, is the capital of Germany and its largest city; down from either the peak of Little joe.Five million prior to World War II. Between some a Nineties & a mid-1920s, Berlin was a for-largest urban area in the world when London, New York, and Paris. In todays world, these are exclusively a sixth-largest urban area in the European Union, and some a 80th-largest populated area in the globe. From either 1949 to 1990 it was divided into East Berlin and West Berlin.

Berlin, build upon sand, is located on the rivers Spree and Havel in the north of Germany. These are enclosed per German state of Brandenburg, and is the state of its have since 1920.

Political Berlin
The state
Berlin utilized to exist as a share of Brandenburg province of Prussia but was incorporated into Greater Berlin in 1920. Since German reuniin on 3 October 1990 it has been one of the triplet city states, together with Hamburg and Bremen, among the present Sixteen German Bundesländer. Berlin is governed per Senate of Berlin, which consists of the Regierender Bürgermeister (governing mayor) & as much as eight senators holding ministerial portfolios. A governing city manager is city manager of the city & representative of the Bundesland (state) at a equivalent instance. A seat of professional for the Berlin City manager is the Rotes Rathaus. Presently, this professional is held by Klaus Wowereit (SPD): for earlier city manager, look at a list of Mayors of Berlin.

A city & state parliament is called a Abgeordnetenhaus or Home of Representatives. the todays Senate consists of a coalition of the social democrat SPD and the socialist Left Party.

The boroughs
Berlin is subdivided into Twelve boroughs, called Bezirke, which were created from either a antecedently existent Xxiii boroughs, efficacious since 1 January 2001.

For the map & the listing of the old & recently borough list, look at Boroughs of Berlin.

From each one borough is governed by the Bezirksamt consisting of 5 Stadträte (town council member) & the city manager. A Bezirksamt is elected per district-parliament, a Bezirksverordnetenversammlung. A Boroughs of Berlin are non independent municipalities, & a political power of the district-parliaments is fairly minimum & contingent on the Senate of Berlin.

A zone city manager form a council of city manager, known as Rat 500 Bürgermeister under a leadership of the Regierende Bürgermeister (governing city manager), to counsel a Senate.

Population

Berlin hwhen 3,426,000 habitant (as of January 2005) on the surface of 891.75 square kilometer, so, a people density of the region numbers to 3,811 habitant by the square kilometer. Berlin citizens' typical age is 41.Septet years (when of 2004). 450,900 denizen come foreigners from either 185 states (when of December 2004). Among a two, roughly 36,000 citizens are from either the nighest neighboring united states, Poland and 119,00Come Turkish - Berlinside has a big Turkish municipality in Europe outside of Turkey. Based on data from official actual cost, inside 2004, Twenty-two.3% of the people were Protestants, Ix.1% were Catholics, Six.2% were Muslims, & Zero.4% were Jews.

History

View History of Berlin.

Berlin today
Tourist attractions
Possibly though Berlin does have a total of telling buildings from either earliest centuries, a city's appearance inside todays world is primarily shaped per key role it played in Germany's history in the 20th century. Both of a national governments which experienced their seat within Berlin — the 1871 German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and at present a reunified Germany — initiated ambitious construction programs, each using its have distinctive character. Berlin was devastated by bombing raids when you took World War II, and several of a old buildings that escaped the bombs were eradicated in the 1950s and 1960s in both West & East. Tremendously of this destruction was from either overambitious architecture programs, especially to build new residential or even business quarters & highway. It would non exist as an exaggeration to say that there are no more city in the globe offers Berlin's unusual mix of architecture, especially 20th-century architecture. A city's tense & unique recent history has left it using the distinctive array of sights.

Non great deal is left of the Berlin Wall. A East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke across a Spree preserves a part of the Wall. By searching at a architecture these are however conceivable to tell whenever a single is in the previous eastern or even american a share of the city. In the eastern a share, numbers of Plattenbauten can be found, reminders of Eastern Bloc ambitions to create complete community by using fixed ratios of shops, kindergartens and schools. An additional difference between previous east & west is in the project of little red & green men in pedestrian crossing lights (Ampelmännchen inside German); the eastern versions received an opt-out when you took the standardisation of itinerant traffic signs when re-reunion, & own survived to turn into a popular icon in holidaymaker products. It is still starting to pop up around american Berlin as well.

Historical sights in the city centre
The Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden, symbols of Berlin, Prussia, and okay, Germany. A Brandenburg Gate appears in German Euro coins. Reichstag building, the old & recently seat of the German parliament, renovated by Sir Norman Foster. Features a glass dome where that you could hike in & view the parliamentarians from either above. Gendarmenmarkt, arguably a virtually all beautiful square around Berlin, surrounded by ii notable cathedrals & the concert hall. Berlin victory column, monument to Prussia's victories. The Berliner Dom, an historic cathedral. a big 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 a home of the German President Schloss Charlottenburg, the big living historical palace within Berlin The Neptunbrunnen, a renowned fountaaround in Berlin Mitte. Tiergarten is Berlin's largest park and a masterpiece of park project.

Cold War and sightseeing in the former East Berlin
The Palast der Republik, the old East German parliament building. These are seen by occasionally when horrible, previous East Berliners remember using fondness eating house, shops, clubs, & a concerts that took place there in the 1980s. Although it has a bit of significance as a historical holidaymaker attraction, a German Parliament voted for its demolition, which might begaround in 2005. A Palast 500 Republik is rest on the places of the Berlin City Palace, which was demolished in 1950 by the Communists. A Palace Square was renamed Marx-Engels-Platz at a equivalent period. The Fernsehturm, a TV tower, a greatest building within the city at 368 m (1207 foot), & the 2nd big structure in Europe (after Moscow's Ostankino Tower). A Fernsehturm is easy seeable throughout virtually all of the central districts of Berlin. Alexanderplatz, formerly East Berlin's major shopping center, & personal to a Centrum-Warenhaus, which was the DDR's department store. These are nowadays the thoroughly Westernized shopping mall, belonging to the Kaufhof chain. East Side Gallery a memorial for freedom based on a survive area of the Berlin Wall Rotes Rathaus (the Red City Hall), historic town hall celebrated for its distinctive red-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 the museum about one of the crossing points (albeit restricted to Allied forces) in the Berlin Wall. A museum, which occurs as personal venture, exhibits interesting poop all about humans world health organization devised ingenious plans to leave a East, however is controversial in the city for its propagandist Cold War didactics and publicity stunts that numerous assume tasteless.

Sights of modern Berlin
Potsdamer Platz, an entire quarter built from scratch fallowing 1995. A historic Potsdamer Platz wwhen non rebuilt as it was divided per Wall. The must-watch for humans world health organization such as modern city planning. Upright to the West of Potsdamer Platz is the Kulturforum, which houses the Gemäldegalerie, and is flanked per Neue Nationalgalerie and the Philharmonie. Hackescher Markt, Spandauer Vorstadt and Scheunenviertel, the front yard to fashionable culture, by having unnumberable little wearable shops, clubs, blocks, & galleries. This includes a New Synagogue area in Oranienburger Straße (originally built in the 1860s within Moorish style with the big golden dome & reconstructed in 1993), and a Hackesche Höfe, a conglomeration of many buildings as much as many court, nicely reconstructed fallowing 1996. This front yard was the centre of Jewish culture up until a 1930s.

Panoramic viewing points
Berliner Funkturm— the only observatiin tower in the globe which stands on dielectric. Its open-air observation deck is popular for photography. Berlin Television Tower [http://www.berlinerfernsehturm.de/] — 368-m high television tower, built in 1969 roughly Alexanderplatz. A entire city may be viewed from either its 204-m high observation platform. Grunewaldturm [http://www.grunewaldturm.de] — this 59-m high historic tower stands on the hill inside Grunewald forward or so Wannsee lake. Französischer Dom [http://www.franzoesischer-dom-berlin.de] — located on Gendarmenmarkt in a very heart of the city, the platform of the cathedral offers unique views. Bierpinsel — literally "Beer Stick". Seventies style tower in the Berlin Borough of Steglitz with a café & bar at a top rendering views on top south-american Berlin. Restaurant of the Forum Hotel Berlin Berliner Dom [http://www.berliner-dom.de] — Protestant cathedral situated next to the Lustgarten, with a round observation platform as much as the dome. Bell tower at the Olympic Stadium [http://www.glockenturm.de] — part of the Reichssportfeld complex, the tower offers the look at of the Olympic Stadium and also of the Waldbühne, an open-air stage. Siegessäule [http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/cgi-bin/sehenswertes.pl?id=13353] — the monument at the Großer Stern situated in the middle of the Tiergarten Park where it was relocated around 1938–39 from either its last position before of the Reichstag. Müggelturm — a tower giving bird's eye view on top a Müggelsee lake. Reichstag building— the roof of the parliament building, crowned by a big glass cupola designed by Lord Foster is open to a public giving an telling see across the city, especially when asleep.

Further interesting structures (not accessible to public)
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 TV Tower Berlin-Mueggelberge Power station Berlin-Wilmersdorf Power station Reutter

Famous streets and boulevards
Unter den Linden is a street that heads east from either the Brandenburg Gate. Numerous Definitive buildings line wall street. A share of Humboldt University is located there. Friedrichstraße, Berlin's legendary street of the "Golden Twenties" which combines the tradition of the go century by owning modern architecture of in todays world's Berlin. Kurfürstendamm (Ku'damm), with a Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church), which lies right at a top prevent of Kurfürstendamm, in Breitscheidplatz (underground station Kurfürstendamm). A church was bombed call at Globe War II & its ruins stand been preserved in their damaged state. Close by is the Ka-De-We Berlin's equivalent to London's Harrods. As well nearby is the Zoologischer Garten, the menagerie by having a prominent total of coinage. 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 a golden Siegessäule (Statue of Triumph), which utilized to sub front of the Reichstag. The Karl-Marx-Allee (formerly Stalinalle), the avenue lined by monumental landmark buildings designed in the Socialist Classicism of the Stalin era. These are located in Friedrichshain and Mitte. Street Lighting
Berlin is unique in this it however has about 43,800 gas lamp standards in working order, normally to exist as observed in alleyway & historically sensitive site. A 1st 1,800 lanterns were erected per English Flatulency Company within 1826. Operation of the Flatulence lamps was taken on top per City Authorities within 1847. A number one electrical street lighting appeared in 1880. Between 1963 and 1982 replacement of the gas lamps witharound East Berlin was completed apart from either two or three left streets in Köpenick. Around West Berlin a reverse wwhen a situation, up to date styles of flatulency lamp standards existence introduced when late as a Fifties. There was the debate in the late 1970´s in whether replacement sustaining electrical lighting should last ahead, however popular opinion was against it. This debate was revived over agawithin in 2005, due to rising costs of gas, however there is no definite guide in replacement has been mass produced. There exists an open-air collection of working flatulence lamps inside Tiergarten nigh to S-Bahnhof Tiergarten, which besides when displaying historic examples from either either Berlin & more German cities also has examples from more European cities.

Education and science
Universities
Freie Universität Berlin [http://www.fu-berlin.de] Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin [http://www.hu-berlin.de] Technische Universität Berlin [http://www.tu-berlin.de] Charité [http://www.charite.de] (Medical Faculty of Freie and Humboldt-Universität) Universität der Künste [http://www.udk-berlin.de]

Universities of applied sciences
Alice-Salomon-Fachhochschule für Sozialarbeit/-pädagogik [http://www.asfh-berlin.de] Evangelische Fachhochschule [http://www.evfh-berlin.de] Katholische Fachhochschule [http://www.khsb-berlin.de/] Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft [http://www.fhtw-berlin.de] Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft [http://www.fhw-berlin.de] Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler [http://www.hfm-berlin.de] Technische Fachhochschule [http://www.tfh-berlin.de]

Zoos and Botanical Gardens
Zoologischer Garten Berlin, Berlin's oldest zoo, located in the central city. Tierpark Friedrichsfelde, founded by the GDR around a historic castle park in eastern Berlin. Botanic Garden and Botanic Museum Berlin, one of the first botanical gardens of a world & the largest within Europe.

The Arts and Culture
Fallowing a fall of the Berlin Wall up 1989 many buildings in a former central city of East Berlin (now the zone Mitte) were renovated. Numbers of got non been rebuilt since Globe War II. Illicitly occupied by immature humans, it experienced be the fertile ground for completely rather underground and counter-culture gatherings. It was as well at home to several nightclubs, including Tacheles, Techno clubs Tresor, WMF, Ufo and E-Werk.

A art scene in Berlin is highly rich & these are personal to hundreds of art galleries. A city is unsuspecting hosts to the Art Forum annual international art fair. Berlwithin likewise offers one of a virtually all diverse & vibrant nightlife scenes in Europe. Virtually all Berliners choose outstanding pride in their city's reputation when one of a virtually all socially progressive cities on the continent. [http://www.presse.tk/ Source: Press]

Berlin's annual Carnival of Cultures, a multi-multiethnic street parade, & Chistopher Street Day celebrations, Central Europe's largest gay-lesbian pride event, come openly supported per city's government.*[http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/english/unterwegs/e_uw_berlinprogramm_gay.html]**[http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/english/zielgruppen/e_zg_gay_bezirke.php].

An additional event is the techno-demonstration "Loveparade" (every year inside July or even August). Despite a city's high unemployment levels, a important total of immature Germans & creative person prove my point to settle in a city, & Berlin hwhen established itself as the premiere centre of youth and pop culture in Europe.

Signs of this expanding role were a 2003 announcement that the annual Popkomm, Europe's largest music industry convention, would move to Berlinside after Fifteen years in Cologne. Shortly thenceforth, German MTV also decided to move its headquarters and independent studios from either Munich to Berlin. Universal Music opened its European headquarters on the banks of the River Spree in an area referred to as a [http://www.mediaspree.de mediaspree].

Film Industry and Films about Berlin

Berlin is the centre of the German Film Industry, partly due to the being of the Babelsberg Studios & many significant film and TV production corporations rather UFA, Senator Film, Goldkind etc. Numbers of international pic & European co-productions own been filmed there. Berlin is as well residence of the European Film Academy, the German Film Academy and host of the Berlinale film festival. There are numerous films that were set around or even portray a favorite "Berlin-Atmosphere" from either different eras, among the two come:

Die Sinfonie der Großstadt -- 1927 Documentary Type Film "Day in the life of Berlin" [http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0017668/] Berlin Alexanderplatz -- 1920s Berlin The Blue Angel -- 1930s Depression M -- Early 1930s Berlin The Testament of Dr. Mabuse -- 1933 Berlin Downfall -- Final days of the Third Reich 1945 One, Two, Three -- Cold War before a Wall 1961 Funeral in Berlin 1966 Cold War Thriller- A bit dated, filmed within Berlin using a few nice scenes in Kreuzberg Cabaret -- Filmed in 1972, placed in the early 1930s Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo -- 1970s Run Lola Run -- Filmed 1998 in post-reunification Berlin Good bye, Lenin! -- Set withwithin 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 world health organization escapes East Berlinside in 1989. 2001. Der Untergang'' (the Downfall)-- 2004 German film portraying the day of judgement within Hitler's bunker Sonnenallee -- A adolescent comedy placed within East Berlin in the Seventies.

Museums
Archenhold Observatory Archenhold-Sternwarte [http://www.astw.de] Museum Island with the Altes Museum, Pergamon Museum and Alte Nationalgalerie German Museum of Technology in Kreuzberg, located at a places of an old freight train hub Museum for Post and Telecommunication Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery), European art (mostly paintings) from a 13th to the 18th century [http://www.museen-berlin.de/gg/e/s.html] Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), one of a previous buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), 19th-century painting and sculpture[http://www.smpk.de/ang/e/s.html] Jewish Museum Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof (Museum for contemporary art) Museum of European Cultures Berlin State Gallery [http://www.berlinischegalerie.de/en/71-1-1_0.htm] Bauhaus Museum [http://www.bauhaus-archiv.de/english/index.htm] Broehan Museum [http://www.broehan-museum.de/home1.htm] Deutsche Guggenheim Museum [http://www.deutsche-bank-kunst.com/guggenheim/e/] German Film Museum [http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de/english/veranstaltungen/e_ve_filmmuseum.html] Kaethe Kollwitz Museum [http://www.dhm.de/museen/kollwitz/english/home.htm] Museum of European Cultures [http://www.museen-berlin.de/mek/e/s.html] Vitra Design Museum [http://www.design-museum.de/berlin.php] The Berggruen Collection (Picasso and his Age) [http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/shb/e/s.html] Museum of Natural History [http://www.museum.hu-berlin.de/home.asp?lang=1] German Museum of Technology [http://www.dtmb.de/index_en.html] Museum of Medical History [http://www.charite.de/kompakt/english/p8.00_frame.html] Berlin Wall Documentation Center [http://www.berliner-mauer-dokumentationszentrum.de/index_e.html] Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin [http://www.spsg.de/index.php?id=1&sessionLanguage=en] Schwules Museum (Gay Museum) [http://www.schwulesmuseum.de/] Berlin open-alfresco Barking spiders Lamp Museum, adjacent to S-Bahnhof Tiergaten(watch segment in Street lighting)

Theatres
Schaubühne [http://www.schaubuehne.de] Volksbühne [http://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de] Deutsches Theater [http://www.deutsches-theater.de] Berliner Ensemble [http://www.berliner-ensemble.de] Theater des Westens [http://www.theater-des-westens.de] Grips-Theater Theater am Potsdamer Platz [http://www.stageholding.de/6307.htm] Maxim Gorki Theater [http://www.gorki.de] Renaissance Theater

Opera houses
Deutsche Oper Staatsoper Unter den Linden Komische Oper

Transport
Public transport
U-Bahn, Metro subway system S-Bahn, mostly overground urban railway system Straßenbahn, a tram technique, primarily around eastern Berlin Bus, Passenger Berlin Ferry All means of public transportation - U- & S- Bahn, trams, buses and ferries - can be accessed with the same ticket. A map of the todays [http://www.bvg.de/images/sunetz_aktuell.pdf public transport network] (BVG)

Railway Termini
Berlin was, pre-1945, a hub of the central European railway network. World War Two and the political section of Germany got super veto results on the railway network within Berlin. Now simply ii pre-1945 Termini, Ostbahnhof and Zoologischer Garten, remain in service. In the early 1950s, around an effort per East German government to isolate West Berlin, railway services were diverted out of termini in West Berlin . These stations became obsolete & were demolished when you took a Fifties & Sixties. Anhalter Bahnhof Stettiner Bahnhof Görlitzer Bahnhof Potsdamer Bahnhof Lehrter Bahnhof

Look at besides List of Berlin metro stations

Airports
Tegel International Airport (TXL), to close after BBI starts operations Schönefeld International Airport (SXF), to be expanded & renamed Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) in 011 Tempelhof International Airport (THF), to close 2006 [http://www.berlin-airport.de Berlin Airports Website]

Ports
Westhafen (Westport) - largest port within Berlin using an vicinity of 173,000 m²: transshipment of grain, pieced & heavily goods. Südhafen (Southport) - an area of astir 103,000 m² for transshipment of pieced & heavily goods. Osthafen (Eastport) - the region of 57,500 m² is however around utilise, however part under urban redevelopment Hafen Neukölln (Port Neukölln) - with simply 19,000 m² a little port; transshipment of building materials.

Power Supply
A power supply of Berlin has some peculiarities. Within Globe War II it was planned to supply a grid of Berlin all over an HV DC-underground cable from Dessau power station . A construction of this facility was begun inside 1943, but was abandoned (understand Elbe-Project).

When you took a instance of a section, a power grid of previous West Berlin was cut off from either the power grid of the circumferent 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 one power stations, which were attached by electrostatic inverters to the power grid & were loaded in the period of days of moo power consumption and unloaded during days of high consumption. Within 1993 the power connections to the encompassing united states, which were broken around 1951, were restored again. In the american districts of Berlin 100% power lines come underground cables - merely the 380 kV & the 110 kV-line, which begin from either Reuter power station to the urban superhighway, come overhead lines. Inside Berlin there exists a hanker 380 kV tercet phase cable, a 380kV-crossing Berlin. It can be a virtually all expensive power line within Germany ([http://www.seo.ag/ SEO]).

Sports
Berlin hosted a 1936 Olympics.

Berlin is one of a persons cities for the , to become held inside Germany.

Berlin is hosting a 2009 athletics world championships.

Berlin is at home to Hertha BSC Berlin, a football team in the Bundesliga.

Quotes concerning Berlin