The Kreuzberg is a hill in the Kreuzberg locality of Berlin, Germany, in former West Berlin. It rises about above the sea level. It was named by King Frederick William III of Prussia after the Iron Cross which crowns the top of the Prussian National Monument for the Liberation Wars, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, on its inauguration on 30 March 1821. On 27 September 1921 the borough assembly of the VIth borough of Berlin decided to name the borough after the hill. The borough was subsequently downgraded to a locality in 2001.

Other names for the hill Former names of the Kreuzberg were Sandberg (sand mountain), Runder Berg (1524) or Runder Weinberg (Round Mountain or Round Wine Mountain/Vineyard), Tempelhofer Berg and corrupted Templower Berg (both Tempelhof Mountain), Götzens Berg (1798) or Götzescher Berg (1818; both Götze's Mountain), Kreutzberg (1822, 1834) and Kreuzberg (1856).Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986, see references for bibliographical details, pp. 3, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 16. No ISBN. Since the 1850s the hill was also nicknamed Monte Cruce or Monte Croce.David Kalisch, "Die Besteigung des Monte Cruce bei Berlin" (by 1853), in: David Kalisch, Lustige Werke, Berlin: Hofmann, 1870, pp. 29–32, passim. No ISBN.

Geology

The Kreuzberg is a natural hill and forms part of the Tempelhofer Berge range (Tempelhof hills) stretching along the northern descent of the Teltow Plateau between Schöneberg and the Rollberge in Neukölln. It rises about above the sea level and above the northerly adjacent Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley. The Teltow Plateau is a flatly undulating ground moraine landscape. The Kreuzberg's relatively steep northern slope derives from the erosion by meltwater running into the Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley, when it was formed by the Weichselian glaciation. The Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley stretches to between the southern Kreuzberg and the northern Prenzlauer Berg, thus forming here the narrowest point between the northerly Barnim Plateau and southern Teltow Plateau.Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer, see references for bibliographical details, p. 20. .

History

The oldest surviving record mentioning the Kreuzberg is a deed of gift of 1290, by which Knight Jacob of Nybede (Jakob von Nybede/Niebede) from the Knights Templar commandry in Tempelhof donated the Berlin Franciscans a brick bakery and a loam pit on the northerly slope of the Kreuzberg.Friedhelm SchmuckNeutempelhofer Einsichten, see references for bibliographical details, p. 9. .Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, see references for bibliographical details, p. 16. . At road constructions in the Methfesselstraße in the 1830s workers discovered under the roots of a felled tree the remnants of a mediaeval brick bakery, probably the premise where the bricks for Berlin's Franciscan Cloister Church (Franziskaner-Klosterkirche) have been manufactured.

The Kreuzberg, as well as the fields and farmland north and south of it used to belong to the village land of Tempelhof, a fief first held by the Knights Templar and with their suppression in 1312, Margrave Waldemar the Great enfeoffed it to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John in 1318.Walther Oschilewski, Kreuzberg: Ein Berliner Bezirk gestern und heute, see references for bibliographical details, p. 16. No ISBN.Lothar Uebel, Am Berg gebaut – Über hundert Jahre Chamissokiez, see references for bibliographical details, p. 1. No ISBN.Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986, see references for bibliographical details, p. 3. No ISBN. On 23 September 1435 Order Master Balthasar von Schlieben of the Knights Hospitaller sold – among others – the Kreuzberg to Berlin-Cölln.Walther Oschilewski, Kreuzberg: Ein Berliner Bezirk gestern und heute, see references for bibliographical details, p. 19. No ISBN.Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer, see references for bibliographical details, p. 22. .

After the subjection of Cölln and neighbouring Berlin by the new Hohenzollern Prince-Elector Frederick Irontooth of Brandenburg in 1442/1448, and his abolition of their union and semi-autonomy, he seized Cölln's feudal seniority over the Kreuzberg and the surrounding area in his favour. However, the prince-elector soon later sold the vineyards on the slope east of the houses on today's Heimstraße to private owners, mostly Cölln burghers, but kept those west of it including the Kreuzberg.Lothar Uebel, Am Berg gebaut – Über hundert Jahre Chamissokiez, see references for bibliographical details, p. 2. No ISBN.

On 15 July 1524 Prince-Elector Joachim I Nestor and his entourage fled to the top of the Kreuzberg (then called Runder Berg), the highest of the Tempelhofer Berge,Klaus-Dieter Wille, Spaziergänge in Kreuzberg, see references for bibliographical details, p. 21. . in order to survive a flood predicted for that day by his court astronomer Johann Carion.Ilse Nicolas, Kreuzberger Impressionen, see references for bibliographical details, p. 10. . After spending much of the day on the Kreuzberg in vain, at about 16:00 h, Electress Elizabeth of Denmark urged her husband to leave.Ilse Nicolas, Kreuzberger Impressionen, see references for bibliographical details, p. 11. . They returned to town, where a thunderstorm started and a lightning killed four horses and the coachmen. According to another source the news of their frightful flight had spread among the Cöllners and Berliners, many of whom had tried to get as well onto the Kreuzberg, but were kept out by electoral guards. On their return the crowd awaited the elector and his entourage and welcoming him laughing.

In 1553 Joachim I Nestor ordered to plant vines on the slopes, in the private parcels on the slope as well as on the electoral slopes. He employed vintners, called wine masters, each responsible for a vineyard of a certain size, giving the name Weinmeisterweg (Winemaster Way, today's Kreuzbergstraße at the northern foot of the Kreuzberg). In 1588 the financial chamber of the city of Cölln recorded for one of the vineyards an output of 13 and a half tons of red and white wine, amounting to 35 threescore and 45 groats.Ilse Nicolas, Kreuzberger Impressionen, see references for bibliographical details, p. 12. . For 1595 Cölln's financial chamber accounted for the sale of 36 tuns of wine for 144 rixdollars, partially exported to Poland-Lithuania, Saxony, and Sweden.

On 19 June 1631 King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden captured the southerly adjacent Tempelhof Field, took the Tempelhofer Berge range and positioned cannons threatening to shoot Berlin and Cölln in order to force his brother-in-law Elector George William to support the Swedish efforts in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, see references for bibliographical details, p. 21. . The severe devastations and depopulation by the Thirty Years' War caused the death or flight of many a vintner, causing the neglect and abandonment of their vineyards. The slopes became deserted and turned into sandy wasteland.

In 1718 Elector Frederick William II of Brandenburg (as Frederick William I King in Prussia) sold the vineyards covered by today's Heimstraße and the hills west thereof, and it were mostly the electoral wine masters already employed on them, who bought them and continued viticulture. For 1720 a mulberry plantation is recorded, with their leaves needed for the etatist attempts to establish silk production in Brandenburg-Prussia.Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986, see references for bibliographical details, p. 7. No ISBN. However, alternative usages of the slopes remained mostly successless, so many slopes became again deserted and turned into wasteland, some owners continued viticulture. Western German wine had meanwhile outdone the local competition.Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986, see references for bibliographical details, p. 6. No ISBN.

On the Kreuzberg, like on some neighbouring hills, remained vineyards until 1739/1740, when a hefty frost killed most of the vine stock, among them Red Malvasian and Muscateller are recorded.Martina Pirch, „32. Die Tempelhofer Vorstadt“, in: see references for bibliographical details, p. 83. .Baedekers Berlin-Kreuzberg: Bezirksführer, see references for bibliographical details, p. 24. . In 1760 Austrian and Russian confederated troops under Tottleben defeated the defenders of Berlin on the Tempelhof Field and on 2 October posted their cannons on the Tempelhofer Berge shooting into Berlin.Michael Nungesser, Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel, see references for bibliographical details, p. 34. . The city surrendered and the confederated troops occupied Berlin for four days between 9 and 12 October.Lothar Uebel, Am Berg gebaut – Über hundert Jahre Chamissokiez, see references for bibliographical details, p. 6. No ISBN.

During the War of the Sixth Coalition against France, in 1813 Colonel Hermann von Boyen prompted to work sconces south of Runder Berg (today's Kreuzberg) and the other hills of the Tempelhofer Berge range. Plantations of about 4,000 fruit trees were stubbed and levelled.Michael Nungesser, Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel, see references for bibliographical details, p. 38. . Citizens of Berlin were draughted to work the sconces supervised by Captain Woldemar von Loos, among them also prominent figures such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte, August Wilhelm Iffland and Johann Gottfried Schadow.Michael Nungesser, Das Denkmal auf dem Kreuzberg von Karl Friedrich Schinkel, see references for bibliographical details, p. 37. . On top of the Kreuzberg, protected by the sconce on its southern slope, a redoubt was built comprising seven bomb-safe powder magazines, two huts for altogether 500 men, officially called the Citadel of Berlin.

Alone on the Kreuzberg 20 cannons were put up directing towards the approaching French Armée de Berlin under Oudinot.Klaus-Dieter Wille, Spaziergänge in Kreuzberg, see references for bibliographical details, p. 9. .Hasso Spode, „Die Schultheiss-Brauerei auf dem Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 28–48“, in: see references for bibliographical details, p. 339. . However, with the Allied Northern Army under Crown Prince Charles XIV John of Sweden defeating the French already in the Battle of Großbeeren on 23 August, the sconce was never used for defence and was later called Lärmkanonenschanze (noise cannon sconce).Joachim Berger, Kreuzberger Wanderbuch: Wege ins widerborstige Berlin, see references for bibliographical details, p. 20. .Die Tempelhofer Berge nebst ihrer höchsten Erhebung dem Kreuzberge anno 1286 bis 1986, see references for bibliographical details, p. 12. No ISBN. Already in September 1813 the sloppily constructed huts of the citadel collapsed.

After negotiations on 27 August 1818 the merchant Gottfried Wilhelm August Tietz, the farming burgher Johann Friedrich Götze and Christian Weimar (Weymann) sold the top of the Kreuzberg (then called Götze'scher Berg, i.e. Götze's mountain) measuring 1.5 Prussian Morgen () and land for an access path. On 4 September 1818 King Frederick William III of Prussia approved the stipulated price of thalers 1,100 and an additional 400 as compensation for fixtures lost through the fortification works in 1813. The semi-circular original access path, measuring a width of 20 Prussian feet (), and branching off Methfesselstraße, was already under construction at that time. The adjacent land, measuring 72 Morgen (), remained property of Götze, Tietz and Weimar. In June 1820 the Lärmkanonenschanze was levelled again.