Steglitz is part of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in the south-western part part of Berlin. Sudende is also part of this locality. Though the village of Steglitz was mentioned in the 1375 Landbuch of Emperor Charles IV, who, at that time was the ruler of Brandenburg Electorate, Steglitz was also mentioned in a 1197 deed because of one Knight Henricus of Steglitz.
In 1792, Steglitz experienced and witnessed first-hand the construction of the first paved Prussian country road. The old village gained much profit because of its location on the Imperial Highway Reichsstrasse 1, known today as Bundesstasse 1, which already was following a route for trading that started in the Middle Ages. The former Reichsstrasse runs a very long line from the far west of Germany through Aachen and Cologne into Berlin, then connecting eastward for about two hundred miles northeast of Königsberg in East Prussia. The construction of the Stammbahn line of the Prussian state railways in 1838 also boosted the village of Steglitz. The Prussian railway was the first railroad in Prussia that ran connecting Berlin and Potsdam. In 1850, from around this year, the area of Steglitz was included in the Berlin’s rail and transit systems’ southern line.
Since Steglitz belongs to the south-western part of Berlin, the village also experienced a considerable amount of change in the second half of the 19th century. This was the time when big and luxurious residential areas were built and was developed in the neighboring villages of Lichterfelde and following a few years, Dahlem. The entrepreneur Johann Von Carstenn founded the Lichterfelde East and West, which also developed the so called Villenkolonien, which are settlements that are made up entirely of mansions and villas. In 1873, the settlement of Sudende, meaning “South End”, was founded. After these developments, in Schlosstrasse, a major shopping area was developed. This shopping district also catered to the wealthy villages of Lichterfelde and Dahlem. The famous and the first Wandervogel youth group was assembled and founded in the Steglitz Town Hall’s basement.
In 1920, the village of Steglitz became a part of the city of Greater Berlin together with other neighboring villages. Bezirk Steglitz was the name for the administrative district IX from 1920 to 2000. Steglitz formed a part of the American Sector during the time of the Berlin Wall. In 2001, during Berlin’s administrative reform, the southwestern area of Berlin was unified in the newly created borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. The new borough has expensive residential areas and with its continuous developments until today, it is the most affluent of all the boroughs of Berlin.
Some historical landmarks that are located in Steglitz are the Gutshaus Steglitz (Steglitz Manor), which is a neoclassical building that was deisned in 1801 by David Gilly, The Schloßstraße, second largest shopping district in Berlin after Kurfürstendamm and Tauentzienstraße, the Steglitz Town Hall, which is Neo-Gothic in design, and the notorious Steglitzer Kreisel, which is 119 m or 390 feet, which is a highrise that was built in 1968 and 1980, since the construction was stopped in 1974 and resumed in 1977.