The Barnim Plateau was already settled in the
Mesolithic era. The village of
Wendeschen Buk ("
Wendish", i.e. "
Slavic Buch") was first mentioned in a 1342 deed; it is also documented as
Buch slavica in the 1375 register of Emperor
Chales IV. Probably founded by
Sprevane tribes, Buch gradually became a German village during the
Ostsiedlung migration, instigated by the
Ascanian margraves
John I and
Otto III of Brandenburg from the early 13th century onwards. The
linear settlement around the village church and Buch manor, parallel to the Panke river with a
watermill. The Slavic affix fell into disuse during the 16th century. Devastated during the
Thirty Years' War, the Buch area was quickly redeveloped under the rule of the "Great Elector"
Frederick William. The manor became am aristocratic estate, which about 1700 was inherited by the later adventurer and writer Baron
Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz (1692–1775). In the 18th century, the manor house and the church were rebuilt in a
Baroque style. In the
Seven Years' War, the premises were plundered by
Russian troops under General
Gottlieb Heinrich Totleben during his
Raid on Berlin in 1760. After the war, King
Frederick the Great promoted
sericulture for a recovery of the local economy. Then held by the Voss noble family, the fate of
Julie von Voss (1766–1789), lady-in-waiting and spouse of King
Frederick William II of Prussia, was perpetuated in the
Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg by
Theodor Fontane. In 1815 Buch was incorporated into the newly established Prussian
Province of Brandenburg. The station on the Berlin–Stettin railway line was inaugurated on 26 June 1879. The manor estates were purchased from the Voss family by the City of Berlin in 1898, in order to lay out the
Rieselfelder sewage area according to plans by
James Hobrecht. At the same time, it became the site of several municipal hospitals designed by Ludwig Hoffmann and
Martin Wagner. Buch remained a Brandenburg municipality until 1920, when it merged into Berlin with the "
Greater Berlin Act". The hospital area from 1928 hosted the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research led by neurologists
Oskar Vogt,
Cécile Vogt-Mugnier and biologist
Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky; from 1931 it had its seat in a newly erected building designed by
Carl Sattler. During the
Nazi era, headed by
Hugo Spatz and
Julius Hallervorden from 1937/38, it played a vital role in
eugenics and racist research, and also in the
Aktion T4 "euthanasia" program. From 1949 to 1990 Buch was part of
East Berlin. ==Transport==