The history of Spandau begins in the 7th century or 8th century, when the
Slav Heveller first settled in the area and later built a fortress there. It was conquered in 928 by the German King
Henry I, but returned to Slavic rule after the rebellion of 983. 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
Swedes. In 1689, a commune of
French 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
Russian 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. 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
Nazi war criminals 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.
Gatow airfield, 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. ==Geography==