HEADS OR TAILS?

Today in Berlin: April 4, 2000

On this day, April 4, 2000, a big decision was made using very simple means.

Berlin was in the process of reducing the number of its boroughs by turning the former 21 districts into 12 new ones. To level the number to residents per each borough (as much as it was possible) and to create more manageable entities, it was necessary to combine historically separate areas.

Berlin boroughs after the 1938 border adjustment (Charlottenburg had just lost Wittenbergplatz and KaDeWe to Schöneberg).

And so Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf, since 1920 and the birth of Groß-Berlin two different boroughs (until 1920 Charlottenburg was, in fact, one of the wealthiest cities in Germany), became one. So did Tempelhof and Schöneberg, Steglitz and Zehlendorf, and in the east of the city Treptow and Köpenick became one borough, and Marzahn was joined with Hellersdorf. All districts with a single name were big enough and in no need of adjustment.