Boroughs and neighborhoods of Berlin


Berlin is both a city and one of Germany’s federal states. Since the 2001 administrative reform, it has been made up of twelve boroughs or districts, each with its own local government, though all boroughs are subject to Berlin’s city and state government.
Each borough is governed by a council with five councillors and a borough mayor. The borough council is elected by the borough assembly. The borough governments' power is limited, and subordinate to the Berlin Senate. The borough mayors form a council of mayors, which advises the Senate.

History

Each borough is made up of several officially recognized subdistricts or neighborhoods. These neighborhoods typically have a historical identity as former independent cities, villages, or rural municipalities that were united in 1920 as part of the Greater Berlin Act, forming the basis for the present-day city and state. The neighborhoods do not have their own governmental bodies, but are recognized by the city and the boroughs for planning and statistical purposes. Berliners often identify more with the neighborhood where they live than with the borough that governs them. The neighborhoods are further subdivided into statistical tracts, which are mainly used for planning and statistical purposes. The statistical tracts correspond roughly but not exactly with neighbourhoods recognized by residents.
When Greater Berlin was established in 1920, the city was organized into twenty boroughs, most of which were named after their largest component neighborhood, often a former city or municipality; others, such as Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg, were named for geographic features.
By 2000, Berlin comprised twenty-three boroughs, as three new boroughs had been created in East Berlin.
Today Berlin is divided into twelve boroughs, reduced from twenty-three boroughs before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform.

Boroughs

An administrative reform in 2001 merged the existing boroughs into the current 12 boroughs, as listed below.
BoroughPopulation
31 March 2010		Area
in km²		Density
per km²		Map
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf319,62864.724,878
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg268,22520.1613,187
Lichtenberg259,88152.294,952
Marzahn-Hellersdorf248,26461.744,046
Mitte332,91939.478,272
Neukölln310,28344.936,804
Pankow366,441103.013,476
Reinickendorf240,45489.462,712
Spandau223,96291.912,441
Steglitz-Zehlendorf293,989102.502,818
Tempelhof-Schöneberg335,06053.096,256
Treptow-Köpenick241,335168.421,406

Administration

The borough government is part of the two-stage administration of the Berlin city-state, whereby the Senate and its affiliated agencies, institutions and municipal enterprises form the first stage of the so-called Hauptverwaltung. On second position, the boroughs enjoy a certain grade of autonomy—though in no way comparable to the German Landkreise districts or independent cities, nor even to the local government of a common municipality as a legal entity, as according to the Berlin Constitution the legal status of the city as a German state itself is that of a unified municipality. The power of the borough governments is limited and their performance of assigned tasks is subject to a regulatory supervision by the Senate.
Nevertheless, the twelve self-governing boroughs have constitutional status and are themselves subdivided into two administrative bodies: each is governed by the borough assembly and a full-time borough council, consisting of four councilors and headed by a borough mayor. The BVV assembly is directly elected by the borough's population and therefore acts as a borough parliament, though it is officially part of the executive. It elects the members of the borough council, checks its daily administration and is able to make applications and recommendations. The twelve borough mayors regularly meet in the Council of Mayors, led by the city's Governing Mayor; the council answers to and advises the Senate.
The localities have no local government bodies, and the administrative duties of the former locality representative, the Ortsvorsteher, were taken over by the borough mayors.

Coats of arms

All the coats of arms of Berliner boroughs have some common points: The shield has a Spanish form and the coronet is represented by a mural crown: 3 towers in red bricks with the coat of arms of Berlin in the middle.
Most of the coats of arms of current boroughs have changed some elements in their field: Some of them have created a "fusion" of themes of the merged Bezirke ; others have modified their themes taken from one of the two former merged boroughs. Only the unchanged boroughs of Neukölln, Reinickendorf and Spandau haven't changed their field. The coat of arms of Pankow was created with a new design in 2008, having been the only district without an emblem for 7 years.

Localities

As of 2012, the twelve boroughs are made up of a total of 96 officially recognized localities. Almost all of them are further subdivided into :Category:Zones of Berlin|several other zones. The largest Ortsteil is Köpenick, the smallest one is Hansaviertel. The most populated is Neukölln, the least populated is Malchow.
; Mitte
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Mitte10.7079,5827,445
Moabit7.7269,4258,993
Hansaviertel0.535,88911,111
Tiergarten5.1712,4862,415
Wedding9.2376,3638,273
Gesundbrunnen 6.1382,72913,496

; Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Friedrichshain 9.78114,05011,662
Kreuzberg10.40147,22714,184

; Pankow
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Prenzlauer Berg11.00142,31912,991
Weißensee7.9345,4855,736
Blankenburg6.036,5501,086
Heinersdorf3.956,5801,666
Karow6.6518,2582,746
Stadtrandsiedlung Malchow 5.681,166205
Pankow5.6655,8549,868
Blankenfelde13.401,917144
Buch18.2013,188727
Französisch Buchholz12.0018,7661,560
Niederschönhausen6.4926,9034,145
Rosenthal4.908,9331,823
Wilhelmsruh1.377,2165,267

; Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Charlottenburg10.60118,70411,198
Wilmersdorf7.1692,81512,963
Schmargendorf3.5919,7505,501
Grunewald22.3010,014448
Westend13.5037,8832,800
Charlottenburg-Nord 6.2017,3272,795
Halensee1.2713,96610,997

; Spandau
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Spandau8.0333,4334,164
Haselhorst4.7313,6682,891
Siemensstadt5.6611,3882,012
Staaken10.9041,4703,810
Gatow10.103,908386
Kladow14.8013,628922
Hakenfelde20.4026,3371,292
Falkenhagener Feld 6.8834,7785,056
Wilhelmstadt10.4037,0803,558

; Steglitz-Zehlendorf
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Steglitz6.7970,55510,391
Lichterfelde 18.2078,3384,300
Lankwitz6.9940,3855,778
Zehlendorf18.8057,9023,075
Dahlem8.3914,9661,784
Nikolassee19.6015,899811
Wannsee23.709,044382

; Tempelhof-Schöneberg
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Schöneberg 10.60116,74311,003
Friedenau1.6526,73616,204
Tempelhof12.2054,3824,458
Mariendorf9.3848,8825,211
Marienfelde9.1530,1513,295
Lichtenrade10.1049,4514,896

; Neukölln
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Neukölln11.70154,12713,173
Britz12.4038,3343,091
Buckow6.3538,0185,987
Rudow11.8041,0403,478
Gropiusstadt 2.6635,84413,475

; Treptow-Köpenick
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Alt-Treptow2.3110,4264,513
Plänterwald3.0110,6183,528
Baumschulenweg4.8216,7803,481
Johannisthal6.5417,6502,699
Niederschöneweide 3.4910,0432,878
Altglienicke7.8926,1013,308
Adlershof6.1115,1122,473
Bohnsdorf6.5210,7511,649
Oberschöneweide6.1817,0942,766
Köpenick34.9059,2011,695
Friedrichshagen14.0017,2851,233
Rahnsdorf21.508,891414
Grünau9.135,482600
Müggelheim22.206,350286
Schmöckwitz17.104,117240

; Marzahn-Hellersdorf
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Marzahn19.50102,3985,240
Biesdorf12.4024,5431,973
Kaulsdorf8.8118,7322,126
Mahlsdorf12.9026,8522,075
Hellersdorf 8.1072,6028,963

; Lichtenberg
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Friedrichsfelde5.5550,0109,011
Karlshorst6.6021,3293,232
Lichtenberg7.2232,2954,473
Falkenberg3.061,164380
Malchow1.54450292
Wartenberg6.922,433352
Neu-Hohenschönhausen 5.1653,69810,407
Alt-Hohenschönhausen9.3341,7804,478
Fennpfuhl2.1230,93214,591
Rummelsburg4.5217,5673,887

; Reinickendorf
LocalityArea
in km²		Population
as of 2008		Density
inhabitants per km²		Map
Reinickendorf10.5072,8596,939
Tegel33.7033,417992
Konradshöhe2.205,9972,726
Heiligensee10.7017,6411,649
Frohnau7.8017,0252,183
Hermsdorf6.1016,5032,705
Waidmannslust2.3010,0224,357
Lübars5.004,915983
Wittenau5.8722,6963,866
Märkisches Viertel 3.2035,20611,002
Borsigwalde 2.036,4323,168