Berlin is the capital city of Germany, and is one of the sixteen states of Germany. It has a population of 3.4 million people,[1] and is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union.[3] Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, comprising 5 million people from over 190 nations.[4] Geographically embedded in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's territory is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.[5] First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was successively 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).[6] Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world.[7] After World War II, the city was divided; East Berlin became the capital of East Germany while West Berlin became a de facto West German exclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961-1989).[8] Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of all Germany hosting 147 foreign embassies.[9][10] Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media, and science.[11][12][13][14] Its economy is primarily based on the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, media corporations, congress and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail transport,[15][16] and is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the EU.[17] Significant industries include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, optoelectronics, traffic engineering, and renewable energy. The metropolis is home to renowned universities, research institutes, sporting events, orchestras, museums and personalities.[18] The urban and historical legacy has made it a popular setting for international film productions.[19] The city is recognized for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts, public transportation networks and a high quality of living.[20] Berlin has evolved into a global focal point for young individuals and artists attracted by a liberal lifestyle and modern zeitgeist.[21]
History The name Berlin is of unknown origin, but may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl- "swamp".[22] The earliest evidence of settlements in today's Berlin central areas is a wooden beam dated from approximately 1192.[23] The first written mention of towns in the area of present-day Berlin dates from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197, and Koepenick in 1209, though these areas did not join Berlin until 1920.[24] The central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Coelln 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.[23] The former is considered to be the "founding date". From the beginning, the two cities formed an economic and social unit. In 1307, the two cities were united politically. Over time, the twin cities came to be known simply as Berlin. In 1435, Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440.[25] 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 finally 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
17th to 19th centuries The Thirty Years' War between 1618 and 1648 had devastating consequences for Berlin. A third of the houses were damaged and the city lost half of its population.[27] 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. Many other immigrants came from Bohemia, Poland, and Salzburg. With the coronation of Frederick I in 1701 as king (in Koenigsberg), Berlin became the new capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (instead of Koenigsberg); 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. In 1740 Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great (1740-1786), came to power. Berlin became, under the rule of the philosophically oriented Frederick II, a center of the Enlightenment. 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. 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.
20th century 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 (Machtergreifung), Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. Nazi rule destroyed Berlin's Jewish community, which had numbered 170,000 before 1933. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, thousands of the city's German Jews were imprisoned in the nearby Sachsenhausen concentration camp or, in early 1943, were shipped to death camps, such as Auschwitz. During the Second World War, 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.[28] 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.[29] All four allies retained shared responsibility 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 allies successfully overcame the blockade by the Berlin airlift, which flew in food and other supplies to the city from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949.[30] 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 for all practical purposes, it was assimilated to the Federal Republic of Germany without actually being a part of it. 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. East Germany, however, proclaimed East Berlin (which it described only as "Berlin") as its capital, a move that was not recognized by the Western powers. Although half the size and population of West Berlin, it included most of the historic center of the city. The West German government, meanwhile, established itself provisionally in Bonn.[31] The tensions between east and west culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin and other barriers around West Berlin by East Germany on 13 August 1961 and were exacerbated by a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961. West Berlin was now de facto a part of West Germany with a unique legal status, while East Berlin was de facto a part of East Germany. Berlin was completely divided. It was possible for Westerners to pass from one to the other only through strictly controlled checkpoints. For most Easterners, travel to West Berlin or West Germany was no longer possible. In 1971, a Four-Power agreement guaranteed access across East Germany to West Berlin and ended the potential for harassment or closure of the routes.[32] In 1989, pressure from the East German population broke free across the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, which was subsequently mostly demolished. Not much is left of it today; the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbruecke over the Spree preserves a portion of the Wall. Democracy and market economy changed East Germany and East Berlin. On 3 October 1990 the two parts of Germany were reunified as the Federal Republic of Germany, and Berlin became the German capital according to the unification treaty. In June 1991 the German Parliament, the Bundestag, voted to move the (West) German capital back from Bonn to Berlin. In 1999, the German parliament and government began their work in Berlin.
Geography Berlin is located in eastern Germany, about 70 kilometers (43 mi) west of the border with Poland in an area with marshy terrain, and is surrounded by the federal state of Brandenburg. The Berlin-Warsaw Urstromtal (ice age melt water flow), between the low Barnim plateau to the north and the Teltow plateau to the south, was formed by water flowing from melting ice sheets at the end of the last ice age. The Spree follows this valley now. In Spandau, Berlin's westernmost borough, the Spree meets the river Havel, which flows from north to south through western Berlin. The course of the Havel is more like a chain of lakes, the largest being the Tegeler See and Grosser Wannsee. A series of lakes also feeds into the upper Spree, which flows through the Grosser Mueggelsee in eastern Berlin.[33] Substantial parts of present-day Berlin extend onto the low plateaus on both sides of the Spree Valley. Large parts of the boroughs Reinickendorf and Pankow lie on the Barnim plateau, while most of the boroughs Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Tempelhof-Schoeneberg, and Neukoelln lie on the Teltow plateau. The borough of Spandau lies partly within the Berlin Urstromtal and partly on the Nauen Plain, which stretches to the west of Berlin. The highest elevations in Berlin are the Teufelsberg and the Mueggelberge. Both hills have an elevation of about 115 metres (377 ft). The Teufelsberg is in fact an artificial pile of rubble from the ruins of World War II.
Climate Berlin has a humid continental climate according to the Koeppen climate classification system. The city features a temperate climate. Summers are warm with average high temperatures of 22-25 C (72-77 F) and lows of 12-14 C (54-57 F). Winters are cold with average high temperatures of 4 C (39 F) and lows of -2 to 0 C (28 to 32 F). Spring and autumn are generally chilly to mild. Berlin's built-up area creates a microclimate, with heat stored by the city's buildings. Temperatures can be 4 C (7 F) higher in the city than in the surrounding areas.[34] Annual precipitation is 570 millimeters (22 in) with moderate rainfall throughout the year. Light snowfall mainly occurs from December through March, but snow cover does not usually remain for long. The recent winter of 2009/2010 was an exception as there was a permanent snow cover from late December till early March.[35]