Berlin
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Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the capital of Germany. For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation).Berlin
— State of Germany —
Left to right: Berliner Fernsehturm and Skyline, Siegessäule, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, View over Spree river, and Brandenburger Tor
Flag
Coat of arms
Location within European Union and Germany
Coordinates: 52°30′2″N 13°23′56″ECoordinates: 52°30′2″N 13°23′56″E
Country Germany
Government
• Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD)
• Governing parties SPD / CDU
• Votes in Bundesrat 4 (of 69)
Area
• City 891.85 km2 (344.35 sq mi)
Elevation 34 m (112 ft)
Population (30 November 2011)[1]
• City 3,499,879
• Density 3,900/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
• Metro 4,429,847
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code(s) 10001–14199
Area code(s) 030
ISO 3166 code DE-BE
Vehicle registration B (for earlier signs see note)[2]
GDP/ Nominal € 94.7 billion (2010) [3]
NUTS Region DE3
Website berlin.de
Berlin ( /bɜrˈlɪn/; German pronunciation: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ( listen)) is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people,[1] Berlin is Germany's largest city and is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union.[4] Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 4.4 million residents from over 190 nations.[5] Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.[6]
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).[7] Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world.[8] After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989).[9] Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.[10][11]
Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media, and science.[12][13][14] Its economy is primarily based on the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, media corporations, and convention venues. Berlin also serves as a continental hub for air and rail transport,[15][16] and is a popular tourist destination.[17] Significant industries include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, electronics, traffic engineering, and renewable energy.
Berlin is home to renowned universities, research institutes, orchestras, museums, and celebrities, as well as host of many sporting events.[18] Its urban settings and historical legacy have made it a popular location for international film productions.[19] The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts, public transportation networks and a high quality of living.[20]Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 17th to 19th centuries
1.2 20th century
2 Geography
2.1 Climate
2.2 Cityscape
2.3 Architecture
3 Politics
3.1 City state
3.2 Boroughs
3.3 Sister cities
4 Economy
4.1 Companies
4.2 Tourism
4.3 Creative industries
5 Infrastructure
5.1 Transport
5.2 Energy
5.3 Health
6 Demographics
6.1 Religion
7 Education
7.1 Higher education
8 The arts and culture
8.1 Media
8.2 Nightlife and festivals
8.3 Gay life
8.4 Galleries and museums
8.5 Performing arts
8.6 Cuisine
8.7 Recreation
8.8 Sports
8.9 Quotations
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
12 External links
[edit]
History
Main article: History of Berlin
The origin of the name Berlin is unknown, but it may have its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of today's Berlin, and be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl- ("swamp").[21] Folk etymology connects it to the German Bär, a bear, and a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city.
Map of Berlin in 1688
The earliest evidence of settlements in the area of today's Berlin is a wooden beam dated from approximately 1192.[22] The first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920.[23] The central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document, and Berlin, across the Spree in what is now called the Nikolaiviertel, is referenced in a document from 1244.[22] The former is considered to be the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties and eventually merged in 1307 and came to be known as Berlin.
In 1435, Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440.[24] His successor, Frederick II Irontooth, established Berlin as capital of the margraviate, and subsequent members of the Hohenzollern family ruled until 1918 in Berlin, first as electors of Brandenburg, then as kings of Prussia, and eventually as German emperors. In 1448, citizens rebelled in the "Berlin Indignation" against the construction of a new royal palace by Frederick II Irontooth. This protest was not successful, however, and the citizenry lost many of its political and economic privileges. In 1451 Berlin became the royal residence of the Brandenburg electors, and Berlin had to give up its status as a free Hanseatic city. In 1539, the electors and the city officially became Lutheran.[25]
[edit]
17th to 19th centuries
Frederick the Great (1712–1786) was one of Europe's enlightened monarchs.
The Thirty Years' War between 1618 and 1648 devastated Berlin. One third of its houses were damaged or destroyed, and the city lost half of its population.[26] Frederick William, known as the "Great Elector", who had succeeded his father George William as ruler in 1640, initiated a policy of promoting immigration and religious tolerance. With the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Frederick William offered asylum to the French Huguenots. More than 15,000 Huguenots went to Brandenburg, of whom 6,000 settled in Berlin. By 1700, approximately 20 percent of Berlin's residents were French, and their cultural influence on the city was immense.[citation needed] Many other immigrants came from Bohemia, Poland, and Salzburg.
Berlin became the capital of the German Empire in 1871 and expanded rapidly in the following years. (Unter den Linden in 1900)
With the coronation of Frederick I in 1701 as king (in Königsberg), Berlin became the new capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (instead of Königsberg); this was a successful attempt to centralize the capital in the very outspread Prussian Kingdom, and it was the first time the city began to grow.[citation needed] In 1740, Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great (1740–1786), came to power. Under the rule of Frederick II Berlin became a center of the Enlightenment.[citation needed] Following France's victory in the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon Bonaparte marched into Berlin in 1806, but granted self-government to the city. In 1815 the city became part of the new Province of Brandenburg.
The Industrial Revolution transformed Berlin during the 19th century; the city's economy and population expanded dramatically, and it became the main rail hub and economic center of Germany.[citation needed] Additional suburbs soon developed and increased the area and population of Berlin. In 1861, outlying suburbs including Wedding, Moabit, and several others were incorporated into Berlin. In 1871, Berlin became capital of the newly founded German Empire. On 1 April 1881 it became a city district separate from Brandenburg.
[edit]
20th century
Berlin in ruins after World War II (Potsdamer Platz, 1945).
At the end of World War I in 1918, a republic was proclaimed in Berlin. In 1920, the Greater Berlin Act incorporated dozens of suburban cities, villages, and estates around Berlin into an expanded city. This new area encompassed Spandau and Charlottenburg in the west, as well as several other areas that are now major municipalities. After this expansion, Berlin had a population of around four million. During the Weimar era, Berlin became internationally renowned as a center of cultural transformation, at the heart of the Roaring Twenties.
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. Nazi rule destroyed Berlin's Jewish community, which had numbered 170,000 before 1933.[citation needed] After Kristallnacht in 1938, thousands of the city's Jews were imprisoned in the nearby Sachsenhausen concentration camp or, in early 1943, were shipped to death camps, such as Auschwitz. During World War II, large parts of Berlin were destroyed in the 1943–45 air raids and during the Battle of Berlin. Among the hundreds of thousands who died during the Battle for Berlin, an estimated 125,000 were civilians.[27] After the end of the war in Europe in 1945, Berlin received large numbers of refugees from the Eastern provinces. The victorious powers divided the city into four sectors, analogous to the occupation zones into which Germany was divided. The sectors of the Western Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom and France) formed West Berlin, while the Soviet sector formed East Berlin.[28]
The Berlin Wall in 1986, painted on the western side. People crossing the so-called "death strip" on the eastern side were at risk of being shot.
All four Allies shared administrative responsibilities for Berlin. However, in 1948, when the Western Allies extended the currency reform in the Western zones of Germany to the three western sectors of Berlin, the Soviet Union imposed a blockade on the access routes to and from West Berlin, which lay entirely inside Soviet-controlled territory. The Berlin airlift, conducted by the three western Allies, overcame this blockade by supplying food and other supplies to the city from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949.[29] In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in West Germany and eventually included all of the American, British, and French zones, excluding those three countries' zones in Berlin, while the Marxist-Leninist German Democratic Republic was proclaimed in East Germany. West Berlin officially remained an occupied city, but as a corpus separatum it politically was very closely aligned with Federal Republic of Germany despite Berlin's geographic location within East Germany. West Berlin issued its own postage stamps, which were often the same as West German postage stamps but with the additional word "Berlin" added. Airline service to West Berlin was granted only to American, British, and French airlines.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The founding of the two German states increased Cold War tensions. West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory and East Germany proclaimed East Berlin (described as "Berlin") as its capital, a move that was not recognized by the western powers. Although only half the size and population of West Berlin, East Berlin included most of the historic center of the city. The West German government, meanwhile, established itself provisionally in Bonn.[30]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the capital of Germany. For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation).Berlin
— State of Germany —
Left to right: Berliner Fernsehturm and Skyline, Siegessäule, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, View over Spree river, and Brandenburger Tor
Flag
Coat of arms
Location within European Union and Germany
Coordinates: 52°30′2″N 13°23′56″ECoordinates: 52°30′2″N 13°23′56″E
Country Germany
Government
• Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD)
• Governing parties SPD / CDU
• Votes in Bundesrat 4 (of 69)
Area
• City 891.85 km2 (344.35 sq mi)
Elevation 34 m (112 ft)
Population (30 November 2011)[1]
• City 3,499,879
• Density 3,900/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
• Metro 4,429,847
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code(s) 10001–14199
Area code(s) 030
ISO 3166 code DE-BE
Vehicle registration B (for earlier signs see note)[2]
GDP/ Nominal € 94.7 billion (2010) [3]
NUTS Region DE3
Website berlin.de
Berlin ( /bɜrˈlɪn/; German pronunciation: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ( listen)) is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people,[1] Berlin is Germany's largest city and is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union.[4] Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 4.4 million residents from over 190 nations.[5] Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.[6]
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).[7] Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world.[8] After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989).[9] Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.[10][11]
Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media, and science.[12][13][14] Its economy is primarily based on the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, media corporations, and convention venues. Berlin also serves as a continental hub for air and rail transport,[15][16] and is a popular tourist destination.[17] Significant industries include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, electronics, traffic engineering, and renewable energy.
Berlin is home to renowned universities, research institutes, orchestras, museums, and celebrities, as well as host of many sporting events.[18] Its urban settings and historical legacy have made it a popular location for international film productions.[19] The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts, public transportation networks and a high quality of living.[20]Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 17th to 19th centuries
1.2 20th century
2 Geography
2.1 Climate
2.2 Cityscape
2.3 Architecture
3 Politics
3.1 City state
3.2 Boroughs
3.3 Sister cities
4 Economy
4.1 Companies
4.2 Tourism
4.3 Creative industries
5 Infrastructure
5.1 Transport
5.2 Energy
5.3 Health
6 Demographics
6.1 Religion
7 Education
7.1 Higher education
8 The arts and culture
8.1 Media
8.2 Nightlife and festivals
8.3 Gay life
8.4 Galleries and museums
8.5 Performing arts
8.6 Cuisine
8.7 Recreation
8.8 Sports
8.9 Quotations
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
12 External links
[edit]
History
Main article: History of Berlin
The origin of the name Berlin is unknown, but it may have its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of today's Berlin, and be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl- ("swamp").[21] Folk etymology connects it to the German Bär, a bear, and a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city.
Map of Berlin in 1688
The earliest evidence of settlements in the area of today's Berlin is a wooden beam dated from approximately 1192.[22] The first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920.[23] The central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document, and Berlin, across the Spree in what is now called the Nikolaiviertel, is referenced in a document from 1244.[22] The former is considered to be the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties and eventually merged in 1307 and came to be known as Berlin.
In 1435, Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440.[24] His successor, Frederick II Irontooth, established Berlin as capital of the margraviate, and subsequent members of the Hohenzollern family ruled until 1918 in Berlin, first as electors of Brandenburg, then as kings of Prussia, and eventually as German emperors. In 1448, citizens rebelled in the "Berlin Indignation" against the construction of a new royal palace by Frederick II Irontooth. This protest was not successful, however, and the citizenry lost many of its political and economic privileges. In 1451 Berlin became the royal residence of the Brandenburg electors, and Berlin had to give up its status as a free Hanseatic city. In 1539, the electors and the city officially became Lutheran.[25]
[edit]
17th to 19th centuries
Frederick the Great (1712–1786) was one of Europe's enlightened monarchs.
The Thirty Years' War between 1618 and 1648 devastated Berlin. One third of its houses were damaged or destroyed, and the city lost half of its population.[26] Frederick William, known as the "Great Elector", who had succeeded his father George William as ruler in 1640, initiated a policy of promoting immigration and religious tolerance. With the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Frederick William offered asylum to the French Huguenots. More than 15,000 Huguenots went to Brandenburg, of whom 6,000 settled in Berlin. By 1700, approximately 20 percent of Berlin's residents were French, and their cultural influence on the city was immense.[citation needed] Many other immigrants came from Bohemia, Poland, and Salzburg.
Berlin became the capital of the German Empire in 1871 and expanded rapidly in the following years. (Unter den Linden in 1900)
With the coronation of Frederick I in 1701 as king (in Königsberg), Berlin became the new capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (instead of Königsberg); this was a successful attempt to centralize the capital in the very outspread Prussian Kingdom, and it was the first time the city began to grow.[citation needed] In 1740, Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great (1740–1786), came to power. Under the rule of Frederick II Berlin became a center of the Enlightenment.[citation needed] Following France's victory in the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon Bonaparte marched into Berlin in 1806, but granted self-government to the city. In 1815 the city became part of the new Province of Brandenburg.
The Industrial Revolution transformed Berlin during the 19th century; the city's economy and population expanded dramatically, and it became the main rail hub and economic center of Germany.[citation needed] Additional suburbs soon developed and increased the area and population of Berlin. In 1861, outlying suburbs including Wedding, Moabit, and several others were incorporated into Berlin. In 1871, Berlin became capital of the newly founded German Empire. On 1 April 1881 it became a city district separate from Brandenburg.
[edit]
20th century
Berlin in ruins after World War II (Potsdamer Platz, 1945).
At the end of World War I in 1918, a republic was proclaimed in Berlin. In 1920, the Greater Berlin Act incorporated dozens of suburban cities, villages, and estates around Berlin into an expanded city. This new area encompassed Spandau and Charlottenburg in the west, as well as several other areas that are now major municipalities. After this expansion, Berlin had a population of around four million. During the Weimar era, Berlin became internationally renowned as a center of cultural transformation, at the heart of the Roaring Twenties.
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. Nazi rule destroyed Berlin's Jewish community, which had numbered 170,000 before 1933.[citation needed] After Kristallnacht in 1938, thousands of the city's Jews were imprisoned in the nearby Sachsenhausen concentration camp or, in early 1943, were shipped to death camps, such as Auschwitz. During World War II, large parts of Berlin were destroyed in the 1943–45 air raids and during the Battle of Berlin. Among the hundreds of thousands who died during the Battle for Berlin, an estimated 125,000 were civilians.[27] After the end of the war in Europe in 1945, Berlin received large numbers of refugees from the Eastern provinces. The victorious powers divided the city into four sectors, analogous to the occupation zones into which Germany was divided. The sectors of the Western Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom and France) formed West Berlin, while the Soviet sector formed East Berlin.[28]
The Berlin Wall in 1986, painted on the western side. People crossing the so-called "death strip" on the eastern side were at risk of being shot.
All four Allies shared administrative responsibilities for Berlin. However, in 1948, when the Western Allies extended the currency reform in the Western zones of Germany to the three western sectors of Berlin, the Soviet Union imposed a blockade on the access routes to and from West Berlin, which lay entirely inside Soviet-controlled territory. The Berlin airlift, conducted by the three western Allies, overcame this blockade by supplying food and other supplies to the city from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949.[29] In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in West Germany and eventually included all of the American, British, and French zones, excluding those three countries' zones in Berlin, while the Marxist-Leninist German Democratic Republic was proclaimed in East Germany. West Berlin officially remained an occupied city, but as a corpus separatum it politically was very closely aligned with Federal Republic of Germany despite Berlin's geographic location within East Germany. West Berlin issued its own postage stamps, which were often the same as West German postage stamps but with the additional word "Berlin" added. Airline service to West Berlin was granted only to American, British, and French airlines.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The founding of the two German states increased Cold War tensions. West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory and East Germany proclaimed East Berlin (described as "Berlin") as its capital, a move that was not recognized by the western powers. Although only half the size and population of West Berlin, East Berlin included most of the historic center of the city. The West German government, meanwhile, established itself provisionally in Bonn.[30]
