Berlin
From Open Encyclopedia
- This article is about the city in Germany. For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation).
| State and Service Flag | |
|---|---|
| Image:Flag of Berlin.svg | |
| Coat of arms | Map of Berlin in Germany |
| Image:Coat of arms Germany Berlin.png | Image:Germany Laender Berlin.png |
| Basic Information | |
| Area: | 891.69 km² (344.3 mi²) |
| Population: | 3,391,407 (June 2005) |
| Population density: | 3,811 residents/km² (9,870/mi²) |
| Elevation: | 34 m (111.5 ft) above sea level |
| Postal codes: | 10001-14199 |
| Area code: | 030 |
| Latitude and Longitude: | 52°31′N 13°24′E |
| License plate prefix: | B |
| Organisation: | 12 Bezirke (districts), 90 Stadtteile (subdistricts) |
| ISO 3166-2: | DE-BE |
| Website: | www.berlin.de |
| Politics | |
| Mayor: | Klaus Wowereit (SPD) |
| Governing political parties: | SPD and Left Party |
| Seat distribution in the State Parliament (141 seats total): | SPD 45 CDU 35 Left Party 33 FDP 12 B90/Grüne 14 |
| last election: | 21 October 2001 |
| next election: | 2006 |
| Parliamentary representation | |
| Votes in the Bundesrat: | 4 |
Berlin (help·info), IPA: [bɛɐˈliːn]], is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Germany and also its largest city. Politically, Berlin is also one of the 16 federal states of Germany.
Image:Berlin skyline 2-7-2003.JPG
Berlin is the political and cultural center of Germany and, due to its division into West Berlin and East Berlin from 1949 - 1989, one of the most diverse metropolises inside the European Union. Berlin is an important crossroads for the states of the expanding European Union, as well as the home of many of the national economic, cultural, and educational institutions of Germany. Some of the outstanding institutions of Berlin include universities, research faculties, theatres, and museums. Berlin has also gained an international reputation for its festivals, nightlife and contemporary architecture.
Berlin is located in northeastern Germany, on the Rivers Spree and Havel, completely surrounded by the German federal state of Brandenburg. Founded in the early 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the March of Brandenburg and, after 1701, capital of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1871, Berlin became capital of the German Empire and a focal point for the nation's history. Since the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, Berlin has been the official capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. Today, Berlin is also the seat of most of the executive and legislative branches of the German government.
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History
- Main article: History of Berlin
Early in the 13th century, the twin cities of Berlin and Cölln were founded as part of the German expansion into the formerly Slavic lands east of the River Elbe. Each of the twin cities was built on an island in the River Spree. Cölln lay on what is now known as the Spree Island (Spreeinsel), while the original Berlin lay across an arm of the Spree on an island to the northeast, where the medieval churches of St. Mary (Marienkirche) and St. Nicholas (Nikolaikirche) now stand. Another arm of the Spree, since filled in, separated the original Berlin from the mainland to the northeast.
The first written mention of the city of Cölln dates to 1237, and that of Berlin dates to 1244. 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, the larger of the pair. The name Berlin probably stems from the Slavic root berl (swamp, marshy ground).
In 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margravate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. Subsequent members of the Hohenzollern family ruled until 1918 in Berlin, first as margraves of Brandenburg, then as kings of Prussia, and finally as German emperors. The inhabitants of Berlin did not always welcome these changes.
In 1448 they rebelled in the “Berlin Indignation” against the construction of a new royal palace by Elector 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 Protestant.
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. Frederick William, known as the “Great Elector”, succeeded his father as ruler in 1640. He initiated a policy of promoting immigration and religious tolerance. Over the following decades, Berlin expanded greatly in area and population with the founding of the new suburbs of Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt, and Friedrichstadt, today the site of many government offices.
In 1671 50 Jewish families from Austria were given a home in Berlin. With the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Frederick William invited the French Huguenots to Brandenburg. More than 15,000 Huguenots came, of whom 6,000 settled in Berlin. Around 1700, 20 percent of Berlin's residents were French, and their cultural influence was great. Many other immigrants came from Bohemia, Poland, and Salzburg.
With coronation of Frederick I in 1701 as king of Prussia, Berlin became the capital of Prussia. On 1 January 1710, the cities of Berlin, Cölln, Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt, and Friedrichstadt were united as the “Royal Capital and Residence of Berlin.” However, 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.
At the end of World War I in 1918, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed in Berlin. In 1920, the Greater Berlin Act united dozens of suburban cities, villages, and estates around Berlin into a greatly expanded city. After this expansion, Berlin had a population of around 4 million.
After the seizure of power by the National Socialists (Nazis) in 1933, Berlin became the capital of the Third Reich. The Nazis used the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin for propaganda purposes. There were also plans to rebuild Berlin as “Germania, capital of the world.” However, these plans were put aside because of World War II.
During the war, large parts of Berlin were destroyed by bombs and street combat. After the occupation of the city by the Red Army and the German surrender in 1945, Berlin was divided into four sectors, analogous to the occupation zones into which Germany was divided. The sectors of the Western Allies (the United States, United Kingdom, and France) formed West Berlin, while the sector of the Soviet Union formed East Berlin.
For Berlin as a whole, all four allies retained shared oversight. However, the growing political differences between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union led the Soviet Union, which controlled the territory surrounding Berlin, to impose the Berlin Blockade, an economic blockade of West Berlin from 1948 to 1949. The Allies successfully overcame this blockade through the Berlin Airlift.
In 1949 the democratic Federal Republic of Germany was founded in West Germany, while the Marxist-Leninist German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed in East Germany. The founding of the two German states increased Cold War tensions. West Berlin was surrounded by the territory of the GDR. Due to Berlin's isolation and vulnerability, the Federal Republic established its provisional capital in Bonn. The GDR, however, proclaimed East Berlin, which included most of the historic centre, as its capital. The east-west conflict culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall around West Berlin by the GDR on 13 August 1961. West Berlin was now de facto a part of the Federal Republic of Germany, although with a unique legal status, while East Berlin was de facto a part of the GDR.
The eastern and western portions of Berlin were now completely separated. 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, the Four-Power Agreement on Berlin was signed. While the Soviet Union applied the oversight of the four powers only to West Berlin, the Western Allies emphasized in a 1975 note to the United Nations their position that four-power oversight applied to Berlin as a whole.
In 1989 pressure from the East German population brought a transition to democracy in the GDR, and Easterners gained free access across the Berlin Wall, which was quickly demolished. In 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 1991, the Bundestag (the lower house of the German parliament) decided, after a controversial public discussion, that the city should again be the seat of the German national government. Most branches of the German government relocated from Bonn to Berlin during the subsequent years. On 1 September 1999 the German parliament and government began their work in Berlin. Image:090 90.JPG
Political Berlin
The state
Image:Sitzverteilung Berliner Abgeordnetenhaus.png Berlin is the national capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, and was expanded to form Greater Berlin in 1920. Since German reunification on 3 October 1990 it has been one of the three city states, together with Hamburg and Bremen, among the present 16 German states or Bundesländer.
The city and state parliament is the House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus) with 141 seats. Berlin is governed by the Senate of Berlin (Senat von Berlin). The Senate of Berlin consists of the governing mayor (Regierender Bürgermeister) and up to eight senators holding ministerial portfolios. The governing mayor is both lord mayor of the city (Oberbürgermeister der Stadt) and prime minister of the federal state (Ministerpräsident des Bundeslandes) at the same time. The office of Berlin's governing mayor is in the Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall). Presently (January 2006), this office is held by Klaus Wowereit of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The city's government is based on a coalition between the SPD and Die Linke.PDS, a party formed partly from the former East German communist party. For earlier mayors, see the list of Mayors of Berlin.
Berlin's boroughs and localities
Image:Berlin.png Berlin is subdivided into 12 boroughs (Bezirke in German, also sometimes called districts in English). Each borough is subdivided into a number of localities (Ortsteil in German, also sometimes called subdistricts or neighbourhoods in English), which represent the traditional urbanised areas that inhabitants identify with. Some of these have been rearranged several times over the years. At present the city of Berlin consists of 95 such localities. The localities are often subdivided into a number of city neighbourhoods (usually called Kiez in German) representing small residential areas.
For a map and a list of the old and new borough names, see Boroughs of Berlin.
Each borough is governed by a borough council (Bezirksamt) consisting of ten town councillors (Stadträte) and a borough mayor (Bezirksbürgermeister). The borough council is elected by the borough parliament, the borough delegate assembly (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung). The boroughs of Berlin are not independent municipalities. The political power of the borough governments is fairly minimal and dependent on the Senate of Berlin. The borough mayors form the Council of Mayors (Rat der Bürgermeister), led by the city's governing mayor (Regierender Bürgermeister), which advises the Senate.
The localities have no government bodies of their own, even though most of the localities have historic roots in older municipalities that predate the formation of Greater Berlin on 1 October 1920. The subsequent position of locality representative (Ortsvorsteher) was discontinued in favor of borough mayors.
Population
Berlin has 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005) on a surface of 891.75 square kilometres (344.3 mi²), thus, the population density of the region amounts to 3,811 inhabitants per square kilometre (9,870/mi²). Berlin citizens' average age is 41.7 years (as of 2004). 450,900 inhabitants are foreigners who are citizens of 185 states (as of December 2004). Among them, approximately 36,000 citizens come from the nearest neighbouring country, Poland and 119,000 are Turkish - Berlin is the largest Turkish municipality in Europe outside of Turkey. According to official statistics, in 2004, 22.3% of the population were Protestants, 9.1% were Catholics, 6.2% were Muslims, and 0.4% were Jews.
Between approximately the 1890s and the mid-1920s, Berlin was the fourth-largest urban area in the world after New York, London, and Paris. Today, it is the sixth-largest urban area in the European Union, and approximately the 80th-largest urban area in the world.
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Education and science
Universities
- Freie Universität Berlin
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Technische Universität Berlin
- Charité (Medical Faculty of Freie and Humboldt-Universität)
- Universität der Künste
Colleges of applied sciences
- Alice-Salomon-Fachhochschule für Sozialarbeit/-pädagogik [1]
- Evangelische Fachhochschule [2]
- Katholische Fachhochschule [3]
- Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin
- Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft [4]
- Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler
- Technische Fachhochschule [5]
Zoos and botanical gardens
- Zoologischer Garten Berlin, Berlin's oldest zoo, located in the city center.
- Tierpark Friedrichsfelde, founded by the GDR in a historic castle park in eastern Berlin.
- Botanic Garden and Botanic Museum Berlin, one of the most important botanical gardens of the world and the largest in Europe.
Arts and culture
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 many buildings in the former city centre of East Berlin (today the district Mitte) were renovated. 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 was also home to many nightclubs, including Tacheles, Techno clubs Tresor, WMF, Ufo and E-Werk.
The art scene in Berlin is extremely rich and it is home to hundreds of art galleries. The city is host to the Art Forum annual international art fair. Berlin also offers one of the most diverse and vibrant nightlife scenes in Europe.
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.*[6]**[7]. Berlin is also well-known for the techno carnival "Loveparade", although this has not been held since 2003.
Despite the city's high unemployment levels, a significant number of young Germans and artists continue to settle in the city, and Berlin has established itself as the premiere centre of youth and pop culture in Europe.
Signs of this expanding role were the 2003 announcement that the annual Popkomm, Europe'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.
Film industry and films about Berlin
Berlin is the centre of the German film industry, partly due to the existence of the Babelsberg Studios and many important film and TV production companies like UFA, Senator Film, Goldkind etc. Many international movies and European co-productions have been filmed there. Berlin is also home of the European Film Academy, the German Film Academy and host of the Berlinale film festival. There are many films that were set in or portray the special "Berlin-Atmosphere" from different eras, among them are:
- Die Sinfonie der Großstadt - 1927 Documentary Type Film "Day in the life of Berlin"
- Berlin Alexanderplatz - 1920s Berlin
- M - Early 1930s Berlin
- The Testament of Dr. Mabuse - 1933 Berlin
- Germany, Year Zero - Shows the nightmarishly dilapidated remains of 1945 Berlin, post WWII.
- One, Two, Three - Cold War before the Wall 1961
- Funeral in Berlin 1966 Cold War Thriller - A bit dated, filmed in Berlin with some nice scenes in Kreuzberg
- Cabaret - Filmed in 1972, set in the early 1930s
- Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo - 1970s
- Linie 1 - 1988 Film of the 1986 Musical about U-Bahn Line 1 in West Berlin
- Run Lola Run - Filmed 1998 in post-reunification Berlin
- Good bye, Lenin! - Set in East Berlin in 1989
- Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) - A cult film about divided city by Wim Wenders from 1987
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch - A cult film and musical about a German singer-transvestite who escapes East Berlin in 1989. 2001.
- Der Untergang (Downfall) - 2004 German film portraying the final days of the Third Reich in Hitler's bunker.
- Sonnenallee - A teen comedy set in East Berlin in the 1970s.
Museums
- Archenhold Observatory Archenhold-Sternwarte [8]
- Museum Island with the Altes Museum, Pergamon Museum and Alte Nationalgalerie
- German Museum of Technology in Kreuzberg, located at the site of an old freight train hub
- Museum for Post and Telecommunication
- Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery), European art (mostly paintings) from the 13th to the 18th century [9]
- Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), one of the last buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), 19th-century painting and sculpture[10]
- Jewish Museum Berlin
- Hamburger Bahnhof (Museum for contemporary art)
- Museum of European Cultures
- Berlin State Gallery [11]
- Bauhaus Museum [12]
- Broehan Museum [13]
- Deutsche Guggenheim Museum [14]
- German Film Museum [15]
- Kaethe Kollwitz Museum [16]
- Museum of European Cultures [17]
- Vitra Design Museum [18]
- The Berggruen Collection (Picasso and his Age) [19]
- Museum of Natural History [20]
- German Museum of Technology [21]
- Museum of Medical History [22]
- Berlin Wall Documentation Center [23]
- Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin [24]
- Schwules Museum (Gay Museum) [25]
- Berlin open-air Gas Lamp Museum, adjacent to S-Bahnhof Tiergarten(see section on Street lighting)
- 'Berlin Underground' Society
- Undergroundtrain / Tube-Museum
Theatres
- Schaubühne [26]
- Volksbühne [27]
- Deutsches Theater [28]
- Berliner Ensemble [29]
- Theater des Westens [30]
- Grips-Theater
- Theater am Potsdamer Platz [31]
- Maxim Gorki Theater [32]
- Renaissance Theater
- Mehringhof Theater [33]
Opera houses
Sights
Tourist attractions
Image:Potsdamer Platz.JPG Image:Holocaust memorial sky.jpg 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 based in Berlin — the 1871 German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and now the reunified Germany — initiated ambitious construction programmes, 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 programmes, especially 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 Berlin Wall. The East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke ("Upper Turnpike Bridge") over the Spree preserves a portion of the Wall. Architectural styles still sometimes reveal whether 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 have survived to become a popular icon in tourist products. They are however starting to appear in western Berlin too.
Historical sights in the city centre
Image:Berlin-brandenburg-gate.jpg Image:Reichstag2.jpg Image:Berliner dom and spree.jpg
- The Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden, symbols of Berlin, Prussia, and now Germany. The Brandenburg Gate appears on German Euro coins.
- Reichstag building, the old and new seat of the German parliament, renovated by Sir Norman Foster. Features a glass dome in which you can walk around and watch the parliamentarians from above.
- Gendarmenmarkt, arguably the most beautiful square in Berlin, surrounded by two famous cathedrals and the concert hall.
- Berlin victory column, monument to Prussia's victories.
- The Berliner Dom, an historic cathedral. A large crypt houses the remains of the Prussian royal family.
- Cathedral of St. Hedwig (St.-Hedwigs-Kathedrale)
- Nikolaiviertel with the Nikolaikirche an historical city core, founded in the 13th century.
- Schloss Bellevue, now the residence of the German President
- Schloss Charlottenburg, the largest surviving historical palace in Berlin
- The Neptunbrunnen, a famous fountain in Berlin Mitte.
- Tiergarten is Berlin's largest park and a masterpiece of park design.
Cold War and sightseeing in the former East Berlin
Image:Berlin Neue Synagoge 2005.jpg
- The Palast der Republik ("Palace of the Republic"), the former East German parliament building and civic centre. It is seen by some as ugly, although 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 some years ago. Recently, it has been announced that the demolition of the Palace of the Republic will begin shortly, despite continuing minority opposition. (Deutsche Welle news article on 2006-01-07). 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 (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, and boasts one of the fastest lifts in Europe, at 45 metres per minute (148 ft/min)
- 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 centre, belonging to the Kaufhof chain.
- 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. Just to the West of Potsdamer Platz is the Kulturforum, which houses the Gemäldegalerie, and is flanked by the Neue Nationalgalerie and the Philharmonie.
- 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 up until the 1930s.
- Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a Holocaust memorial opened in May 2005.
Panoramic viewing points
Image:Berlin television tower.jpg Image:Berlinski Aleksandar plac.JPG
- Berliner Funkturm— the only observation tower in the world which stands on insulators. Its open-air observation deck is popular for photography.
- Berlin Television Tower — 368-m (1,207 ft) high television tower, built in 1969 close to Alexanderplatz. The entire city can be viewed from its 204-m (669 ft) high observation platform. Tallest building in Germany, second tallest in Europe.
- Grunewaldturm — this 59-m (194 ft) high historic tower stands on a hill in Grunewald forest close to Wannsee lake.
- Französischer Dom — located on Gendarmenmarkt in the very heart of the city, the platform of the cathedral offers unique views.
- Bierpinsel — literally "Beer Brush". 1970s style tower in the Berlin Borough of Steglitz with a café and bar at the top giving views over south-western Berlin.
- Restaurant of the Forum Hotel Berlin
- Berliner Dom — Protestant cathedral situated next to the Lustgarten, with a circular observation platform around the dome.
- Bell tower at the Olympic Stadium — part of the Reichssportfeld complex, the tower offers a view of the Olympic Stadium and also of the Waldbühne, an open-air stage.
- Siegessäule — the monument at the Großer Stern situated in the middle of the Tiergarten Park where it was relocated in 1938–39 from its previous position in front of the Reichstag.
- Müggelturm — a tower giving panoramic views over the Müggelsee lake.
- Reichstag building— the roof of the parliament building, crowned by a large glass cupola designed by Sir Norman Foster is open to the public giving an impressive view over the city, especially at night.
- Viktoriapark — the hilltop monument in this park in Kreuzberg provides a terrestrial viewpoint over many of the southern regions of the city.
Other interesting structures (not accessible to public)
Image:Berlin Oberbaumbruecke.jpg
- Fernmeldeturm Berlin (Berlin Telephone Tower)
- Richtfunkstelle Berlin-Frohnau
- Transmitter Berlin-Britz
- Radio mast Berlin-Scholzplatz
- Transmitter Berlin-Alley of Stallupone
- Radio mast Berlin-Olympiastadium
- Radar facility Berlin-Teufelsberg
- Berlin-Müggelberge TV Tower
- Power station Berlin-Wilmersdorf
- Power station Reutter
Famous streets and boulevards
Image:Berlin Market Tiergarten in Winter.jpg
- 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. Near by is the Ka-De-We Berlin's equivalent to London's Harrods. Also nearby is the Zoologischer Garten, a zoo with a large 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 17 June 1953. It features the golden Siegessäule (Statue of Victory), which used to stand in front of the Reichstag.
- The Karl-Marx-Allee (formerly Stalinalle), a boulevard lined by monumental landmark buildings designed in the Socialist Classicism of the Stalin era. It is located in Friedrichshain and Mitte.
Street lighting
Berlin is unique in that it still has around 43,800 gas lamp standards in working order, usually to be found on back streets and historically sensitive places. The first 1,800 lanterns were erected by the English Gas Company in 1826. Operation of the Gas lamps was taken over by the City Authorities in 1847. The first electric street lighting appeared around 1880. Between 1963 and 1982 replacement of the gas lamps in East Berlin was completed apart from a few remaining streets in Köpenick. In West Berlin the reverse was the situation, new styles of gas lamp standards being introduced as late as the 1950s. There was a debate in the late 1970´s on whether replacement with electric lighting should go ahead, but public opinion was against it. This debate was revived again in 2005, due to rising costs of gas, but no definite decision on replacement has been made. There is an open-air collection of working gas lamps in Tiergarten near to S-Bahnhof Tiergarten, which as well as displaying historic examples from Berlin and other German cities also has examples from other European cities. [34]
Transport
Public transport
- U-Bahn, Metro subway system
- S-Bahn, mostly overground urban railway system
- Straßenbahn, a tram system, mainly in eastern Berlin
- Bus
- Passenger Berlin Ferry
Notes:
- Almost all means of public transport - U- & S- Bahn, trams, buses and most ferries - can be accessed with the same ticket.
- There are useful online resources regarding getting around using the BVG like the route planner or a map of the current public transport network.
Long-distance railway stations
Berlin was, pre-1945, the hub of the central European railway network. World War Two and the political division of Germany had very negative effects on the railway network in Berlin. Today only two pre-1945 long-distance stations, Ostbahnhof and Zoologischer Garten, remain in service. In the early 1950s, in an effort by the East German government to isolate West Berlin, railway services were diverted away from termini in West Berlin . These stations became disused and were demolished during the 1950s and 1960s.
See also List of Berlin metro stations
Airports
- Tegel International Airport (TXL), to close after BBI starts operations
- Schönefeld International Airport (SXF), to be expanded and renamed Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) in 2011
- Tempelhof International Airport (THF), to close 2007
- Berlin Airports Website
Ports
- Westhafen (Westport) - largest port in Berlin with an area of 173,000 m² (42.75 acres): transshipment of grain, pieced and heavy goods.
- Südhafen (Southport) - an area of about 103,000 m² (25.5 acres) for transshipment of pieced and heavy goods.
- Osthafen (Eastport) - the area of 57,500 m² (14.2 acres) is still in use, but partly under urban redevelopment
- Hafen Neukölln (Port Neukölln) - with only 19,000 m² (4.7 acres) the smallest port; transshipment of building materials.
Power supply
The power supply of Berlin has some peculiarities. In World War II it was planned to supply the grid of Berlin over an HVDC-underground cable from Dessau power station . The construction of this facility was begun in 1943, but was abandoned (see Elbe-Project).
During the time of the division, the power grid of former West Berlin was cut off from the power grid of the surrounding countryside. Electricity supply was from thermal power stations in the city (Reuter, Wilmersdorf ,etc.). For buffering the load peaks, accumulators were installed in the 1980s in some of these power stations, which were connected by static inverters to the power grid and were loaded during times of low power consumption and unloaded during times of high consumption. In 1993 the power connections to the surrounding country, which were broken in 1951, were restored again. In the western districts of Berlin nearly all power lines are underground cables - only a 380 kV and a 110 kV-line, which run from Reuter power station to the urban motorway, are overhead lines. In Berlin there is the longest 380 kV three phase cable, the 380kV-crossing Berlin. It may be the most expensive power line in Germany (SEO).
Sport
- Berlin hosted the 1936 Olympics.
- Berlin will be one of the host cities for the 2006 World Cup, to be held in Germany.
- Berlin will be hosting the 2009 athletics world championships.
- Berlin is home to Hertha BSC Berlin, a football team in the Bundesliga.
- Berlin is home to Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe.
- Berlin is home to Türkiyemspor Berlin a soccer club formed by foreigners playing in Oberliga
Quotes concerning Berlin
(Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor, in a television interview, 2004)
" Ich bin ein Berliner."
(John F. Kennedy, President of the USA, 1963 while visiting Berlin)
"Ihr Völker der Welt ... schaut auf diese Stadt!" ("Peoples of the world ... look at this city!")
(Ernst Reuter, Governing Mayor, during the Berlin blockade, 1948)
"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!"
(Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987)
"Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin" ("I still keep a suitcase in Berlin")
(Marlene Dietrich, actress and singer born 1901 in Berlin-Schöneberg)
"Paris is always Paris and Berlin is never Berlin!"
(Jack Lang, French former culture minister, talking about how fast Berlin is changing, 2001)
"What could have possessed people to found a city in the middle of all this sand?"
(Stendhal, French writer who travelled extensively in Germany and elsewhere)
"Berlin is a city that never is, but is always in the process of becoming."
(Karl Scheffler, author of Berlin: Ein Stadtschicksal)
</center>
Twin Cities
See also
External links
Image:Wiktionary-logo-en.png [[wiktionary:Special:Search/{{{1|Berlin}}}|Dictionary definitions]] from Wiktionary
Image:Wikibooks-logo.svg [[wikibooks:Special:Search/{{{1|Berlin}}}|Textbooks]] from Wikibooks
Image:Wikiquote-logo.svg [[wikiquote:Special:Search/{{{1|Berlin}}}|Quotations]] from Wikiquote
Image:Wikisource-logo.jpg [[wikisource:Special:Search/{{{1|Berlin}}}|Source texts]] from Wikisource
Image:Commons-logo.svg [[commons:Special:Search/{{{1|Berlin}}}|Images and media]] from Commons
Image:Wikinews-logo.png [[wikinews:Special:Search/{{{1|Berlin}}}|News stories]] from Wikinews
[[wikitravel:{{{1|Berlin}}}|Travel guide to {{{1|Berlin}}}]] from Wikitravel
- Official Website
- Berlin Online Berlin's information web site
- Alt-Berlin - Extensive archive of historical maps of Berlin, from 1738 to the present day - in German and English
- Architecture of Berlin
- Berlin statistics - in German
- City Panoramas - Panoramic Views of Berlin's Highlights
- Comparison of historic layouts of the city
- Western Allies Berlin - History of the western allies in Berlin from 1945 to 1994
- Agreement to divide Berlin
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ang:Berlin
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bg:Берлин
bs:Berlin
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cs:Berlín
csb:Berlin
cy:Berlin
da:Berlin
de:Berlin
eo:Berlino
es:Berlín
et:Berliin
eu:Berlin
fa:برلین
fi:Berliini
fo:Berlin
fr:Berlin
ga:Beirlín
gd:Berlin
gl:Berlín - Berlin
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hr:Berlin
hu:Berlin
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ja:ベルリン
jv:Berlin
ka:ბერლინი
ko:베를린
ku:Berlîn
la:Berolinum
lb:Berlin
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lt:Berlynas
lv:Berlīne
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scn:Birlinu
sh:Berlin
simple:Berlin
sk:Berlín
sl:Berlin
sr:Берлин
sv:Berlin
ta:பெர்லின்
th:เบอร์ลิน
tr:Berlin
uk:Берлін
vi:Berlin
zh:柏林
