The village in the Margraviate of Brandenburg was first mentioned as des or ’s Margreven Dorp (literally English: the Margrave's Village) in 1354, contracted to Low German Smargendorp and later adapted to High German standard as Schmargendorf.[2] It was probably established about 1220 by German settlers in the course of the Ostsiedlung under the co-ruling Ascanian Margraves John I and Otto III of Brandenburg, after the former Slavic territories had been conquered by their great-grandfather Albert the Bear.
During the growth of the City of Berlin after the 1871 unification of Germany, many peasants profited by the real estate speculation, when Schmargendorf on the eastern rim of the Grunewald forest became a popular residential area. In 1899 the former village was separated from neighboring Wilmersdorf and received municipal rights within the BrandenburgianLandkreis Teltow, whereafter the residents had the lavish Neo-Gothic town hall erected in 1902. On 1 October 1920 Schmargendorf was incorporated into Berlin by the "Greater Berlin Act".[3]
During the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Schmargendorf became a battleground. Among the force trying to resist there the advancing Soviets were the film producer Ewald von Demandowsky and his lover, the future film star Hildegard Knef, dressed as a soldier[4]
At its northern rim Schmargendorf is served by the Ringbahn urban rail stations of Heidelberger Platz (S-Bahn lines : S4 (Ringbahn) + S46; U-Bahn line U3) and Hohenzollerndamm (S-Bahn line S4).
By car it can be reached on the Stadtring motorway (BAB 100), at the Hohenzollerndamm exit (No. 13), and via the Schmargendorf junction (No. 14, former BAB 104) at the exit Mecklenburgische Straße.
^One can find a comparable name construction with an abbreviated ’s with 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, being one of the areas from where many then settlers in Brandenburg originated.
