Location: Berlin is located in the northeastern corner of Germany on the
banks of the river Spree
Area: 883 sq km (340 sq mi)
Population : 3,438million people as of 2008
Economy:
Berlin's economy is based around their three main
industries: communications, life sciences, and transportation. Berlin's
technology sector is extremely fast growing as new modern technologies are
being brought in. Being the second largest city in Germany tourism has always
been big and it is becoming increasingly important to Berlin's economy. The
entertainment and clubs alone attract over ten thousand tourists. Even though
Berlin is one of the most modern states in Germany and one of the most popular
tourist destinations, it has the most people living off of welfare; and has
accumulated more debt than any other city in Germany.
History
Berlin joined the Republic in 1990 after west and
East Berlin were united again.
Before 1871 Berlin was one of the many German
states that were scattered through the center of Europe.
It was one of the most active and economic
states in “Germany” thanks to the industrial revolution. Before
1918 Berlin was
as it is now the capital of Germany.
During the first world war the citizens of Berlin often suffered from a
lack of food due to military operations .
Before that in 1914 the famous
Reichstag was constructed and used as the parliament building.
Before 1948 it
was the capital of Nazi Germany and was heavily damaged by bombing and building
to building combat. There was a high unemployment rate in Berlin due to the
Great
depression before the rise of the Nazi party.
Well known sites includes
1.
Brandenburg Gate:
Located on the western edge of Pariser Platz
just inside the former East Berlin is 26m (65 ft) high, 65.5 m (213 ft) wide
and 11 m (36 ft) thick.Built according to the plans of
Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to
1791, the Brandenburg Gate is modelled on the Propylaeum of Athens’
Acropolis. It consists of twelve Doric columns,
six on each side creating five portals. The Quadriga, a statue
consisting of the goddess of peace, driving a four-horse triumphal chariot
is mounted above the gate, which
is flanked by two smaller buildings in similar style which served as
gatehouses.
When the Nazis ascended to power they used the
Gate as a party
symbol. The Gate survived World War II and was one of the damaged
structures still standing in the Pariser Platz ruins in 1945.The
gate was badly damaged with holes in the columns from bullets
and nearby explosions. Following Germany's surrender and the
end of the war, the governments of East Berlin and West Berlin
restored it in a joint effort. The holes were patched, and were
visible for many years following the war.
During 1990, the
Quadriga was removed from the gate as part of renovation
work
carried out by the East German authorities following the fall of
the wall in November 1989. Germany was officially reunified in
October 1990.
On December 21, 2000, the Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished at a cost of six million Euros.
On
October 3, 2002, the twelfth anniversary of German Reunification,
the Brandenburg Gate was once again reopened following
extensive refurbishment.
The Brandenburg Gate is now again closed for vehicle traffic.
2.
The Reichstag
Designed by
Paul Wallot is
situated at the northern end of the Ebertstrasse and near the south
bank of the Spree River not far from the Brandenburg gate is Germany's
parliament building.In 1918 the first German republic was declared from
its balcony.In 1933 it was set on
fire ostensibly
by enemies of the newly installed Nazi government who used
this as a convenient excuse to tighten their grip on power. During the
second war it was damaged by allied bombing and was one of the last
building in Berlin to fall to the soviet army in 1945. it was damaged
during the second war by allied bombing and was one of the last building
in Berlin to fall to the soviet army in 1945.
During the
reconstruction, the building was first almost completely
gutted, taking out everything except the outer walls, including all
changes made by Baumgarten in the 1960s. Respect for the historic
aspects of the building was one of the conditions stipulated to the
architects, so traces of historical events were to be retained in a
visible state. Among them were graffiti left by Soviet soldiers after
the final battle for Berlin in April–May 1945. Written in Cyrillic
script, they include such slogans as “Hitler kaputt” and names of
individual soldiers. However, graffiti with racist or sexist themes were
removed, in agreement with Russian diplomats at the time.The large
glass dome at the very top of the Reichstag has a 360-degree
view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall of the
parliament below can also be seen from inside the dome, and natural
light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun
shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct
sunlight which would not only cause large solar gain, but dazzle those
below. Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament
was transferred to the Bundestag in April of that year. The dome is no
longer open to visitors without prior registration.
The reconstruction was completed in 1999, with the Bundestag
convening there officially for the first time on 19 April of that year. The Reichstag is now
the second most visited attraction in Germany,
not least because of the huge glass dome that was erected on the roof
as a gesture to the original 1894 cupola, giving an impressive view over
the city, especially at night.
3.
Potsdamer Platz
Once
the busiest crossing in Europe, The Potsdamer Platz was completely
destroyed after the war. In 1988 the new Potsdamer Platz, full of modern
buildings, officially opened. It is named after the city of
Potsdam,
some 25 km to the south west, and marks the point where the old road
from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate.
The large new underground station,
shopping arcade and entertainment center have brought
new life to the Potsdamer Platz.
It still is more of
a tourist attraction than a 'natural' square, but with the construction of
more residential buildings in the neighborhood, the
area has started to grow back to its former status:
one of the liveliest squares in the country.
4.
Holocaust Memorial
Designed by U.S. architect
Peter Eisenman's
to commemorate the murder of six million Jews at the hands of Hitler
and his forces Occupies about 205,000 square feet (19,000 square
meters) of space near the
Brandenburg Gate
and just a short distance from where the ruins of Hitler's bunker is
buried, the Berlin Holocaust Memorial is made up of 2,711 gray stone
slabs that bear no markings, such as names or dates.
The slabs undulate in a wave-like pattern. Each is a five-sided
monolith, individually unique in shape and size. Some are only ankle
high while others tower over visitors. The paths that are shaped
between the slabs undulate as well. Visitors may walk through the memorial in any direction as there is no
set pattern to the stones. The architect has said that he hopes it will
merely become a natural part of the city, blending in with its
background; used for shortcuts on the way home from work or a place of peace and quiet on a chaotic day.
5.
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a massive cement wall built after World War II
(August 1961) which separated the city in an eastern and western
part, was the symbol of the Cold War. Built by the government of the DDR
to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West,This spread families and friends apart. The tense situation
lasted long, most of the Berlin
Wall has been demolished since the border between East and West Berlin
opened finally in November 1989, the wall, and its entire
symbolic halo, was taken down.
Famous people from Berlin
1.
Georg Simmel
Simmel was a representative of the first generation of German
sociologists. Even today he remains famous as the author of 'The
Philosophy of Money', 'The Metropolis and Mental Life' and 'The
Stranger'. Although born in Berlin to a large Jewish family, he was
raised,a Catholic. He studied philosophy and history at the Humboldt
University of Berlin, where he received a title and the position of
'privatdozent in 1885'. His lectures on philosophy, ethics, psychology
and sociology attracted Berlin's intellectual elite. In 1903, along with
Max Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies and Rudolf Goldscheid, he founded the
German Society for Sociology. His works served as the core of the
future theory of symbolic interactionism, in that he claimed that a
society is a web of multiple human relations between individuals who are
in constant interaction with each other. In 1890, Simmel married Gertud
Kinel, who, writing under the pseudonym of Marie-Luise Enckendorf,
was a philosopher herself, and the couple had a son. It wasn't until
1914 that he received a full professorship from the University of
Strasbourg. Simmel was the author of hundreds of articles and about
twenty books.He died from cancer in September of 1918, shortly before
the end of World War I., according to
Europe Cities.
2.
Marlene Dietrich
born on 27 December 1901 in Leberstrasse
65 on the
Rote Insel in
Schöneberg,
now a district of Berlin, Germany. She was the younger of two daughters
(her sister Elisabeth being a year older) of Louis Erich Otto Dietrich
and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine,who married in
December 1898. Dietrich's mother was from a well-to-do Berlin family who
owned a clock making firm and her father was a police lieutenant. Her father died in 1907.
Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to
speak them. In interviews, Dietrich stated that she had been approached
by representatives of the Nazi Party to return to Germany, but had
turned them down flat. Dietrich, a staunch anti-Nazi, became an American
citizen in 1939.
