Cradle of German motorised aviation
In 1909, Germany's first motorised airfield was opened on the site to the north-west of today's university buildings. From 1912, the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrtforschung (DVL), the forerunner of today's German Aerospace Centre (DLR), built extensive research and production facilities here. With the upswing in aviation from the end of the 1920s, aeronautical research also developed rapidly. From the mid-1930s, it benefited greatly from the National Socialists' armaments programme. An "extended expansion programme for the years 1932-1936" agreed with the Reich Aviation Ministry made it possible to build the large wind tunnel, the spinning wind tunnel and the silenced engine test stand, among other things. During the Second World War, the DVL's research work at this site ran at full speed.
As part of the rearmament programme, Henschel-Werke began developing and building military aircraft in Johannisthal from May 1933. During the war, forced labourers were deployed in their factories in Johannisthal and Sch?nefeld. One of the largest camps in Berlin was located on what is now Gro?-Berliner Damm.
Academy of Sciences
The Academy of Sciences of the GDR was initially established by the Soviet military administration in Germany after the Second World War as the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (DAW). The Academy was able to maintain its own research institutes from the end of October 1946. Several former Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes were integrated, shifting the traditional focus of research strongly towards the natural sciences and technology. Some of these institutes were located on the Adlershof site between the railway line and the Teltow Canal. As part of the 1956-1960 five-year plan, which included the development of modern industries in the context of rearmament, DAW developed into the central research organisation of the GDR, which also had great influence on research policy through expert opinions and advising the government.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the academy was consolidated as a central scientific and research institution and directly integrated into the SED's ruling structure. It was renamed the "Academy of Sciences of the GDR" (AdW) on 7 October 1972 and now comprised almost exclusively scientific and technical fields. At the time of reunification, more than 20,000 people were working in the 58 research institutes of the AdW, 5,400 of them in the 15 chemical and physical research institutes located in Adlershof alone.
German Television DFF
The listed Ehrlich ensemble near Adlershof railway station bears witness to the time when "Sandmann" and "Die aktuelle Kamera" were broadcast from Adlershof. The television studios in Berlin-Adlershof were built in the early 1950s and have been continuously expanded. In two and a half years, the largest television studio in Europe at the time was built at a cost of 60 million Ostmarks. On 3 January 1956, GDR television began regular broadcasting. Regular colour television broadcasts began on 7 October 1969, the 20th anniversary of the founding of the GDR. The 2nd programme had already gone on air a few days earlier. In the 70s and 80s, the SED increasingly turned "GDR television", as it had been called since 1972, into its propaganda tool. In 1991, the DFF was dissolved and the property and some of the staff were either transferred to the existing ARD broadcasting organisations in the West or transformed into new public broadcasters.
Feliks Dzierzynski Guard Regiment
Before 1989, anyone crossing under the S-Bahn bridge at Adlershof station and travelling along Rudower Chaussee would pass a complex of buildings hermetically sealed off by high walls and protected by watchtowers. The guard regiment of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR, which was given the name Feliks Dzierzynski in 1967, had been based here since the spring of 1950. The guard regiment, which comprised around 1,000 men when it was founded, had more than 11,000 members when it was disbanded in 1989. The soldiers in the guard regiment were primarily responsible for securing buildings belonging to the state apparatus of the GDR and the SED and protecting the forest housing estate in Wandlitz near Berlin, which was built in 1958. The members of the guard regiment were usually "normal" conscripts who had, however, signed up for at least three years. The guard regiment was involved in the suppression of the uprising of 17 June 1953 as well as in securing the Berlin Wall when it was built in 1961.
Some of the former barracks buildings were preserved after reunification and have been modernised and converted. Four of them are now home to the Institute of Psychology, the Institute of Geography and the Centre for the Science of Materials at Humboldt-Universit?t.
After the reunification of Germany
As part of the "Berlin-Johannisthal/Adlershof urban development programme", Adlershof was given new roads, a modern technical infrastructure and architecturally sophisticated new buildings. Building on the scientific and media tradition and the structures still preserved at the site, the decision was made to develop Adlershof into an internationally renowned science, business and media centre.
The decision to relocate parts of Humboldt-Universit?t to the former GDR science centre had already been taken in 1991. Alongside non-university research institutions and technology-orientated companies, the mathematical and scientific institutes were to become the main pillars of the science and technology park within the "City for Science, Business and Media". The first framework plan for the development of the entire area was drawn up in 1993 as part of an urban planning competition. Humboldt University presented a comprehensive concept for its campus in 1995. In 1997, the state of Berlin decided to finance the project. Under the direction of the Senate Building Administration, the new buildings were planned and constructed by 2003.
The dissolution of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, which was agreed in the Unification Treaty, and the evaluation of the Adlershof institutes, which was in part controversial but generally concluded with positive results, led to a reorganisation of the research landscape at the site. The chemical institutes, most of which were involved in "industry-typical" application research, were significantly reduced. However, the technical and physical research potential was retained to a greater extent and transferred to non-university research institutions.
Today, the Adlershof Science and Technology Park is characterised by the spatial proximity and cooperation of Humboldt University, ten non-university research institutes and around 600 companies, including high-tech companies.
Berlin's largest media centre has developed on the former GDR television site.