Factories are established in the open countryside

In the year 1800, the area that is now our thriving neighbourhood with its closely spaced buildings was still open countryside belonging to the village of Tempelhof. A number of windmills stood atop the Tempelhof hills. What is now the Mehringdamm had already long existed as a country road and connected what was then the dual town of Berlin-Coelln with Dresden. Today’s Bergmannstrasse was an unpaved road connecting Mehringdamm with the Hasenheide. Until 1837 it was called Weinbergsweg (literally ‘vineyard path’), a name which signals the historical usage of the Tempelhof hill.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the future development of the region as a new southern district of the city was still uncertain. Following the erection of the Kreuzberg monument in 1821, a summer house settlement and the Tivoli entertainment park were created close by. Many Berliners went on Sunday excursions here, just outside the city limits.

Cemeteries began to be laid out on Weinbergsweg, today’s Bergmannstrasse, from 1825. At the southern end of the hill, south of what is now Schwiebusser Strasse, lay the Tempelhof Field, which had been used by the Berlin garrison for drills and parades since 1722.

There were few inhabitants in the immediate vicinity. This meant that factories could be established there when there was no longer any room for them in the city. A chemical firm was the first to set up here. This was followed in 1838 by the Berlin Bockbrauerei.