Amazon International Site
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Amazon.fr Amazon.de
From 1961 until 1989 a concrete wall prohibited the residents of Berlin, Germany's largest city and historic capital, from passing unrestricted between the city's eastern and western sections. For more than four decades Berlin, though well within East Germany (the German Democratic Republic), belonged to two different countries. West Berlin, which had about two thirds of the people and 54 percent of the land area, functioned in most ways as a detached part of West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). East Berlin served as East Germany's capital city. When East and West Germany united on Oct. 3, 1990, a reunited Berlin was reinstated as Germany's capital city, though many government offices remained in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. Berlin lies in the historical region of Brandenburg about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the Polish border and 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the Baltic Sea. The Havel and Spree rivers and a network of canals connect the city by water with the Baltic Sea and with most European inland ports. A chain of lakes along both rivers, within the city boundaries, provides Berlin with an extensive waterfront. The Berlin of the late 20th century was built on the ruins left by World War II. Not only was the city rebuilt, but its very character changed. While the Berlin that was destroyed in 1943-45 was a single unified city, the one that arose to replace it was divided by hostilities engendered by the Cold War. Until 1990 West Berlin, under United States, British, and French occupation, was separated from East Berlin, under Soviet occupation. The Berlin Wall was begun in 1961 by East German authorities to prevent citizens from crossing to the West. The 103-mile (166-kilometer) wall, which encircled West Berlin, was made of concrete, averaged 12 feet (4 meters) high, and was painted white to highlight any person who tried to escape to the West by climbing over it. On Nov. 9, 1989, East Germany ended restrictions on travel and immigration to the West and opened passageways through the Berlin Wall and its border with West Germany. As many as 2,000 East Germans passed each day into West Germany at various crossings in the wall. In East Germany the mass exodus of skilled workers accelerated a growing labor shortage and threatened to devastate the economy overall. In West Germany the result was staggering unemployment figures as the country's housing and employment sectors were under great strain to accommodate the additional people. The center (Mitte) of Berlin is the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's triumphal arch. For almost 30 years it led nowhere, since it stood only a few feet from the wall. Thousands of East Berliners passed through the gate when it opened on Dec. 22, 1989. In front of the gate stretches the historic Unter den Linden, a treelined street almost 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) in length. The 18th- and 19th-century buildings that line it, bombed in World War II, have largely been restored. They include the Staatsoper (State Opera House), the Neue Wache (New Guard House), Humboldt University, and a cathedral. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church stands at one end of the Kurfurstendamm, a street known to Berliners as Ku'damm for short. Nearby is the giant, modern Europa Center, with restaurants, galleries, and sports facilities. Cafes and shops line the Kurfurstendamm. Just to the north is the Tiergarten, or zoo. Near the northern end of the Tiergarten is the Reichstag (parliament) building. Built between 1884 and 1894 and burned in 1933, it has been restored as a museum. Off the Kurfurstendamm, tourists can find the Charlottenburg district, which covers 12 square miles (31 square kilometers) of the northwest corner of Berlin's center. A monument to old Prussia, the Charlottenburg Gate is flanked by statues of Frederick I, the first Prussian king, and his wife, Sophie-Charlotte, for whom the district is named. The old Charlottenburg Castle is also a popular tourist attraction. Modern apartment buildings and shopping complexes stand side by side with restored older buildings throughout Berlin. While Berlin was still divided, whole new districts of apartment buildings were created in West Berlin in the Markisches Viertel in the north, Falkenhagener Feld in the west, and Gropiusstadt in the south. The International Congress Center was opened in 1979 to accommodate large meetings and conventions. A residential complex for 100,000 people was constructed in the 1980s in Marzahn, a subdivision at the eastern edge of the city. A television tower rises just behind the rebuilt 13th-century Marienkirche, Berlin's oldest surviving church. Beyond it is the modern Alexanderplatz, a shopping and gathering place where East Berlin's annual May Day festivities were once held. Near the restored government buildings on the Unter den Linden is the Palace of the Republic. Completed in 1976, it was the site of many political events while East Berlin was under Communist rule. More than half of the city's land area is devoted to parks, forests, lakes, and the farms that provide much of its food. A forest of pine and birch trees, the Grunewald, covers a large area of southwestern Berlin. Woodlands provide rural settings for a castle on Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel) and the Grunewald Hunting Lodge.
World War II left Berlin with only a fraction of its previous population: 2.8 million, compared with 4.3 million before the war. Women greatly outnumbered men, and older people made up a large proportion of the population. These imbalances of sex and age gradually diminished, but they continued to affect the life of the city for several decades. New migrants into the city included Turks and other eastern Mediterranean people, who helped ease the postwar labor shortage. As a result of this influx, about 8 percent of the population of Berlin is non-German, the largest percentage of which is Turkish. The construction of the Berlin Wall separated many Berliners from relatives, and visiting back and forth was difficult through the 1960s. After 1971 it became easier for West Berliners to pay brief visits to the East, but East Berliners were rarely permitted to cross into the West until the late 1980s. With the opening of the wall in November 1989, however, all restrictions on visiting were lifted. During the division of the city, the two governments cooperated in various practical ways. Sewage from West Berlin was pumped into East Germany for treatment, and garbage from West Berlin was dumped outside the city walls. West Berlin paid East Germany fees for these services. Berliners can travel to other German cities by road, rail, air, or water. Berlin's expressway system is part of a national superhighway network. Tegel Airport, opened in 1975, can accommodate as many as 5 million passengers a year. The older, smaller Tempelhof Airport is used primarily for military flights. For urban transportation the bus is the mainstay, though Berlin also has streetcar service. In addition there is an elevated railway and an extensive subway system. The world's first electric railway opened here in 1879. During the 28 years that the wall restricted passage to the West, thousands of East Berliners tried to escape to the West by tunneling under the wall or by climbing over it. Nearly 200 persons were killed in their attempts to reach freedom. After months of demonstrations pressing for reforms in their society, East Berliners staged a pro-democracy demonstration in November 1989. The wall was opened later that month, and in the first week 3 million Easterners crossed to visit the West.
Berlin has long been a center of learning and the arts. Most of old Berlin's great theaters, museums, and other cultural institutions are still in operation and are very popular. Operatic productions are performed in the restored State Opera House. The Academy of Sciences (founded by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz) dates from 1700, the Museum of German History from 1830, and the Berlin City Museum (with exhibits on local history) from 1874. Berlin is also the home of Humboldt University (founded in 1810) and a large teaching hospital, the Charite. West Berlin, cut off for years from many of the city's traditional institutions, built new ones. The Free University was established in 1948. A new opera house opened in 1961, followed by a new Philharmonic Hall, Academy of Arts, National Library, and National Gallery. Expressionist works of art are displayed at the Brucke Museum, opened in 1967. Other museums are in Dahlem (near the Free University) and at the restored Charlottenburg Palace. The collections of the old national library were divided between East and West, with more than 5 million volumes in East Berlin and nearly 2 million of the original collection (plus newer acquisitions) in West Berlin. Technical schools and colleges serve students from all over Germany.
Reunited Berlin is one of Germany's industrial centers. Electrical engineering, electronics, mechanical engineering, and chemical industries predominate. Siemens electrical products, BMW motorcycles, and Ford automobiles are assembled in Berlin. Food processing and textiles are vital industries. Berlin has consisted of 20 boroughs since 1920, when a number of separate communities were combined into Greater Berlin. After 1948 twelve of the boroughs made up West Berlin, and the other eight boroughs formed East Berlin. Upon reunification in 1990 Berlin became one of the 16 German Lander (states) as well as the national capital. (Bonn was to continue for an undetermined time as seat of the federal government.) As a state Berlin gained voting rights in the Bundestag and Bundesrat, the two houses of Germany's parliament. West Berlin's form of government was complicated by its special relationship to West Germany. With a mayor, a senate, and a house of representatives, its structure paralleled that of the West German states. The city was part of West Germany's social and economic system, West German courts had jurisdiction there, and West Germany represented West Berlin diplomatically in relations with other countries. Nevertheless, West Berlin was not officially a part of West Germany. West German laws had to be approved by the legislature of West Berlin before they could take effect in the city, and not all of West Berlin's representatives in West German political bodies had full voting rights. West Berlin residents could register for service in the West German armed forces but were exempt from the draft. In early 1990 a few British, French, United States, and Soviet troops were still stationed in the city; however, in negotiations held during September 1990 those countries pledged to withdraw all of their troops by the end of 1994. East Berlin served as the capital of East Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the seat of most East German governmental institutions. The city administration resembled that of West Berlin in structure, with a mayor and a city council, a system that continued for the reunited city.
Early in the 13th century two villages, Kolln and Berlin, arose on opposite banks of the Spree River in Brandenburg. As they grew and merged, the name Berlin was applied to both. In 1415 the Hohenzollern family gained control of Brandenburg, including Berlin, and after 1440 the princes of Brandenburg made Berlin their capital (see Hohenzollern Dynasty). Berlin suffered great damage in the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648 (see Thirty Years' War). To rebuild the population, Frederick William invited French and German Protestants and Austrian Jews to settle there. In 1701 the ruler of Brandenburg was crowned King Frederick I of Prussia. He proclaimed Berlin the capital of the new Kingdom of Prussia. Under Frederick the Great from 1740 to 1786, Prussia became a leading power of Europe, and Berlin took its place among great European cities. In 1806 Napoleon and his army took possession of the city. The French occupation lasted two years. Berlin became the capital of the German Empire when William I was crowned emperor in 1871. Its population was then about 800,000 and by 1900 it had increased to almost 2 million. For decades it was Europe's third largest city, after London and Paris. World War I brought an end to five centuries of Hohenzollern rule in 1918. Berlin became the capital of the newly established German Republic. In the 1920s the arts flourished and industry grew. Berliners did not favor Hitler's rise to power, nor did Hitler especially like campaigning in the city. In the last election before he created a dictatorship, the Nazis won no more than a third of the Berliners' votes. Early in 1933 the Reichstag, the parliament building in Berlin, was set on fire. Hitler used the Reichstag fire as an excuse to seize dictatorial powers and Berlin became the capital of the Third Reich. British and American bombing during World War II devastated Berlin. The Soviets poured artillery fire into the city before capturing it in 1945. The Allies divided Berlin, as well as Germany, into four occupation zones under an Allied Control Council. In 1948 France, Great Britain, and the United States merged their zones into one economic unit. The Soviet Union withdrew from the council in protest and began a blockade of Berlin's rail, highway, and water communications with the West. The United States and Britain, however, supplied nearly 2 million tons of coal, food, and industrial goods to West Berlin by air. The airlift involved more than 200,000 flights and lasted more than 11 months, until the Soviets relented. An uprising against the Communist regime of Soviet-controlled East Berlin, on June 17, 1953, was put down by Soviet tanks. More and more people fled from East to West. By the late 1950s West Berlin received as many as 20,000 refugees a day. To halt the flow, the leaders of East Berlin sealed the border in August 1961 and built the wall dividing the city. An agreement signed in 1971 by the four occupying powers guaranteed uninterrupted communications between the city of West Berlin and West Germany. The years 1989 and 1990 brought revolutionary changes throughout Eastern Europe. West Germany's missions were besieged by refugees who sought permission to immigrate to the West, and the overcrowded mission in East Berlin was forced to close on Aug. 8, 1989. Violent pro-reform demonstrations erupted in East Berlin during East Germany's 40th anniversary celebrations in October. When travel restrictions were lifted and the Berlin Wall was breached, negotiations for reunification began. Within a year the wall had been almost totally dismantled and pieces of it were being sold as souvenirs. When Germany was reunited on Oct. 3, 1990, Berlin was designated the formal capital of the entire country. As a signal of solidarity, the Bundestag at Bonn, which had been the capital of West Germany since 1949, voted in 1991 to restore most of the federal functions to Berlin. (See also Germany.) Population (1989 estimate), 3,277,000. HOME
Search Now: