Falkensee

Falkensee
Town
Aerial view with Falkensee lake
Coat of arms
Location of Falkensee within Havelland district
Falkensee Falkensee
Coordinates: 52°33′30″N 13°05′30″E
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Havelland
Subdivisions	6 Ortsteile
Government
• Mayor (2023–31)	Heiko Richter (Ind.)
Area
• Total	43.30 km2 (16.72 sq mi)
Elevation	32 m (105 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)
• Total	44,806
• Density	1,000/km2 (2,700/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC 01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC 02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	14612
Dialling codes	03322
Vehicle registration	HVL (formerly NAU)
Website	www.falkensee.de

Falkensee is a town in the Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany. It is the most populated municipality of its district and it is situated at the western border of Berlin.

History

The commune Falkensee was formed in 1923 by the merger of Falkenhagen and Seegefeld, composing the common name from Falkenhagen and Seegefeld.

During World War II, the Demag-Panzerwerke subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was located here. At its height, 2,500 people were imprisoned in the camp and used as slave labour. In November, 1945, the city issued 6 postage stamps of its own depicting a dove of peace.

The municipality shared its borders with the former West Berlin, and so during the period 1961-1990 it was separated from it by the Berlin Wall.

Demography

As a suburban municipality directly neighbouring Berlin, Falkensee grew strongly with Berlin itself. After World War II, Falkensee's population shrunk due to the relatively isolated position "behind" West Berlin, seen from the GDR capital. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Falkensee's population doubled and continues to grow.

Detailed data sources are to be found in the Wikimedia Commons.

• 
  Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state)
• 
  Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the Census in Germany in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)

Falkensee: Population development
within the current boundaries (2020)

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1875 1,309 —     1890 1,558 1.17% 1910 4,512 5.46% 1925 8,180 4.05% 1939 24,824 8.25% 1950 29,189 1.48% 1964 25,772 −0.89%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1971 26,007 0.13% 1981 24,029 −0.79% 1985 23,340 −0.72% 1990 22,087 −1.10% 1995 24,273 1.91% 2000 33,791 6.84% 2005 38,376 2.58%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 2010 40,511 1.09% 2015 42,634 1.03% 2016 43,105 1.10% 2017 43,552 1.04% 2018 43,844 0.67% 2019 43,994 0.34% 2020 44,236 0.55%

Mayors

• May 1990-October 2007: Jürgen Bigalke (SPD)
• November 2007-October 2023: Heiko Müller (SPD)
• since November 2023: Heiko Richter (Independent)

Transport infrastructure

Falkensee has a railway station on the Berlin-Hamburg railway. Local trains and Regional Express trains stop here at the two outer platforms, both located on siding tracks, so that long-distance trains linking Hamburg and Berlin can bypass on the two middle tracks. Two local stopping trains linking Nauen with Berlin call at Falkensee, one going via the Northern Ringbahn (circular railway) to the tunnel level of Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the other taking the Berlin Stadtbahn cross-city railway, terminating currently (in 1914) at the Berlin Schönefeld Airport.

The northern side of the Falkensee railway station is the location of the central hub of the Falkensee bus network, and provides a covered stand for hundreds of bicycles.

Before the previous war, Falkensee was a stop on the suburban line from Nauen via Jungfernheide to the Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof station, the Berlin terminus of the Berlin-Hamburg railway. From August 1951 to the end of the 1950s, the Falkensee - Spandau and Spandau - Jungfernheide tracks were electrified with the Third Rail of the Berlin S-Bahn, allowing direct rail service from East Berlin to Falkensee, which was part of the GDR then. This link was severed by the Berlin Wall in 1961. From then on, until the reconstruction of the Berlin railway network in 1990, Falkensee could be reached from East Berlin only by the long detour via the Berlin outer ring.

Notable people

• Hannjo Hasse (1921–1983), DEFA actor
• Carlos Rasch (born 1932), science fiction author
• Klaus Bednarz (1942–2015), journalist
• Ingo Voge (born 1958), bobsledder
• Katarina Witt (born 1965), German actress and retired figure skater

External links

Media related to Falkensee at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website (in German)