DESTINATION BERLIN

Perhaps no other city in the world wears its history on its sleeve like Berlin. Sure, the wall isn't there any more, but Berlin is still very much divided. In the centre of the united city, there is a pretty neat segue from the wealthy glitz of the west to newly developed central east Berlin. This area was quickly colonised by the trendy cafΘ-bar set in the early 90s and swift rebuilding has erased all trace of the wall along much of the swathe it cut through the city. It's the suburbs of East Berlin with their grey and decaying apartment blocks, cardboard cars and paucity of telephones where it becomes apparent how different things used to be. All the new construction here (and there's enough to employ a stadium full of builders) looks absolutely brand spanking in comparison.

You can't engage with Berlin unless you have an appreciation of its tumultuous past. First inhabited in medieval times, the city has always been of strategic, cultural and economic significance. Innovative industrial development and lively intellectual ferment have coexisted in Berlin for centuries, though wars have taken their toll on the people and their buildings. From the catastrophic Thirty Years' War to the heavy bombing of WWII, Berliners have been obliged to call upon their stern stuffing and set to reconstruction efforts. Everywhere you go there are reminders of darker days, both incidental (many buildings are scarred by shrapnel) and considered. Luckily, Berlin's famous nightlife ensures no visitor need stay sombre for long. Noisy, intimidating, cutting edge, plastic and oh-so-civilised, Berlin spells groove in hundreds of different ways, but always makes it sound enticing.

Map of Berlin (19K)

Slide Show

Facts at a Glance
History
When to Go
Orientation
Attractions
Off the Beaten Track
Activities

Events
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Recommended Reading
Lonely Planet Guides
Travellers' Reports on Germany
On-line Info

Facts at a Glance

Population: 3.5 million
Country: Germany
Time zone: GMT/UTC plus 1 hour
Telephone area code: 030

History

The first recorded settlement at present-day Berlin was a place named Cölln in 1237 around the Spree River south of Museumsinsel (Museum Island), although Spandau, the junction of the Spree and the ponded Havel rivers, is considered to be older. Medieval Berlin developed on the bank of the Spree around Nikolaikirche and spread north-east towards today's Alexanderplatz. In 1432, Berlin and Cölln, which were linked by the Mühlendamm, merged.

In the 1440s, Elector Friedrich II of Brandenburg established the rule of the Hohenzollern dynasty, which was to last until Kaiser Wilhelm II's escape from Potsdam in 1918. Berlin's importance increased in 1470 when the elector moved his residence here from Brandenburg and built a palace near the present Marx-Engels-Platz.

During the Thirty Years' War Berlin's population was decimated, but in the mid-17th century the city was reborn stronger than before under the so-called Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm. His vision was the basis of Prussian power, and he sponsored Huguenot refugees seeking princely tolerance.

The Great Elector's son, Friedrich I, the first Prussian king, made the fast-growing Berlin his capital, and his daughter-in-law Sophie Charlotte encouraged the development of the arts and sciences and presided over a lively and intellectual court. Friedrich II sought greatness through building and was known for his political and military savvy. The Enlightenment arrived with some authority in the form of the playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and thinker and publisher Friedrich Nicolai; both helped make Berlin a truly international city.

The 19th century began on a low note with the French occupation of 1806-13, and in 1848 a bourgeois democratic revolution was suppressed, somewhat stifling the political development that had been set in motion by the Enlightenment. The population doubled between 1850 and 1870 as the Industrial Revolution, spurred on by companies such as Siemens and Borsig, took hold. In 1871 Bismarck united Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm I. The population of Berlin was almost 2 million by 1900.

Before WWI Berlin had become an industrial giant, but the war and its aftermath led to revolt throughout Germany. On 9 November 1918 Philipp Scheidemann, leader of the Social Democrats, proclaimed the German Republic from a balcony of the Reichstag (parliament) and hours later Karl Liebknecht proclaimed a free Socialist republic from a balcony of the City Palace. In January 1919 the Berlin Spartacists, Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, were murdered by remnants of the old imperial army, which entered the city and brought the revolution to a bloody end.

On the eve of the Nazi takeover, the Communist Party was the strongest single party in 'Red Berlin', having polled 31% of the votes in 1932. Berlin was heavily bombed by the Allies in WWII and, during the 'Battle of Berlin' from August 1943 to March 1944, British bombers hammered the city every night. Most of the buildings you see today along Unter den Linden were reconstructed from the ruins. The Soviets shelled Berlin from the east, and after the last terrible battle, buried 18,000 of their own troops.

In August 1945, the Potsdam Conference sealed the fate of the city by finalising plans for each of the victorious powers - the USA, Britain, France and the Soviet Union - to occupy a separate zone. In June 1948 the city was split in two when the three western Allies introduced a western German currency and established a separate administration in their sectors. The Soviets then blockaded West Berlin, but an airlift kept it in the western camp. In October 1949 East Berlin became the capital of the GDR. The construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 stopped the drain of skilled labour.

When Hungary decided to breach the Iron Curtain in May 1989, the GDR government was back where it had been in 1961, but this time without Soviet backing. On 9 November 1989 the Wall opened, and on 1 July 1990 the Wall was being hacked to pieces. The Unification Treaty between the two Germanys designated Berlin the official capital of Germany, and in June 1991 the Bundestag voted to move the seat of government from Bonn to Berlin over the next decade. A huge consortium of public and private organisations was charged with constructing the heart of a metropolis from scratch. In April 1999 the revamped Reichstag reopened and hosted the unified Germany's parliament, and Berlin was again officially the capital of Germany.

When to Go

The German climate is variable so it's best to be prepared for all types of weather throughout the year. That said, the most reliable weather is from May to October. This coincides, naturally enough, with the standard tourist season. The shoulder periods can bring fewer tourists and surprisingly pleasant weather. There is no special rainy season.

Orientation

Berlin sits in the middle of the region known from medieval times as the Mark, and is surrounded by the new Bundesland (federal state) of Brandenburg. The city spills north and south of the Spree River which winds through some of the magnificent parkland that comprises a third of the municipal area. You can't really get lost within sight of the brooding and monstrous Fernsehturm (TV Tower), a useful orientation point visible from most of central Berlin. Unter der Linden, the fashionable avenue of aristocratic old Berlin, extends from the Brandenburg Gate to Alexanderplatz, once the heart of socialist Germany. Some of Berlin's finest museums are here, on Museumsinsel in the Spree, the original centre of the metropolis. West of the Brandenburg Gate, the boulevard runs through Tiergarten, a huge landscaped park. You may remember the Victory Column at its centre from the Wim Wender's film Wings of Desire. The commercial centre of west Berlin glitters just to the south.

Victory Column (13K)

Attractions

Brandenburg Gate

Built in 1791, this imposing structure has endured several symbolic reincarnations. Intended by its architect Carl Gotthard Langhans to be a symbol of peace, the winged victory goddess and 4-horse chariot posing on the top of the gate were added a couple of years later, turning it into a monument to Prussian might. The goddess and her steeds had a short stint in Paris when Napoleon came along and swiped them in 1806. Political groups from various ideological corners hijacked the pliable Brandenburg Gate as the backdrop for their rallies and processions until 1961 when the wall was built and the gate sealed off in no-man's-land. In 1989, after the dissolution of the border, the area was reopened to the public. Today, traffic passes freely under the gate and the surrounding plaza is dotted with stalls. Enterprising scammers sell all sorts of military souvenirs and hunks of Berlin Wall concrete, mostly of dubious authenticity. If the Berlin Wall was ever reconstructed from the fragments sold to tourists it could probably enclose the whole of Germany.

Brandenburg Gate (13K)

Off the Beaten Track

Potsdam

On the Havel River just beyond the south-western tip of Berlin, Potsdam was the address of German bigwigs from the 17th century onward. They all left behind palaces, both awe-inspiring and nauseating, as testament to their egos. Schloss Sanssouci (No Worries Castle) was commissioned by Friedrich the Great in the mid-18th century and emulates the French grandeur and stateliness of which he was much enamoured. Unfortunately, Friedrich's take on Gallic palatial chic was about as authentic as the execrable French poetry he quilled. Also here is Wilhelm II's mock-Tudor mansion which was used by the Allies in July 1945 to determine the fate of a defeated Germany in the famous Potsdam Conference.

Bearing the burden at Schloss Sanssouci (15K)

Voolay voo Voltaire?

Stasi HQ

The old headquarters of the German Democratic Republic's secret police force (the notorious Stasi) are in the graceless suburbs of East Berlin. Through a huge network of full-time staff, aided by part-time informers numbering in the millions, the Stasi infiltrated East Germany with neurotic overkill, creating and fuelling an atmosphere of fear and mistrust to the extent that family dinner table conversations were curtailed. The Stasi's power resided in its insidious thoroughness rather than explicit violence, although beatings were not unknown. The Stasi headquarters can be visited today, and are interesting not for what can be seen, but because of what went on here. There is a lingering empty resonance of a perverted commitment to soullessness and utter lack of personality.

Trabant put to good use (18K)

Kreuzberg

Southwest of Berlin's CBD, Kreuzberg is a dynamic neighbourhood which has been settled by trendy anarchists and Turkish immigrants. All the stories you've heard about Berlin's smacked-out leather-wrapped punks and squatters have their origins here. Today the area is still lively, although it's a bit self-consciously alternative. If cliché was a disease, this joint would be quarantined. Nevertheless, there are great Turkish cafés, interesting bookshops and a cliquey underground art and music scene. Being Germany, the rebellious spirit of the area's inhabitants overwhelms them annually on 1 May in a ritual riot and the punks are immortalised by a bronze statue sneering at middle Berlin from a prominent street corner.

Activities

Just about every district in Berlin has its own indoor and outdoor swimming pool, some with saunas and wave machines. One of the most popular activities in Berlin is river cruising - tourist boats cruise the city's waterways, calling at picturesque parks and castles.

Berlin has three papers to get hold of for entertainment listings as well as the ubiquitous Litfaßsäule's (advertising bollards). One of the newspapers, Checkpoint, is in English. Tip and Zitty are both in German but aren't impossible to understand if you know what you're looking for. For opera and musicals, look out for the monthly Berlin Programm, or enquire at the theatres directly.

Elegant theatre buildings (17K)

Events

Berlin's calendar is loaded with annual fairs, festivals, concerts and parties. The Berlin Film Festival, the second largest in the world, is held in February. Christopher Street Day is the city's big gay parade, which hits the streets in June, while the techno Love Parade goes doof in early July. Jazz Fest Berlin doo-bops in October and Christmas Markets are held throughout the city in the month before the big day.

Getting There & Away

There are hardly any direct flights to Berlin from overseas and, depending on the airline you use, you're likely to fly first into another European city like Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris or London and catch a connecting flight from there. Berlin has three airports. Tegel (TXL) primarily serves destinations within Germany and Europe. Schönefeld (SXF) mostly operates international flights to/from Europe, Asia, Africa and Central America. Berlin-Tempelhof (THF) became famous as the main landing hub for Allied airlifts during the Berlin blockade of 1948-49. Today it's the main hub for domestic departures and flights to Central Europe.

Berlin is well-connected to the rest of Europe by long-distance bus. Most buses arrive at and depart from the Zentraler Omnibus-bahnhof in Charlottenburg, opposite the stately Funkturm radio tower.

Until the opening of the huge new Lehrter Bahnhof in 2002, train services to and from Berlin will remain confusing because of the extensive construction around town which affects several stations. Trains scheduled to leave from or arrive at one station may be spontaneously rerouted to another. Zoo station is the main station for long-distance travellers going to and from the west.

Getting Around

Berlin's three airports can all be reached by train or bus, which will save you stacks on taxi fares. Berlin has an efficient network of suburban trains and buses, reaching every corner of the city and the surrounding areas. Trams run in east Berlin, and there is a ferry from Kladow to Wannsee.

Berlin is probably easier to drive around than many other big cities in Europe, with roadworks being the biggest hassle. Parking isn't too difficult and is reasonably cheap. If you'd rather have someone else drive you, there are taxi stands with 'call columns' throughout the city - it costs more to call than to flag one down. In the inner city there are also some pedicabs, called Velotaxis.

Berlin is very cycle friendly, and it's a good way to get to know the city - there are specially marked bike lanes everywhere. There are also plenty of bike rental shops.