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Berlin
A metropolis with a turbulent past. In the year 1232 the
trading settlement Cölln was granted the privileges of a
town. Berlin was founded between 1230 and 1240 by Brandenburgian
margraves. In 1709 the Prussian king Frederick I decreed the unification
of the independent cities of Berlin and Cölln with three
adjacent towns to form the capital city and royal residence of
Berlin. With the founding of the German Reich in 1871, Berlin
became the capital of Germany. In the year 1920, following the
incorporation of numerous surrounding communities, the city had
a population of 3.8 million; it was the largest industrial city
on the Continent and one of the world's intellectual and cultural
centers. Berlin was subsequently the heart of the National Socialist
dictatorship - but also of the resistance to the Hitler regime.
After the end of World War II the city was divided into four sectors
by the victorious powers, the U.S.A., Great Britain, France and
the Soviet Union. For decades it was the symbol of Germany's division
and a flashpoint of the Cold War between East and West. In 1948
the airlift sustained by the Western Allies, above all by the
U.S.A., enabled the people of Berlin (West) to survive an 11-month
Soviet blockade of the overland routes to Berlin. The city's partition
seemed to be cemented forever in August 1961 when the German Democratic
Republic (GDR), which had been founded in the eastern part of
the city, began to build a wall between the eastern and western
parts of Berlin. With his famous exclamation "Ich bin ein
Berliner” in front of Schöneberg Town Hall on 26 June
1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy underscored his support for
the city. Among Berlin's governing mayors have been individuals
whose role in shaping German postwar history has far transcended
the city's boundaries: Ernst Reuter, Willy Brandt and Richard
von Weizsäcker, to name but a few. In the wake of the peaceful
revolution in the GDR, the Wall fell on 9 November 1989.
On 3 October 1990 the unification of Germany was consummated in
Berlin with a state ceremony.
Berlin as a cultural metropolis. In its heydays Berlin
was a magnet for German and foreign artists and intellectuals.
Only a few of the most famous Germans can be mentioned here: Theodor
Fontane and Gerhard Hauptmann, later Bertolt Brecht, Arnold Zweig,
Kurt Tucholsky and Carl von Ossietzky. Here Alfred Döblin
wrote his big-city novel "Berlin Alexanderplatz”. The
"Berliner Secession” founded by Max Liebermann and Walter
Leistikow in 1898 drew painters such as Lovis Corinth and Max
Slevogt to the city. Max Pechstein, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, Franz Marc, the Swiss native Paul Klee and
the Russian Wassily Kandinsky worked and staged joint exhibitions
in Berlin, decisively influencing the new European avant-garde.
Käthe Kollwitz and Heinrich Zille revealed the darker sides
of the city as well. In the "golden twenties” these
morbid sides of life themselves became the subject of great art,
variously depicted by George Grosz, John Heartfield, Max Beckmann
and Otto Dix. Theater and cabaret were no less prolific. The architects
Walter Gropius, Hans Scharoun, Bruno Taut, Emil Fahrenkamp, Hans
Poelzig and Martin Wagner distinguished themselves through their
innovative buildings. The German premiere of radio took place
in 1923; 1931 witnessed the world's first television broadcast.
Until the beginning of the 1930s the city of Berlin was the center
of film artistry.
Today Berlin is striving to again live up to its former reputation.
The city boasts three opera houses (Deutsche Oper, Deutsche Staatsoper
Unter den Linden, Komische Oper), several major orchestras (including
the world-famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), dozens of theaters,
the Friedrichstadtpalast Revue Theater, and numerous internationally
renowned museums such as the National Gallery, the New National
Gallery, the Bode Museum, and the German Historical Museum in
the former Arsenal Unter den Linden. Competition in the newspaper
sector remains keen: Leading papers include "Die Welt”,
the "Berliner Morgenpost”, the "Berliner Zeitung”
and "Der Tagesspiegel”. The most spectacular public
art happening of the year 1995 was the wrapping of the Reichstag
by the American artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
Science and industry. Rudolf Virchow, Robert Koch, Emil
vom Behring, Max Planck and, later, Fritz Haber, Albert Einstein
and Karl Bosch - in Berlin scientists in every field found optimal
conditions for pursuing their work. The university situated in
the eastern part of the city is named after the von Humboldt brothers,
the scholar Wilhelm (1767-1835) and the naturalist and world traveler
Alexander (1769-1859). In the western part of the city are the
Free University founded in 1948 and the Technical University.
Berlin is the largest university city in Germany (147,000 students).
Roughly 250 non-university research institutions are located here
as well, including the Berlin Electron Storage Ring for Synchrotron
Radiation (BESSY), the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular
Medicine, the Konrad Zuse Centre for Information Technology and
the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
In the second half of the 19th century Berlin was Europe's largest
industrial center, the home of global corporations such as Siemens
and AEG. Today the city is undergoing a profound structural change;
major shifts are occurring in the labor market, a phenomenon largely
attributable to the massive changes in eastern Germany's industrial
sector. In the context of the capital city's development to fulfill
its new role, emphasis is being placed not only on traditional
industries but also - and increasingly - on the service sector:
business and legal consulting, financial services, software development,
marketing, advertising, engineering services, etc. The craft trades
are likewise experiencing a boom. Berlin is presently the scene
of the greatest building activity in Germany. Debis and Sony are
constructing spectacular office complexes on Potsdamer Platz.
The recently opened Friedrichstrasse is the ultimate shopping
center.
Berlin has always been worth a special trip. As an international conference center it ranks sixth in the world. The International Audio and Video Fair Berlin is the world's largest fair for consumer electronics; the Berlin Film Festival ranks alongside Cannes as Europe's most important film festival. Well over three million visitors come to Berlin every year, many of whom cite the city's wealth of cultural offerings as the most important reason for their trip.
The capital city settles into its new role. Since 3 October 1990 Berlin has once again been the German capital. The Federal President has performed his official duties from Berlin since January 1994, and the Federal Cabinet has resolved to move the seat of the Federal Government to Berlin by the year 2000. More than 800 architects from 44 countries participated in the urban design competition for the parliament and government district which was decided in the spring of 1993. The former Reichstag building is undergoing conversion to accommodate the plenary sessions of the German Bundestag. The year 1996 marks the transition from the planning phase to the construction phase.
For more information see: Berlin (only in German)