Country Germany District Potsdam-Mittelmark Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Area 11.94 km² Local time Thursday 5:07 AM | State Brandenburg Elevation 42 m (138 ft) Postal codes 14532 Population 19,395 (31 Dec 2008) Postal code 14532 | |
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Weather 4°C, Wind W at 13 km/h, 80% Humidity | ||
Kleinmachnow is a wealthy municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.
Contents
Map of 14532 Kleinmachnow, Germany
Geography
It is situated 19 km (12 mi) southwest of the centre of Berlin, immediately neighbouring the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, and 12 km (7.5 mi) east of Potsdam. The municipality encompasses the settlement of Dreilinden.
History
Kleinmachnow arose at the former Bäke creek, today replaced by the Teltow Canal built in 1906. Parvo Machenow was first mentioned in the 1375 land registry (Landbuch) of Emperor Charles IV, then also Brandenburg Elector. In medieval times the ford was controlled by a castle, recently held by the Hake noble family. Together with the canal the Kleinmachnow lock was erected, soon becoming a landmark.
From the early 20th century the former village developed to an affluent suburb of Berlin. In 1937 Wilhelm Ohnesorge, minister of the Reichspost, acquired the Hakeburg mansion as his residence and established a large research facility of communications-electronics here. In World War II Kleinmachnow was the site of a labour camp with about 5,000 inmates, including a subcamp of Sachsenhausen.
On the night of 2–3 December 1943, a Lancaster plane of the Royal Australian Air Force (flight LM 316) was shot down over Kleinmachnow, one of those killed being the well-known Norwegian writer and poet Nordahl Grieg, at the time serving as a war correspondent. (A memorial stone was unveiled at the site (52°23′51″N 13°12′58″E) in November 2003.)
In 1946 the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) seized the Hakeburg, which hosted the party's academy in the following years. From 1961 to 1989 the municipality was girded by the Berlin Wall on three sides and the motorway near Dreilinden (today Bundesautobahn 115) was the site of a major border crossing, counterpart of the Allied checkpoint Bravo in West Berlin. Since German reunification Kleinmachnow has seen a major increase of population, while the restitution of numerous plots in favour of those owners who had fled from the GDR led to fierce conflicts.
Politics
Seats in the municipal assembly (Gemeindevertretung) as of 2008 elections: