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Berlin,
capital and largest city of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Administratively, Berlin also constitutes one of Germany’s
16 states. Berlin became the capital of Germany in 1871, when
the numerous independent kingdoms and principalities of
Germany united to form a single nation-state (see German
Unification (1871)). The city quickly developed into one of
Europe’s major industrial and cultural centers and became
the single most important city in Germany.
In 1990, following the collapse of Communism in the USSR and
East Germany, Germany was reunified, and a united Berlin was
declared its capital. The government gradually began moving
its offices from Bonn to Berlin, a process that was largely
completed by early 2000.
Berlin is located in the northern European lowlands on a
broad, sandy plain that surrounds the Spree River. The
city’s highest hill, which rises 120 m (394 ft) above sea
level, consists of rubble collected after World War II. Berlin
lies so far north that it gets dark by mid-afternoon in
December but stays light until almost 10 pm in June. High
temperatures average 23ºC (74ºF) in July and 2ºC (35ºF) in
January. Precipitation averages 590 mm (23 in) a year.
Modern Berlin covers 883 sq km (341 sq mi). In 1920 the old
city merged with 8 towns, nearly 60 villages, and a number of
surrounding farms and estates to form the current city
boundaries. Berlin’s city limits encompass the entire
metropolitan area and include large areas of undeveloped land.
Forests and farmlands cover nearly one-third of the city. From
reunification until 2001, the city was divided into 23
boroughs. In an effort to make urban government more
efficient, an administrative reform that took effect in 2001
reduced the number of boroughs to 12.
At the heart of Berlin lies the medieval core of the city,
located along the western bank of the Spree River. To the west
of the medieval city is a formal grid of streets laid out on
either side of Unter den Linden, a wide central avenue
stretching from east to west and flanked with double rows of
linden trees. Before the postwar division of Berlin, this
area, called the Mitte (city center), served as the
administrative and financial center of Berlin and contained
the main banks, publishing houses, large stores, the
university, and government buildings. Well-known streets
crossing Unter den Linden are Friedrichstrasse and
Wilhelmstrasse. The former royal park known as the Tiergarten
occupies the land to the west of the Mitte district.
Gradually the city’s residential and industrial areas grew
around the city center. In the mid-19th century a dense mass
of tenements was erected to the north, east, and south of the
central Mitte district. Known as Mietskasernen (rent
barracks), these buildings were home to members of the working
class who labored in nearby industrial plants. In contrast,
aristocrats and members of the middle class lived in the
peripheral communities of that time (Dahlem, Grunewald, Köpenick).
Prior to World War II, Berlin contained many imposing
buildings, many of them built after 1871, when Berlin became
the German national capital. Much of old Berlin was devastated
during World War II by Allied bombing raids and by fierce
house-to-house fighting that occurred when Soviet troops
captured the city in 1945 at the end of the war. Wartime
destruction left the historic core of the city standing amidst
26 sq km (10 sq mi) of rubble.
The victorious Allies faced a daunting task in 1945. Berlin
had lost almost three-quarters of its 1.5 million residential
units. During the first two months of occupation, when the
USSR held full sway over all of Berlin, the Soviet Army also
dismantled and removed 67 percent of Berlin’s industrial
capacity.
After the war, the boundary between East and West Berlin was
drawn through the heart of the city. In 1961 the East German
government encircled West Berlin with a fortified wall that
traced the boundary. This wall was known as the Berlin Wall.
In the postwar redevelopment period, both East and West Berlin
turned their backs on the wall and the area on either side of
it, which remained a partially abandoned zone.
For several years after 1945, East Germany paid war
reparations to the USSR, thereby slowing its economic
redevelopment considerably. When funds became available, East
German leaders opted to focus on building housing for workers.
Postwar housing construction in East Berlin often took the
form of prefabricated high-rise apartment blocks that
surrounded a central area containing schools, playgrounds, and
shops. The largest of these, such as Marzahn on the eastern
fringe of the city, housed about 100,000 people.
Before reunification in 1990, the East German government
restored some of the historic buildings on Unter den Linden,
including the classical State Opera House and Saint Hedwig’s
Cathedral, both built in the mid-1700s. The East German
government also restored the neoclassical Brandenburg Gate, an
18th-century city gateway at the western end of Unter den
Linden that has become an international symbol of the city.
As Berlin became a focus of the Cold War during the 1940s,
West Berlin’s Allied protectors strove to keep the city
alive. West Germany gave tax breaks to West German firms that
established or maintained businesses in West Berlin or bought
goods produced there, and the Western allies provided massive
economic assistance. During the Cold War years, West Berlin
rebuilt its infrastructure and residential areas, expanded its
subway system, and constructed a major international airport.
The rebuilding of West Berlin was particularly dramatic in the
1960s, when the West German government and its allies made an
effort to make the city a showcase for the benefits of
capitalism. A new central business district was developed
southwest of Tiergarten along the Kurfüstendamm and other
nearby streets. Department stores, sidewalk cafes, throngs of
people, and office towers brilliantly lit at night by neon
signs made this district the equal of any other modern city
center in the Western world.
Today the borough of Mitte again forms the heart of the
unified city. Following the administrative reform of 2001,
Mitte was enlarged to include the former central boroughs of
Wedding and Tiergarten. Other important central areas include
Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, now united as the
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, and Prenzlauer Berg, now
incorporated as a part of the Pankow borough.
Tiergarten contains a large wooded park, a zoo, and a variety
of public monuments as well as the large, modern Congress Hall
and the Reichstag building, which was built from 1884 to 1894.
The Reichstag and the surrounding area have undergone
renovation to accommodate the Bundestag (the lower house of
Germany’s parliament) and new offices of the federal
government. Near Tiergarten is the Kulturforum complex,
including the Museum of Applied Arts, and the Bauhaus Archives
and Museum, which documents the modernist Bauhaus school of
architecture and design that flourished from 1919 to 1933. A
museum complex lines the south edge of Tiergarten.
West of the city center, in the contemporary borough of
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, is the Kurfüstendamm, a boulevard
that became the commercial center of West Berlin after the end
of World War II. The ruined tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Memorial Church, which was built in the 1890s and destroyed in
World War II, stands at the east end of the Kurfüstendamm.
The memorial serves as a reminder of the devastation of war.
Near Kurfüstendamm is Tauentzienstrasse, a prominent shopping
area and site of the Europa Center, which houses a 22-story
complex of restaurants, shops, offices, and cinemas.
Kreuzberg, now a part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough,
located directly south of the Mitte, is a residential area
known for its large Turkish immigrant community and its
concentration of younger residents. To the west of Kreuzberg
and south of Tiergarten is Schöneberg, a largely middle-class
residential neighborhood. This neighborhood is now part of the
Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough.
A half-mile north of the Unter den Linden is the Oranienburger
Strasse, the heart of prewar Berlin’s Jewish district.
Revitalization of the area includes the restoration of the New
Synagogue, built in 1866. Gangs of Nazis badly damaged the
synagogue on November 9, 1938, when they organized a night of
anti-Jewish rioting known as Kristallnacht (German for
“Night of Broken Glass”). The synagogue is now a center
for the study and preservation of Jewish culture. Berlin’s
oldest Jewish cemetery is nearby.
To the east of the city center, the Friedrichshain
neighborhood contains largely residential sections in its
northern portion. One of Friedrichshain’s major streets,
Karl-Marx-Allee, is lined by an imposing series of high-rise
residential buildings constructed during the 1950s in an
ornate monumental style of architecture popular in the USSR.
The southern part of Friedrichshain contains storage yards for
manufactured goods and industrial products.
At the edge of Friedrichshain, next to the city center along
the eastern bank of the Spree, is Alexanderplatz, a large
square with restaurants and stores. Prior to unification,
Alexanderplatz was the cultural center of East Berlin. Its
most prominent feature is the Fernsehturm, a 365-m (1,198-ft)
television tower topped by a popular revolving café.
Berlin’s tallest building, the Fernsehturm was built during
the 1960s in a futuristic style and has become a popular
stopping point for tourists. Near the square are the
Gothic-style Marienkirche (Church of Saint Mary) and the
19th-century red brick Rathaus (city hall).
To the north of the city center lie two working class
neighborhoods: Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg. Wedding is an
industrial center, while Prenzlauer Berg, which lies just east
of the former Berlin Wall, houses workers as well as a growing
community of artists and students. Even before unification,
Prenzlauer Berg was a gathering point for artists and
nonconformists dissatisfied with East German politics and
society. Bullet holes from the war still scar the walls of the
district’s aging tenement buildings, many of which are in a
state of disrepair and neglect.
In the west and southwestern portions of the city, the
landscape becomes more open, with grasslands, parks, and lakes
dominating the scenery. Major natural features in this region
include the extensive Grunewald forest and the Havel lakes,
whose shores include a kilometer-long stretch of sandy beach.
The Grunewald forest, which covers 32 sq km (12 sq mi) in
southwestern Berlin, is a major recreational area for
Berliners seeking relief from the crowded central city. North
of the Grunewald are the residential neighborhoods of
Charlottenberg and Spandau. Founded in the 13th century as an
independent town, Spandau is best known as the site of a
prison that housed Nazi war criminals. Its medieval streets
remained relatively undamaged by World War II bombings.
Berlin has been a center of scientific research and theory,
attracting luminaries such as Swiss physicist Albert Einstein
and German physicist Werner Heisenberg. The Humboldt
University of Berlin, formerly the University of Berlin
(1810), has been the site of important scientific research,
and its faculty has included more than 25 Nobel Prize winners.
A highly regarded teaching hospital, the Charitè, was founded
in Berlin in 1727. Other institutions of higher education
include the Technical University of Berlin and the Free
University of Berlin, as well as scientific research
institutes such as the Max Planck Society and Sciences Center
Berlin.
The German State Library, founded in 1661, is on Unter den
Linden. It contains nearly 7 million books as well as
collections of maps, musical scores, records, and paintings.
Located several blocks south of Tiergarten on
Potsdamerstrasse, the National Library contains many of the
prewar holdings from the historic Prussian State Library.
Berlin has also been home to many important artists,
musicians, and architects. Early architectural landmarks in
Berlin include the Gothic Church of Saint Nicholas, which was
built in the late 14th to early 15th century, and the
Charlottenburg summer palace, which houses the Museum of
Decorative Arts. In the entrance court to Charlottenburg
Palace stands a famous equestrian statue of the 17th-century
Great Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William.
Internationally influential architects who have worked in
Berlin include 19th-century neoclassical architect Karl
Friedrich Schinkel and 20th-century architect Walter Gropius,
the founder of the Bauhaus school of architecture.
An exhibition on the history of Germany is housed in the
baroque Zeughaus, one of Berlin’s finest buildings on the
Unter den Linden, designed by German sculptor Andreas Schlüter
and built from 1695 to 1706. Just north of Unter den Linden,
the Museum Island contains some of the world’s most
important art collections. The Pergamon Museum has excellent
displays of Greco-Roman and Asian art. The Bode Museum
contains fine examples of ancient Egyptian and Byzantine art.
The National Gallery exhibits paintings and sculpture from the
18th to the early 20th centuries.
Berlin is also home to another group of famous institutions,
including the Painting Gallery, which displays European
painting from the 13th to 16th centuries, and the Staatliche
Museum, home to the famous 14th-century-bc painted limestone
bust of Egyptian queen Nefertiti. A new cultural quarter,
located south of Tiergarten, contains the New National
Gallery, which houses part of Berlin’s collection of
20th-century Western art.
Musical events take place at the State Opera House, German
Opera Berlin, Komische Opera, and Schauspielhaus, a concert
hall. Among the city’s many theaters, two have received
worldwide accord: the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz and the
Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, which is still home to the
Berliner Ensemble, a theatrical group founded by playwright
Bertolt Brecht in 1954. Located south of Tiergarten is the
Philharmonie Concert Hall, a striking asymmetrical structure
that serves as the home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
The city is the site of an annual International Film Festival
and JazzFest Berlin.
Population ca. 3.500.000
"Berlin," Microsoft® Encarta®
Online Encyclopedia 2002
http://encarta.msn.co.uk © 1997-2002 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
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