Potsdam

Sister cities

• Lucerne
• Perugia
• Minsk
• Kaliningrad
• Versailles
• Bonn
• Bobigny
• Jyväskylä
• Sioux Falls
• Opole

History

The area around Potsdam shows signs of occupancy since the Bronze Age and was part of Magna Germania as described by Tacitus. After the great migrations of the Germanic peoples, Slavs moved in and Potsdam was probably founded after the 7th century as a settlement of the Hevelli tribe centred on a castle. It was first mentioned in a document in 993 as Poztupimi, when Emperor Otto III gifted the territory to the Quedlinburg Abbey, then led by his aunt Matilda. {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" |- |Angermünde||Beeskow-Storkow (as of 1836)||East Havelland||East Prignitz |- |Jüterbog-Luckenwalde||Lower Barnim||Prenzlau||Ruppin |- |Teltow (as of 1836)||Teltow-Storkow (until 1835)||Templin||Upper Barnim |- |colspan="1"|West Havelland||West Prignitz||Zauch-Belzig|| |} The traditional towns in the governorate were small, however, in the course of the industrial labour migration some reached the rank of urban districts. The principal towns were Brandenburg upon Havel, Köpenick, Potsdam, Prenzlau, Spandau and Ruppin. Until 1875 Berlin also was a town within the governorate. After its disentanglement a number of its suburbs outside Berlin's municipal borders grew to towns, many forming urban Bezirke within the governorate of Potsdam such as Charlottenburg, Lichtenberg, Rixdorf (after 1912 Neukölln), and Schöneberg (all of which, as well as Köpenick and Spandau, incorporated into Greater Berlin in 1920). The urban Bezirke were (years indicating the elevation to rank of urban Bezirk or affiliation with Potsdam governorate, respectively): {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" |- |Berlin (1822–1875)||Brandenburg/Havel (as of 1881)||Charlottenburg (1877–1920)||Eberswalde (as of 1911) |-…

Geography

The area was formed from a series of large moraines left after the last glacial period. Today, only one quarter of the city is built up, the rest remaining as green space. There are about 20 lakes and rivers in and around Potsdam, such as the Havel, the Griebnitzsee, Templiner See, Tiefer See, Jungfernsee, Teltowkanal, Heiliger See, and Sacrower See. The highest point is the Kleiner Ravensberg. Potsdam is divided into seven historic city Stadtteile (quarters) and nine new Ortsteile (suburbs/wards, former separate villages), which joined the city in 2003. The appearance of the city boroughs is quite different. Those in the north and in the centre consist mainly of historical buildings, the south of the city is dominated by larger areas of newer buildings. The city of Potsdam is divided into 32 Stadtteile (boroughs, both quarters and suburbs/wards together), which are divided further into 84 statistical Bezirke (districts). Today, one distinguishes between the older parts of the city (areas of the historic city and places suburbanized at the latest in 1939) – these are the city center, the western and northern suburbs, Bornim, Bornstedt, Nedlitz, Potsdam South, Babelsberg, Drewitz, Stern and Kirchsteigfeld – and those communities incorporated after 1990 which have since 2003 become Ortsteile – these are Eiche, Fahrland, Golm, Groß Glienicke, Grube, Marquardt, Neu Fahrland, Satzkorn and Uetz-Paaren. The new Ortsteile are located mainly in the north of the city. For the history of all incorporations, see the relevant section on incorporation and spin-offs. Structure with statistical numbering: * 1 Potsdam Nord ** 11 Bornim ** 12 Nedlitz ** 13 Bornstedt ** 14 Sacrow ** 15 Eiche ** 16 Grube ** 17 Golm * 2 Nördliche Vorstädte ** 21 Nauener Vorstadt ** 22 Jägervorstadt…

Most-observed species

• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  7,963
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  6,356
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,491
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,338
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,006
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,418
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,193
• Great Spotted Woodpecker

  Dendrocopos major (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,821