Bernau bei Berlin

Sister cities

• Meckenheim
• Skwierzyna
• Champigny-sur-Marne

History

and since changed to Bernau [ˈbɛrnaʊ̯]. The reasons for its founding are not known. According to legend, Albert I of Brandenburg permitted the founding of the city in 1140 because of the good beer which was offered to him. Bernau underwent an economic boom before the Thirty Years' War. Large parts of the defensive wall with town gate and wet moats were built during that period. These helped Bernau defend itself successfully against attackers, including the Hussites in 1432. However, conditions declined after the war and the plague. Frederick I of Prussia settled 25 Huguenot families, comprising craftsmen, farmers, traders, and scientists, in the town in 1699. From the 18th century, Bernau was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, and from 1815 to 1947, it was administratively located in the Province of Brandenburg. During World War II, in 1943–1945, it was the location of a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In early 1945, a death march of prisoners of various nationalities from the dissolved camp in Żabikowo to Sachsenhausen passed through the town. From 1947 to 1952 it was part of the State of Brandenburg in East Germany, from 1952 to 1990 of the East German Bezirk Frankfurt and since 1990 again in Brandenburg in modern Germany. In 1842 a railway line was opened. One of the first electrical suburban railway lines in the world began operation in 1924. A line of the Berlin S-Bahn connected Bernau with the Stettiner Bahnhof (today Berlin Nordbahnhof) in Berlin. The ADGB Trade Union School (Bundesschule des Allgemeinen Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes), designed by Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer, opened in 1930. It was included as part of the World Heritage Site the Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau in July 2017.