Berlin

Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag, Federal Chancellery,

and the Victory Column

Unter den Linden and Museum Island

Ku’damm and City-West

Friedrichstraße and

Gendarmenmarkt

Charlottenburg Palace and

Park

the Fernsehturm and Alexanderplatz

Oranienburger Strasse

Potsdamer Platz

Olympia Stadium

Berlin: A Brief History

• The “Swamp”

• Spree River

• Population: 3,500,000

• One of Germany’s 16 states and capital

• 1/3 of urban land is given over to parks, forest, lakes and other natural environment

The Early Years: Brandenburg and Berlin

• First, before Berlin, there was Brandenburg, the seat of government of this region, which became part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation during the 10th century.

• Finally there was Berlin, established on the opposite bank of the Spree River, and mentioned seven years later, in 1244.

The Holy Roman Empire

Union of Brandenburg and Berlin

• By 1389, however, the towns of Brandenburg and Berlin had formed a union, joined the Hanseatic League, and achieved some prosperity as a trading and fishing town.

The First Hohenzollerns

• In 1411, the emperor awarded Brandenburg to Count Friedrich von Hohenzollern, who decided to continue residing in the much more civilized Nuremberg. However, his son Friedrich II, established his court in Berlin


• The Berliners were less than amused, and fearing that this would end some of the city’s liberties, they violently opposed the building of a castle in the town. It took two years and the assistance of 600 soldiers before the building could actually make progress.


• The building became the Stadtschloss or town castle, which remained the primary residence of the Hohenzollerns until the forced abdication of Wilhelm II in 1918.

The Thirty Years War, 1618-1648

• Brandenburg suffered tremendously during the Thirty Years’ War, with many battles fought on its territory and huge areas scorched repeatedly. By the end of the war, Berlin was an insignificant town of around 6,000 inhabitants.

The Rise of Berlin after 1648

• Berlin’s fortunes changed during the rule of Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector (1640-1688). He expanded Berlin’s population dramatically by welcoming religious refugees, including French Huguenots, Dutch Protestants, and rich Viennese Jewish families.

The First Berlin Wall

• In the early 18th century, King Friedrich Wilhelm I had a wall built around the city of Berlin. This may seem odd, as by this time the use of cannon made city walls a useless defense measure. However, the purpose of this Berlin wall was to prevent young male Berliners from fleeing the city to avoid military conscription. Ironically, the more famous Berlin wall of 1961 was also built to prevent Berliners fleeing to a softer and better life in the West

The Rise of Berlin after 1648

• To the king’s disgust, his own art-loving son tried to flee for that very purpose. The king was planning to execute him but was persuaded otherwise by his court. The prince, later referred to as Frederick the Great, was sent to jail while his accompanist faced the firing squad.

Frederick the Great , 1740- 1768

• In contrast to his father, Frederick the Great was a cultured, educated man who made Berlin a center of enlightened thought. And he did not shy away from battle. During his rule, Prussia became the fifth power in Europe –the only German state that could rival Austria.

The Prussian Era, until 1871

• During the Napoleonic wars, Prussia was initially defeated and suffered the ignominy of occupation. Limits were set on the size of the standing army and major art treasures were transported to Paris.

The Prussian Era

• However, Prussia played a major role in the defeat of the French at the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig in 1813. Prussian Field Marshall Blucher pursued Napoleon across the Rhine and contributed again at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 to his final defeat.

The Prussian Era

• The Congress of Vienna, which arranged the peace settlement following the wars, made Prussia the clear winner. It greatly expanded in size, gaining the rich and strategic Rhineland among others. Only Austria would have more prestige among the Germans.

The Prussian Era

• The glory of Prussia was portrayed in the growing importance of Berlin. Around 1800, Berlin, with 200,000 inhabitants, became the third-largest city in Europe (after London and Paris)

The German Empire

In 1871, Berlin became the capital of a united German Empire, and in contrast to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, this was a true empire with Berlin the undisputed capital.

The German Empire

• Berlin expanded rapidly and became the world’s largest tenement city. Growth continued until interrupted by the First World War (1914-18). In 1918, at the end of the war, the Emperor was forced to abdicate and a republic was proclaimed.

The Weimar Republic: The Heady 1920s and 1930s

• In the heady 1920s, after the disasters of the war, its violent aftermath, and the runaway inflation of 1923, Berlin became the life of Europe with nightlife and revues on a par with Paris.

Attempts at Transformation after 1933

• During the 1930s, the Nazi Party took power and instantly started to transform Berlin to portray its power. Despite the general intolerance of the Nazis, Berlin’s famous and at times seedy nightlife survived well into the Second World War.

World War II

• Hitler launched his plans for German expansion from Berlin until it culminated in the attack on Poland, which started World War II in September 1939. For a few more years, Berlin would be the center of the world, the city to be in, until the first allied air raids started.

World War II

• By the end of the war, 75% of central Berlin was destroyed. It was called the eyeless city, as there seemed to be no windowpane intact by the time the Russians took Berlin in April 1945.

The Division of Berlin

For Berlin, the war did not stop in 1945. The three sectors of Berlin occupied by the American, British, and French forces became West Berlin, a capitalist island surrounded by the sea of Communist - dominated East Germany. Berlin would be at the heart of the Cold War.

The Division of Berlin

The Berlin Airlift, 1948

• In 1948, the Russians tried to force the surrender of West Berlin by closing the land routes from the West – for a year the West, led by the United States, supplied Berlin through three air corridors. At the height of the crisis, an airplane would take off and land at West Berlin’s two airports every minute.

The Berlin Wall Goes Up, 1961

• In 1961, the East Germans started to build a wall around West Berlin to finally close off the border through which countless East German citizens were seeping to find a better life in the West.

Cold War Divisions:"There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future.

Let them come to Berlin."--President John F. Kennedy, Berlin, Germany, June 26, 1963

• In 1963, American President John F Kennedy assured the people of West Berlin that the world would not surrender the city to Communism in his famous proclamation: "Ich bin einBerliner!" (The fact that a small grammatical error had him in fact saying “I am a jam donut” was never stressed by Berliners.)

Cold War Divisions, until 1989

• For the next quarter-century, Berlin would be at uneasy peace with its neighbor. The West poured massive subsidies into West Berlin to make it a beacon of capitalist prosperity in a sea of impoverished Communism.

Reunification, 1989

• On November 9, 1989, after weeks of pressure and warnings of impending crisis, the East German people finally had enough, bridged the border, scaled the wall, and entered the West.

Reunification

• On October 3, 1990, East and West Germany were finally united again, almost half a century after the end of World War II

Reunification

• Soon after, the German Parliament decided with a narrow majority to move the capital from sleepy Bonn back to Berlin. In 1999, the German Parliament and several other departments of state finally started to operate from Berlin.

Berlin Streets