Neukölln District, Berlin

This huge residential development of 1963-73 in what was then open country in the districts of Rudow and Buckow (Neukölln) in Berlin now totals 18,250 dwellings for some 50,000 people. The general plan was the work of Walter Gropius (d. 1969), founder of the Bauhaus in Weimar. The architects for the various sections of the development were selected by competition. The area became popularly known as Gropiusstadt and in 1972 this name was given official sanction. The development includes detached houses, low blocks of flats and many tower blocks, the tallest of which is some 90 m/295ft high, with 31 floors. It also includes many shopping centers, public baths, a comprehensive school, crèches, old-people's clubs, sports grounds and its own power station for central heating.

The little Buckow village church in Berlin's Neukölln district was built about 1220-50. The Early Gothic nave of granite ashlar and the barrel roof date from the original foundation, the Late Gothic ribbed vaulting from the 15th C. Apart from that of Marienfeld, the broad west tower is the only 13th C. church tower in Berlin to have survived unchanged. One of the bells dates from when the church was built, and another from 1322. Notable features are the chancel windows (by the Berlin craftsman Siegmund Hahn) and the altar cross and liturgical utensils (by Gerhard Schreiter of Bremen). The impressive epitaph to Johann von Hohenlohe, who fell in battle in 1412, is the oldest such tablet in Berlin.

Schönefeld Central Airport, 25km southeast of Berlin's city center, was built between 1960-65 and in 1989 was the largest in the GDR. It has two runways measuring about 3,600 m/3,940yd and a reception building completed in 1976. It is intended that, in the nineties, this will be the main airport for flights between Berlin and Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia, with more flights to Western Europe going from Tegel Airport. Building projects, which should increase Schönefeld's capacity to some seven million passengers, include a new passenger lounge, additional freight clearance areas as well as improvements and extensions to various technical plants.

In Britz, in the Neukölln district of Berlin, the old village church stands on a hill near a pond between Britzer Damm and Alt-Britz Strasse. Many changes have been made to the original 13th C. stone building. The crypt (now the sacristy) was added in 1766. Drastic changes made in the late 19th C. were rectified in the 1950s and the church was returned to its old design. The contents include the 1720 altar and a Late Medieval brass christening bowl.

The little Mariendorf village church in Berlin, built of granite in Late Romanesque style, dates from the beginning of the 13th C.The Baroque west tower, with a wooden superstructure and a curved copper roof (1737), contains a bell of 1480 which is still rung.In the 16th C. three pillars and a domed ceiling were added to the nave, thus dividing it into two.

The village church of Marienfelde is one of the oldest churches in Brandenburg and in Berlin. Built of local stone and natural boulders, it was erected by the Templars about 1220 and taken over by the Order of St John in 1318. In 1435 it passed into the hands of the town councils of Berlin and Cölln. It was restored in 1921, when the nave was fitted with a barrel-roof.