- For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation).
Berlin [
bɜˈlɪn]
(German
[bɛʁˈliːn]) is the national capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,387,404 inhabitants (as of September 2004); down from 4.5 million before World War II. It is also the second-largest city in the European Union after London.
Berlin is located on the rivers Spree and Havel in the northeast of Germany. It is enclosed by the German state (Bundesland) of Brandenburg, and
constitutes a state of its own.
Political Berlin
The state
Berlin became an independent state on the day of the German reunification, October
3, 1990, as one of the three city states, together with Hamburg and Bremen that form the present 16 German Bundesländer.
Berlin is governed by the Senat of Berlin which consists of the Regierender
Bürgermeister (governing mayor) and up to 8 senators, holding ministerial portfolios. The governing mayor is mayor of the
city and representative of the Bundesland (state) at the same time. Presently, this office is held by Klaus Wowereit (SPD); for earlier mayors, see the list of Mayors of Berlin.
The city and state parliament is called the Abgeordnetenhaus or House of Representatives. The current Senat consists of
a coalition of the social democrat SPD and the socialist PDS.
The boroughs
Berlin is subdivided into 12 boroughs, called Bezirke, which have been
merged from the previously existing 23 boroughs, effective since January 1,
2001.
For a map and a list of the old and new borough names, see Boroughs of Berlin.
Each Borough is governed by a so called Bezirksamt consisting of five Stadträte (town councillors) and a mayor.
The Bezirksamt is elected by the district-parliament, the so called Bezirksverordnetenversammlung. Though the
Boroughs of Berlin are not independent municipalities, the political power of the district-parliaments is quite weak and
dependent on the Senat of Berlin.
The district mayors form the council of mayors, called Rat der Bürgermeister under leadership of the Regierender
Bürgermeister (governing mayor) to advise the Senat.
History
see also: History of Berlin
Early settlements
At about 720 two Slavic tribes
settled in the Berlin region. The Heveller
settled at the river Havel with their central settlement in Brennabor which later has become the town of
Brandenburg. Close to the river Spree
in todays borough of Berlin Köpenick the Sprewanen were found.
The Heveller founded another place at the river Havel in about 750. This seems to be the closest settlement to the area which is today known as Berlin and was called Spandow (todays Spandau). Spandau and Köpenick, which had been protected with barriers around 825, had been the major settlements and later towns in the area until the early 11th century.
Berlin and Cölln
Berlin itself is one of Europe's younger cities, with its origin in the 12th century. The city developed out of two settlements, Berlin and Cölln, on both sides of the river Spree, in today's
borough Mitte. Cölln is first mentioned on
October 28th, 1237 in documents;
Berlin in 1244. Unfortunately, the great town center fire of 1830 damaged most written records of those early days.
Both cities formed a trade union in 1307, and participated in the Hanse. Their urban development took place in parallel for 400 years, until Cölln and Berlin were finally
unified under the name of Berlin in 1709, including the suburbs Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt, and Friedrichstadt.
Not much is left of these ancient communities, although some remainders can be seen in the Nikolaiviertel near the Rotes Rathaus, and the
Klosterkirche, close to today's
Alexanderplatz.
Urban development between the 15th and 17th century
The first City Palace was built on the embankment of the river Spree from 1443 to 1451. At that time Berlin-Cölln numbered about 8,000
inhabitants. In 1576, the bubonic plague killed about 4,000 people in the city.
During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), Berlin's population shrank from 10,000 to 6,000.
In 1640 Frederick
William took regency in the principality of Brandenburg. During his government Berlin reached 20,000 inhabitants and became
significant among the cities in Central Europe for the first time.
A boulevard with six rows of trees was laid down between the park Tiergarten and the Palace in 1647. The
boulevard is called Unter den Linden.
Some years later (from 1674 on), the Dorotheenstadt was constructed in
a bow of the river Spree northwest of the Spreeinsel (Spree Island), where the Palace was situated. From 1688 on the Friedrichstadt was built and settled.
Prussia
In January 18, 1701, Frederick III was
crowned King Frederick I in Prussia and made Berlin the capital of the new kingdom of Prussia.
In 1709, Berlin-Cölln was joined together with 'Friedrichswerder', the 'Dorotheenstadt'
and 'Friedrichstadt' under the name of Berlin, with 60,000 inhabitants.
Weimar Republic and the Third Reich
The overall impression one gets when visiting Berlin today is one of great discontinuity, visibly reflecting the many ruptures
of Germany's difficult history in the 20th century. Although it was the residence of the Prussian kings, Berlin's population did not greatly expand until the 19th century, mainly after becoming the capital of the German Empire in 1871. It remained Germany's capital during the
Weimar Republic and under the Nazis' Third Reich. During this period, Adolf Hitler had great plans to transform Berlin, because he thought that Berlin
was one of the ugliest cities in the world, and he hated it. (Berlin was and is a center of left-wing political activity in
Germany, and its residents largely opposed the Nazis' rise to power.) Therefore he and his architect Albert Speer made enormous plans for the new Berlin.
On the site of todays Parliamentary offices (Paul-Löbe-Haus) adjacent to the Reichstag, Speer planned to construct The Great Hall, 250 meters high and seven times broader than St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and with an enormous dome. It was
planned to be large enough to hold 170,000 people, and the sweat and heat produced by those people was predicted to be able to
generate clouds and rain inside the dome. From The Great Hall, a southbound avenue was planned, the Avenue of Victory, 23 meters
wide and 5.6 km long. At the other end you would have had the new railway station and next to it Tempelhof Airport. Additionally, halfway down the avenue there would have
been a huge arch 117 meters high, and so large that the Arc de
Triomphe in Paris would fit inside it. It was projected to be a monument
commemorating those fallen during World War I and World War II. The project was to finish in 1950, and Berlin was to be re-named
"Germania" on that occasion. But the construction never started, as Hitler decided it would be madness to start such a project
during a war. Hitler also thought the Allied airstrikes very practical, mostly because it made demolishing the old Berlin so much
cheaper.
Today only a few structures bear witness to the large-scale plans of Germania. Hermann Göring's Reichsluftfahrtministerium (National Ministry of Aviation), Tempelhof International Airport, Olympiastadion, and a series of streetlights on the East-West Axis on
Kaiserdamm and Straße der 17 Juni are all that remain. Hitler's Reich
Chancellory was demolished by Soviet occupation authorities, red marble from the
Chancellory was used to renovate the adjacent war damaged subway station U-Bahnhof Mohrenstraße and the remaining rubble was used in the construction of Soviet War Memorial at
Treptower Park in Berlin.
The divided city
By the end of the Second World War, up to 70% of Berlin had been
destroyed by concerted Allied air raids and street fighting. The so called "Stunde Null" marked a new beginning for the city. Greater Berlin was divided into four sectors by the
Allies under the London
Protocol of 1944: one each for
- the United States, consisting of the Boroughs of Neukölln, Kreuzberg, Tempelhof, Schöneberg, Steglitz and Zehlendorf;
- the United Kingdom, consisting of the Boroughs of Tiergarten, Charlottenburg,
Wilmersdorf and Spandau;
- France, consisting of the Boroughs of Wedding and Reinickendorf;
- the Soviet Union, consisting of the Boroughs of Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, Weissensee, Friedrichshain, Lichtenberg, Treptow and Köpenick.
- The Soviet victors of the Battle of Berlin immediately occupied
East Berlin, not handing over the American, British and French sectors (later
known as West Berlin) to the American and British Forces until July 1945, leaving the French to occupy their sector a little
later. The Soviets used the time from May 1945 to July 1945 to dismantle industry, transport and other facilities in West Berlin,
including removing railway tracks as reparations for German war damage in the Soviet Union. This also continued in East Berlin
and the Soviet occupation zone after 1945.
Berlin's situation in the middle of the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany made it a natural focal point of the opposing sides
in the Cold War. Starting on June 26,
1948, Stalin's "Berlin Blockade" of West Berlin, led the western Allies to supply it through the Berlin Airlift, known by the Berliners as "die Luftbrücke".
The Soviet sector of Berlin, East Berlin, became the capital of East Germany when the country was formed from the Soviet Occupation Zone in October
1949. West Germany, formed on
23 May 1949 from the American, British and French
Zones, had its provisional capital in Bonn. On August 13, 1961, the Berlin
Wall was constructed, separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany.
In the sixties West Berlin became one of the centers of the European student movement.
Reunification
The Berlin Wall was breached on November 9, 1989. By the time of German reunification on
3 October 1990, the Wall had been almost
completely demolished, with only small sections remaining. The German Parliament, the Bundestag, voted in June 1991 to move
the German capital back from Bonn to Berlin. Berlin once more became the capital of a
unified Germany. Ministries and Government Offices moved back from Bonn to Berlin in 1997/1998.
Tourist attractions
Even though Berlin does have a number of impressive buildings from earlier centuries, the city's appearance today is mainly
shaped by the key role it played in Germany's history in the 20th century. Each of the national governments which had their seat
in Berlin — the 1871 German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi
Germany, East Germany, and now the reunified Germany — initiated ambitious construction programs, each with its own distinctive character. Berlin
was devastated by bombing raids during World War II, and many of the old
buildings that escaped the bombs were eradicated in the 1950s and 1960s in both West and East. Much of this destruction was caused by overambitious architecture programs,
especially in order to build new residential or business quarters and main roads. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no
other city in the world offers Berlin's unusual mix of architecture, especially 20th century architecture. The city's tense and
unique recent history has left it with a distinctive array of sights.
Not much is left of the actual Berlin Wall. The East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke over the Spree
preserves a portion of the Wall. By looking at the architecture it is still possible to tell if one is in the former eastern or
western part of the city. In the eastern part, many Plattenbauten can be
found, reminders of Eastern Bloc ambitions to create complete residential areas with fixed ratios of shops, kindergartens and
schools. Another difference between former east and west is in the design of little red and green men on pedestrian crossing
lights (Ampelmännchen in German); the eastern versions received an opt-out during the standardisation of road traffic
signs after re-unification, and survived to become a popular icon in tourist products.
Historical sights in the city centre
Cold War and sightseeing in the former East Berlin
- The Palast der Republik, the old East German parliament
building. It is seen by some as ugly, former East Berliners remember with affection restaurants, shops, clubs, and the concerts
that took place there in the 1980s. Although it has some significance as a historical
tourist attraction, the German Parliament voted for its demolition, which will commence in 2005. The Palast der Republik is built
on the site of the Berlin City Palace, which was demolished in
1950 by the Communists. The Palace Square was renamed Marx-Engels-Platz at the same time.
- The Fernsehturm, the TV tower, the highest building in the city at 368 m
(1207 ft), and the second largest structure in Europe (after Moscow's Ostankino Tower). The Fernsehturm is
easily visible throughout most of the central districts of Berlin.
- Alexanderplatz, formerly East Berlin's major shopping center, and home to the Centrum-Warenhaus, which was the DDR's department store. It is now a
thoroughly Westernized shopping center.
- East Side Gallery a memorial for freedom based on the last
parts of the Berlin Wall
- Rotes Rathaus(the Red City Hall), historic town hall famous for its
distinctive red-brick architecture
- Rathaus Schöneberg with John-F.-Kennedy-Platz, whence John F. Kennedy made his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner!" speech.
- Checkpoint Charlie, remains and a museum about one of the
crossing points (albeit restricted to Allied forces) in the Berlin Wall. The
museum, which is a private venture, exhibits interesting material about people who devised ingenious plans to leave the East, but
is controversial in the city for its propagandistic Cold War didactics and publicity stunts that many consider tasteless.
Sights of modern Berlin
- Potsdamer Platz, an entire quarter built from scratch after
1995. The historic Potsdamer Platz was not rebuilt as it was divided by the Wall. A
must-see for people who like modern city planning.
- Hackescher Markt,
Spandauer Vorstadt and
Scheunenviertel, the home to fashionable culture, with countless
small clothing shops, clubs, bars, and galleries. This includes the New
Synagogue area in Oranienburger Straße (originally built in the 1860s in Moorish
style with a large golden dome, and reconstructed in 1993), and the Hackesche Höfe, a conglomeration of
several buildings around several courtyards, nicely reconstructed after 1996. This area was
a centre of Jewish culture before the Nazis.
Panoramic viewing points
- Berliner Funkturm— the only observation tower in the world
which stands on insulators! Open air observation deck which is ideal for photography!
- Berlin Television Tower [1] (http://www.berlinerfernsehturm.de/) — 368 metre high television tower, built in 1969
close to Alexanderplatz. The whole of the city can be viewed from its
204-metre high observation platform.
- Grunewaldturm [2] (http://www.grunewaldturm.de) —
this 59-metre high historic tower stands on a hill in the Grunewald forest close to the Wannsee lake.
- Französischer Dom
[3] (http://www.franzoesischer-dom-berlin.de) — located on Gendarmenmarkt in the very heart of the city, the platform of the cathedral offers unique
views.
- Bierpinsel — Literally "Beer Stick". 1970s style tower in the Berlin
Borough of Steglitz with a café & bar at the top giving
views over the south-west of Berlin.
- Berliner Dom [4] (http://www.berliner-dom.de) —
situated next to the Lustgarten
and the Berlin Cathedral which has a circular observation platform around the dome.
- Bell Tower at the Olympic Stadium [5] (http://www.glockenturm.de) — is
part of the Reichssportfeld complex, the tower offers a view of the Olympic Stadium and also of the Waldbühne.
- Siegessäule [6] (http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/cgi-bin/sehenswertes.pl?id=13353) — the
monument at the Großer Stern situated in the middle of the Tiergarten where it was relocated during 1938 / 1939
from its previous position in front of the Reichstag .
- Mueggelturm — A tower
giving panoramic views over the Mueggelsee lake.
Further interesting structures (not accessible to public)
Famous streets and boulevards
- Unter den Linden is the street that heads east from the
Brandenburg Gate. Many Classical buildings line the street. Part of Humboldt University is located there.
- Friedrichstraße, Berlin's legendary street of the "Golden
Twenties" which combines the tradition of the last century with modern architecture of today's Berlin.
- Kurfürstendamm (Ku'damm), with the
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser
Wilhelm Memorial Church), which lies right at the top end of Kurfürstendamm, on Breitscheidplatz (underground station
Kurfürstendamm). The church was bombed out in World War II and its ruins have been preserved in their damaged state. Also nearby
is the Zoologischer Garten, a zoo with the
largest number of species.
- The Straße des 17. Juni connects the Brandenburg Gate
in the East and Ernst-Reuter-Platz in the West, commemorating the uprisings in East Berlin of June 17, 1953.
It features the golden Siegessäule (Statue of Victory), which used to stand in front of the Reichstag.
- The Karl-Marx-Allee, a boulevard lined by monumental landmark
buildings designed in the Socialist Classicism of the Stalin era. It is located in
Friedrichshain and Mitte.
Education and science
Universities
Universities of applied sciences
Zoos
- Zoologischer Garten Berlin, Berlin's eldest
zoo located in the city center.
- Tierpark
Friedrichsfelde, founded by the GDR in a historic castle park in eastern Berlin.
The Arts and Culture
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 many houses in the city center of former East
Berlin (today the district Mitte) were partially destroyed. Many had not been rebuilt since World War II. Illegally occupied by
young people, they had become a fertile ground for all sorts of underground and counter-culture gatherings. It also was home to many nightclubs, including the world-famous Techno clubs Tresor, WMF,
Ufo and E-Werk.
The art scene in Berlin is extremely rich, and the city offers one of the most diverse and vibrant nightlife scenes in Europe.
Most Berliners take great pride in their city's reputation as one of the most socially progressive cities on the continent.
Berlin's annual Carnival of Cultures, a multi-ethnic street parade, and Chistopher Street Day celebrations, Central Europe's largest gay-lesbian pride event, are openly supported by the
city's government and are visited by millions of Berliners each year.*[19] (http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/english/unterwegs/e_uw_berlinprogramm_gay.html)**[20] (http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/english/zielgruppen/e_zg_gay_bezirke.php).
Despite the city's declining overall population and relatively high unemployment levels, a significant number of young Germans
and artists continue to settle in the city, and Berlin has established itself as the premeire center of youth and pop culture in
German-speaking Europe.
Signs of this expanding role were the 2003 announcement that the annual Popkomm, the world's largest music industry
convention, would move to Berlin after 15 years in Cologne. Shortly thereafter,
German MTV also decided
to move its headquarters and main studios from Munich to Berlin. Universal Music opened its European headquarters on the banks of the River Spree in an area known as the mediaspree (http://www.mediaspree.de) which is
planned to develop into one of Europe's leading centers of media-related industries.
Films
Berlin was the centre of the German Film Industry until 1945. There are many films which were set in or portray the special
"Berlin-Atmosphere" from different eras, among them are:-
Museums
- Museum for Post and Telecommunication
- Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), one of the
last buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- Old National
Gallery (Old National Gallery), 19th-century painting and sculpture[22] (http://www.smpk.de/ang/e/s.html)
- Jewish Museum Berlin
- Hamburger Bahnhof
(Museum for the Present - Berlin)
- Museum of European Cultures
- Berlin State
Gallery [23] (http://www.berlinischegalerie.de/en/71-1-1_0.htm)
- Bauhaus Museum [24] (http://www.bauhaus-archiv.de/english/index.htm)
- Broehan Museum [25] (http://www.broehan-museum.de/home1.htm)
- Deutsche Guggenheim Museum [26] (http://www.deutsche-bank-kunst.com/guggenheim/e/)
- German Film Museum
[27] (http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/english/veranstaltungen/e_ve_filmmuseum.html)
- Kaethe
Kollwitz Museum [28] (http://www.dhm.de/museen/kollwitz/english/home.htm)
- Museum of European Cultures [29] (http://www.museen-berlin.de/mek/e/s.html)
- Vitra Design
Museum [30] (http://www.design-museum.de/berlin.php)
- The
Berggruen Collection (Picasso and his Age) [31] (http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/shb/e/s.html)
- Berlin Picture
Gallery (Gemaeldegalerie) [32] (http://www.museen-berlin.de/gg/e/s.html)
- F.C. Flick
Collection [33] (http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/FCFC/hbflickausse.html)
- Museum of Natural History [34] (http://www.museum.hu-berlin.de/home.asp?lang=1)
- German Museum of Technology [35] (http://www.dtmb.de/index_en.html)
- Museum
of Medical History [36] (http://www.charite.de/kompakt/english/p8.00_frame.html)
- Berlin Wall Documentation Center [37] (http://www.berliner-mauer-dokumentationszentrum.de/index_e.html)
- Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin [38] (http://www.spsg.de/index.php?id=1&sessionLanguage=en)
Theaters
- Schaubühne [39] (http://www.schaubuehne.de)
- Volksbühne [40] (http://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de)
- Deutsches Theater
[41] (http://www.deutsches-theater.de)
- Berliner Ensemble
[42] (http://www.berliner-ensemble.de)
- Theater des
Westens [43] (http://www.theater-des-westens.de)
- Grips-Theater
- Maxim Gorki
Theater [44] (http://www.gorki.de)
- Renaissance
Theater
Opera houses
Dance clubs
Transport
Public transport
- U-Bahn, Metro subway system
- S-Bahn, mostly overground urban railway system
- Straßenbahn, a tram system mainly located in eastern Berlin
- Bus,
- Passenger Ferry
- All means of public transport, U- & S- Bahn, Trams, Buses and Ferries can be accessed with the same ticket.
- A map of the current Public Transport Network (http://www.bvg.de/images/sunetz_aktuell.pdf) (BVG)
Airports
Ports
- Westhafen
(Westport) - largest port in Berlin with an area of 173,000 square meters; transshipment of grain, pieced and heavy
goods.
- Südhafen
(Southport) - an area of about 103,000 m² for transshipment of pieced and heavy goods.
- Osthafen
(Eastport) - the area of 57,500 m² is still in use, but partly under urban redevelopment
- Hafen
Neukölln (Port Neukölln) - with only 19,000 m² the smalest port; transshipment of building materials.
Sports
Berlin hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Berlin will participate in hosting the FIFA Football World Cup in Germany in 2006.
Berlin will be hosting the 2009 athletics world championships.
Berlin is home to football team Hertha BSC Berlin, a high-flying team in the Bundesliga.
Quotes
External links
|
