This part of the city has given rise to one of the stock characters of Berlin politics, the ‘Wilmersdorfer Witwe’ (Wilmersdorf widow). Whether or not literally widowed, she’s a well-to-do older woman who lives alone in a well-appointed Altbau flat, is politically conservative, and spends her days shopping on the Ku’damm. While the ‘widow’ is more stereotype than reality, her image does reflect both the prosperity and the traditionalism of Wilmersdorf, a district that upper-middle-class families and pensioners cherish for its combination of proximity to the city and abundant green space. That space is the vast Grunewald, and the section of Wilmersdorf adjacent to and named after the forest is not only the most prestigious part of the district but one of the most exclusive residential areas in all of Berlin.