Named after Tegel, an old village on the Tegeler See.
Tegel was probably founded soon after 1237 and is first recorded in 1322 as the church village ‘Tygel’. One explanation of the name sees a Slavic root meaning ‘appendage’, referring to the Tegeler See as an offshoot of the Havel. Tegel has had a station since 1893. In West Berlin times it lay in the French sector, and all French troop transports by rail started or ended at a yard here.