BERLIN
Country: Germany
Coordinates: 52° 31' N 13° 24' E
Elevation: between 34 and 115 m above sea level
Area: 891, 82 Km²
Population: 3 396 990
Residential density: 3809 inhabitants per Km²
Web: www.berlin.de
Governing Mayor: Klaus Wowereit
Berlin is a federal state, the capital city of Germany and since the reunification of its western and eastern part is Berlin also Germany’s biggest city. It is located in the North East of Germany about 70 kilometres (44 miles) west of the border with Poland. The River Spree runs through the centre of the city. Berlin became the capital of the new founded Germany Empire in 1871 and in the 1920s it became the European metropolis and the major centre of the political scientific and cultural life.
The city splits up politically after the World War II. and is finally divided into two parts by building the Berlin Wall on 13th August 1961. The Wall had to prevent the inhabitants from fleeing to the West and to secure border impenetrability between the states of the Warsaw Pact and the other ones. That’s why are the borders called Iron Curtain, too. The Wall was 165 km (102,5 miles) long and during his 28-year existence at least 238 people died trying to escape. About 75 000 inhabitants were sentenced for illegitimate abandonment of the republic, or for the attempt to escape.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 the city becomes the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany and the new chapter of the city begins. We can find cultural variety and tolerance, which dates back to Western Berlin times, not only in three operas: The Berlin State Opera (Staatsoper), the Deutsche Oper, the Comic Opera (Komische Oper) but in countless amount of theatres, museums, and modern and yet world-famous techno-cultural festival Love Parade.
Since the outer and completely closed highway circuit runs around Berlin, the city is well connected to the site of German as well as European highways. There are three airports in Berlin: Tempelhof, Tegel a Schönefeld.
One can find sacral and historical monuments and landmarks, e.g. the Berliner Dom, St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, Brandenburg Gate, castle Schloss Charlottenburg or the ruins of the church Kaiser-Wilhelm- Gedächtniskirche.
Berlin is the city of history, culture and entertainment. See it!
