Charlottenburg Town Hall

Upon the death of Queen consort Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the former village of Lietzow was renamed Charlottenburg and received town privileges by order of King Frederick I of Prussia on 5 April 1705.

As from the mid 19th century the population grew rapidly, the building became too small to house the municipal offices and in 1860 a new town hall was inaugurated eastwards on the road to the Prussian capital Berlin, the present-day Otto-Suhr-Allee.

Around 1900, Charlottenburg had become an affluent city and its citizens expressed their confidence by holding an architectural competition to rebuild the town hall in a lavish Gründerzeit style with a 70 m (230 ft) long Wünschelburg sandstone façade and a spire of 88 m (289 ft), exceeding the dome of Charlottenburg Palace (which allegedly caused trouble with Emperor Wilhelm II).

Upon the city's incorporation according to the 1920 Greater Berlin Act, the building became the administrative seat of the Charlottenburg borough.

The town hall today houses several departments of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough's administration and a community library.