsenal was a seat of large government cannon foundries, factories for making gunpowder and other munitions of war, making it a centre of the arms industry in the German Empire. It was also a garrison town with numerous barracks, home of the 5th Guard Infantry Brigade and the 5th Guard Foot Regiment of the German Army. In 1920, Spandau (whose name had been changed from Spandow in 1878) was incorporated into Greater Berlin as a borough.
During World War II, Spandau was the location of a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, mostly for Polish and Hungarian women.Geoffrey P. Megargee (2025). 9780253353283, Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. ISBN 9780253353283
After World War II, it was part of the British sector of West Berlin. Spandau Prison, which had been rebuilt in 1876, was used to house Nazism War crime given custodial sentences at the Nuremberg Trials. After the death of Spandau Prison's last inmate, Rudolf Hess, in 1987, it was completely demolished by the Allied powers and later replaced by a shopping mall.
RAF Gatow, in the south of the district, was used by the Royal Air Force during the post-war Allied occupation, most notably during the Berlin Airlift. Since 1995 the airfield has been the Gatow Museum of Military History.
| 165,000 (73%) |
| 62,000 (27%) |
| 20,400 (9%) |
| 13,600 (6%) |
| 7,000 (3%) |
| 20,400 (9%) |
! colspan=2| Party ! Lead candidate ! Votes ! % ! +/− ! Seats ! +/− |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | align=left| Carola Brückner | 31,250 | 27.7 | 5.5 | 17 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | align=left| Frank Bewig | 30,714 | 27.2 | 1.5 | 16 | ±0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | align=left| Elmas Wieczorek-Hahn | 13,460 | 11.9 | 4.3 | 7 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | align=left| Andreas Otti | 11,516 | 10.2 | 5.8 | 6 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | align=left| Matthias Unger | 8,464 | 7.5 | 1.1 | 4 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| The Left (LINKE) | align=left| Lars Leschewitz | 6,104 | 5.4 | 0.2 | 3 | ±0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Tierschutzpartei | align=left| Aida Spiegeler Castañeda | 5,063 | 4.5 | New | 2 | New |- | colspan=8 bgcolor=lightgrey| |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Die PARTEI | align=left| | 2,235 | 2.0 | 0.4 | 0 | ±0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| dieBasis | align=left| | 1,743 | 1.5 | New | 0 | New |- | | align=left| We are Berlin | align=left| | 1,222 | 1.1 | New | 0 | New |- | | align=left| Voter Initiative Social Spandau | align=left| | 677 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0 | ±0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Ecological Democratic Party | align=left| | 296 | 0.3 | New | 0 | New |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Liberal Conservative Reformers | align=left| | 138 | 0.1 | New | 0 | New |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 112,882 ! 98.6 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 1,577 ! 1.4 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 114,459 ! 100.0 ! ! 55 ! ±0 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 177,874 ! 64.3 ! 5.0 ! ! |- | colspan=8| Source: Elections Berlin |}
| Carola Brückner | SPD | District Mayor Staff, Finance, Logistics and Economic Development | |
| Frank Bewig | CDU | Deputy Mayor Education, Culture and Sport | |
| Thorsten Schatz | CDU | Construction, Planning and Environment | |
| Gregor Kempert | SPD | Social Affairs and Civil Service | |
| Oliver Gellert | GRÜNE | Youth and Health | |
| Vacant | AfD | Public Order | |
| Source: Berlin.de | |||
In 1939, LSV Spandau won the title of the first German basketball championship, which was won by a clear 47:16 victory over Bad Kreuznach. After 1945, the association was dissolved.
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