The new capital of Germany, the city of East and West and the city which is at the moment suffering a huge money shortage due to the explosion of new buildings, mainly in the wall area costing the city a lot. The Berlin mayor stated it as "Berlin ist arm, aber sexy." ("Berlin is poor, but sexy.").
Berlin is one of the most influential centers in European politics, culture and science. The city serves as an important hub of continental transportation and is home to some of the most prominent universities, sport events, orchestras, and museums. The rapidly evolving metropolis enjoys an international reputation for its festivals, contemporary architecture, nightlife, and avant-garde arts. Being a major tourist center and home to people from over 180 nations Berlin is a focal point for individuals who are attracted by its liberal lifestyle, urban eclecticism, and artistic freedom. Many large scale hotels offer perfect venue’s to host events as conferences and meetings but also for the incentives there is enough to discover and enjoy.



Country: Germany
County: Berlin
Language: German
Area: 889 km²
Population: 3.390.000
Time zone: CET
Currency: Euro




At about the year 720 two Slavic tribes settled in the Berlin region. The Heveller settled on the river Havel with their central settlement in Brandenburg, which gave the name for the whole territory. Close to the river Spree in today's district of Berlin Köpenick the Sprewanen settled. The Havolane founded Spandow (today's Spandau) on the river Havel. This seems to be the closest settlement to the area which is today known as Berlin. In the early 9th century the slavic tribes settle in area of later city Berlin under a name which is recorded in a Latin document as "Berolina". The etymology of the name is uncertain, but it may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl- "swamp".

In 948: Emperor Otto I the Great established German control over the now largely Slavic inhabitants of the area and founded the dioceses of Havelberg and Brandenburg. In a great uprising the heathen Slavs wiped out German control from the territory of present day Brandenburg. The monasteries were burned, priests and German officials killed or expelled. The Slavic tribes living east of Elbe remained pagan for the next 150 years .

In the beginning of the 12th century the Saxon German kings and emperors re-established control over the now largely Slavic-inhabited lands of present-day Brandenburg. The Slavic inhabitants of the area were either driven out, or became subject to German feudal lords. Many Slavic inhabitants survived the conquests and live there still today - Sorbs, Lusatians. Throughout these events, the area of today's Berlin contained small fishing and farming villages.

Around 1200: Cölln and Berlin were founded on the banks of the river Spree. It is possible that Berlin continued using the name of the existing settlement. Cölln may have been a new foundation, since its name (like Köln) represents Latin colonia = "colony". Around 1400: Berlin and Cölln had 8,000 inhabitants.

In the beginning of the 15th century, Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. 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. When Berlin became the residence of the Hohenzollerns, it had to give up its Hanseatic League free city status. Its main economical activity changed from trade to the production of luxurious goods for the court.

Over the following decades, Berlin expanded greatly in area and population, reaching 20,000 inhabitants and became significant among the cities in Central Europe for the first time. After inviting the French Calvinist Huguenots to Brandenburg around 20% of the inhabitants of Berlin were French and their cultural influence was important. Many people from Bohemia, Poland, and Salzburg also took refuge. Frederick Wilhelm also built a standing army.

In 1701 Friedrich III crowned himself and made Berlin the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia and made Berlin the capital of the new kingdom 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”.

In the beginning of the 19th century Napoleon came marching through the Brandenburg Gate reforming the city greatly in only a time period of some 8 years. The population grew from 200,000 to 400,000 in the first half of the 19th century, making Berlin the fourth-largest city in Europe. In 1871, Berlin became capital of the newly founded German Empire.

Prussia was the dominant factor in the unification of Germany. When the German Empire was established in 1871, Wilhelm I became emperor, Bismarck chancellor, and Berlin the capital. In the meantime, Berlin had become an industrial city with 800,000 inhabitants. World War I led to hunger in Berlin. In the winter of 1916/1917 150,000 people were dependent on food aid, and strikes broke out. When the war ended, Wilhelm II (1888-1918) abdicated. The socialist Philipp Scheidemann at the Reichstag and the communist Karl Liebknecht at the Castle both proclaimed a republic. In the next months Berlin became a battleground between the two political systems. At the end of World War I, 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. 1920s Berlin was a very exciting and interesting city.

But not all was well. Even before the 1929 crash, 450,000 people were unemployed. In the same year Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party won its first seats in the city parliament. On July, 1932, the Prussian government under Otto Braun in Berlin was dismissed by presidential decree. The republic was nearing its breakdown, under attack by extreme forces from the right and the left. On January 30, 1933, Hitler became Chancellor.

On February 27, 1933 the Reichstag building was set on fire. The fire gave Hitler the opportunity to set aside the constitution. Around 1933, some 160,000 Jews were living in Berlin: one third of all German Jews, 4% of the Berlin's population. A third of them were poor immigrants from Eastern Europe, who lived mainly in the Scheunenviertel near Alexanderplatz. The Jews were persecuted from the beginning of the Nazi regime. After the pogrom of Kristallnacht in 1938, thousands of the city's Jews were imprisoned. Around 1939, there were still 75,000 Jews living in Berlin. The majority of german Jews in Berlin were taken to the Grunewald railway station in early 1943 and shipped in stock cars to death camps such as Auschwitz, where most were murdered in the Holocaust. Only some 1200 Jews survived in Berlin by hiding.

In the pre-World War II period Adolf Hitler and his subordinates had great plans to transform Berlin into a centre fit for his new empire. Therefore he and his architect Albert Speer made plans for the new Berlin, the so-called Welthauptstadt Germania. But the constructions never started, as Hitler decided it would be madness to start such a project during a war. Hitler also thought the Allied airstrikes very practical, mostly because it made demolishing the old Berlin so much cheaper.

On April 30, 1945: Hitler committed suicide in the Führerbunker underneath the Reich Chancellery. Resistance did not end with Hitler's death, though most of the city was in Soviet hands by that point. Two days later Berlin finally capitulated to the Soviet army. By the end of the Second World War, up to 33% of Berlin had been destroyed by concerted Allied air raids and street fighting. The so called "Stunde Null" marked a new beginning for the city. Greater Berlin was divided into four sectors by the Allies under the London Protocol of 1944. Berlin's unique situation as a city half-controlled by Western forces in the middle of the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany made it a natural focal point in the Cold War.

On August 13, 1961 the communist East German government started to build the Berlin Wall, physically separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany, as a response to massive numbers of East German citizens fleeing into West Berlin as a way to escape to the west. The East German government called the Wall the "anti-fascist protection wall". The tensions between east and west were exacerbated by a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961.

The eastern and western sectors of Berlin were now completely separated. It was possible for Westerners to pass from one to the other only through strictly controlled checkpoints. Much Cold War espionage and counter-espionage took place in Berlin, against a backdrop of potential superpower confrontation in which both sides had nuclear weapons set for a range that could hit Germany.

At the 40th anniversary celebration of East Germany in East Berlin in October 1989, guest of honor Mikhail Gorbachev gave a speech indicating that he would not support hard-line positions by the East German regime, millions of whose citizens were trying to flee to West Germany across the weakening Iron Curtain in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. On 9 November 1989, after a misleading press statement by Politburo member Günter Schabowski, border guards gave in and allowed crowds from East Berlin across the frontier at the Bösebrücke. The guards believed that the authorities had decided to open the wall, but in reality no firm decision was taken and events gathered steam on their own. The East German leadership was in disarray following the resignation of party chieftain Erich Honecker in October.

People of East and West Berlin climbed up and danced on the wall at the Brandenburg Gate in scenes of wild celebration broadcast worldwide. This time no Soviet tanks rolled through Berlin. The wall never closed again, and was soon on its way to demolition, with countless Berliners and tourists wielding hammers and chisels to secure souvenir chunks.

On Christmas Day December 25, 1989, the American conductor Leonard Bernstein shared with East and West Berliners and the world in the Ode to Joy (which he had reworded Ode to Freedom) his unforgettable Berlin Celebration Concert in order to celebrate the Fall of the Berlin Wall. After the breakdown of Communism in Europe, on 3 October 1990 Germany and Berlin were both reunited. By then the Wall had been almost completely demolished, with only small sections remaining. In June 1991 the German Parliament, the Bundestag, voted to move the (West) German capital back from Bonn to Berlin. Berlin once more became the capital of a unified Germany.