Teltow

Teltow was a small agricultural town south of Berlin, granted the rights of Brandenburg, Berlin and Spandau by Margrave Otto III in 1265. Its double ramparts and gates guarded the road between Wittenberg and Berlin, while fields around the town sustained its inhabitants. The bishop of Brandenburg held the lordship until it returned to the elector after the Reformation in 1571.

Repeated fires and plague struck Teltow, and the Thirty Years' War brought plunder and depopulation. After a great fire in 1711, cultivation of the small Teltow turnip helped the inhabitants restore a modest measure of prosperity. Another great fire in 1801 destroyed much of the town and Saint Andrew's Church; the church was rebuilt to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and consecrated in 1812.