Staaken

Staaken () is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau.

==History== First mentioned in a 1273 deed as Stakene (from Middle Low German: staken, "stakes") in the Mittelmark region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the linear settlement probably arose around 1200 in the course of the German eastward migration. The estates were then held by the Benedictine nunnery of Spandau; after the Protestant Reformation they fell to the Spandau municipal administration. thumb|left|R.VI in front of the Zeppelin halls The former village became part of Berlin by the Greater Berlin Act of 1920. The development of the area started with the construction of the Staaken garden city by architect Paul Schmitthenner in 1914. At the beginning of World War I the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company acquired large estates in Staaken, where from 1915 on it manufactured zeppelin airships and the series of one-off Riesenflugzeug "giant" multi-engined bombers, among the largest of their day anywhere, culminating in the small series of R.VI biplane strategic bombers built by the firm.