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Karlshorst

Karlshorst

Karlshorst (literally meaning Karl's nest in German) is a district of Berlin. Karlshorst has one of Berlin's metro stations and is a station on the Deutsche Bahn. Karlshorst has a historically important background. In April 1945, as the Red Army approached the Reich's capital, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, established his headquarters at Karlshorst. On May 9, the final German surrender was presented to Zhukov at Karlshorst by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. Quite appropriately Karlshorst has been the home of the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst (Deutsch-Russisches Museum Berlin-Karlshorst). Karlshorst is also home of the German football team FC Karlshorst 1995, a rather obscure team playing in the lower leagues of the DFB.

External links

- http://www.karlshorst.de/ - official site
- http://www.karlshorst-info.de/ - information about Karlshorst
- http://www.museum-karlshorst.de/ - German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
- http://www.fckarlshorst.de/ - official site of FC Karlshorst 1995 Category:Districts of Berlin

German language

German (German: ), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union. Spoken by more than 130 million people in 38 countries of the world, German is—like English—a pluricentric language with three main centers of usage: Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Geographic distribution

German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, in two-thirds of Switzerland, in two-thirds of the South Tyrol province of Italy (in German, Südtirol), in the small East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark. In Luxembourg (in German, Luxemburg), as well as in the French régions of Alsace (in German, Elsass) and parts of Lorraine (in German, Lothringen), the native populations speak several German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in Alsace and Lorraine French has for the most part replaced the local German dialects in the last 40 years. Some German speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and above all Russia, Kazakhstan and Poland, although massive relocations to Germany in the late 1940s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German speaking communities are to be found in the USA and in Brazil where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the great majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German speaking communities are to be found in the former German colony of Namibia, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloneiro developed), Thailand, and Australia. See also Plautdietsch. In the USA, the largest concentration of German speakers are in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites and some Mennonites speak Pennsylvania German and Hutterite German), Texas (Texas German), North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin and Indiana also speak dialects of German. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul, where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo). Generally, German immigrant communities in the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America, possibly due to the fact that for Germans English is easier to learn than Portuguese or Spanish. German is the main language of about 100 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the most spoken language in Europe excluding Russia, above French (66.5 million speakers in Europe in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in Europe in 2004). German is the third most taught foreign language worldwide, also in the USA (after Spanish and French); it is the second most known foreign language in the EU (after English; see [http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_237.en.pdf]) It is one of the official languages of the European Union.

History

As a consequence of the colonisation patterns the Völkerwanderung, the routes for trade and communication (chiefly the rivers), and of physical isolation (high mountains and deep forests) very different regional dialects developed. These dialects, sometimes mutually unintelligible, were used across the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardisation of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1521 and the Old Testament in 1534) he based his translation mainly on this already developed language, which was the most widely understood language at this time. This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterit tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (Gemeines Deutsch) — which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava (German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, Standard German was almost only a written language. In this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider that northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German), which is understood in all areas of German languages (except by pre-school children in areas which speak only dialect, for example Switzerland — but in this age of TV, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age). The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1960, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spelling co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the heated public debate concerning the reform. During the 1870s, the German language successfully replaced Latin as the dominant language in all major European and North American universities, thanks to the prominence of German universities at the time. Most important research in the sciences for some decades afterward was published in German, and new universities preferred German instead of Greek or Latin mottoes (for example, Stanford University).

Classification and related languages

Stanford University is divided into Upper German (blue) and Central German (green), and the Dutch/Plattdüütsch (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked in red.]] German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family.

Neighboring languages

German forms together with Dutch, its closest relative, a coherent and well-defined language area that is separated from its neighbors by language borders. These neighbors are: in the north Frisian and Danish; in the east Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian; in the south Slovenian, Italian, Friulian, Ladin, and Romansh; in the west French. Except for Frisian, none of these languages are West Germanic, and so they are clearly distinct from German and Dutch. While Frisian is closely related to German and Dutch, it is generally considered not to be mutually intelligible with them. The situation is more complex with respect to the distinction between German and Dutch. Until recently, there has been a dialect continuum throughout the whole German-Dutch language area, with no language borders. In such a dialect continuum, dialects are always mutually intelligible with their neighbors, but dialects that are further apart from each other are often not. The German-Dutch continuum lent itself to a classification of dialects into Low German and High German based on their participation in the High German consonant shift; Dutch is part of the Low German group. However, because of the political separation between Germany and the Netherlands, Low German dialects in the Netherlands and Low German dialects in Germany have started to diverge during the 20th century. Additionally, both in northern Germany and in the Netherlands, many dialects are close to extinction and are being replaced by the German and Dutch standard languages. In this way, a language border between Dutch and German is currently forming. While German is grammatically similar in many ways to Dutch, it is very different in speech. A speaker of one may require some practice to effectively understand a speaker of the other. Compare, for example: :De kleinste kameleon is volwassen 2 cm groot, de grootste kan wel 80 cm worden. (Dutch) :Das kleinste Chamäleon ist ausgewachsen 2 cm groß, das größte kann gut 80 cm werden. (Standard German) : (English: "The smallest chameleon is fully grown 2 cm long, the longest can easily attain 80 cm.") Dutch speakers are generally able to read German, and German speakers who can speak Low German or English are generally able to read Dutch, but have problems understanding the spoken language, although Germans who speak High German, or, even better, Low German, can cope with Dutch much better than people from Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria who have grown up with the Alemannic or Bavarian dialects.

Official status

Standard German is the only official language in Germany, Liechtenstein, and Austria; it shares official status in Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in German-speaking regions of Belgium, Italy, Denmark, and Poland. It is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union. It is also a minority language in Canada, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Poland, Romania, Togo, Cameroon, the USA, Namibia, Brazil, Paraguay, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Ukraine, Croatia, Moldavia, Australia, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. German was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe. Increasing influence from the English language has affected German recently. However, German remains one of the most popular foreign languages taught world-wide, and is more popular than French as a foreign language in Europe. 8% of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German, in addition to the 24% who speak German as a mother tongue.[http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html] This is assisted by the availability of German TV by cable or satellite, where series like Star Trek are shown dubbed into German. German is also the second language of the Internet, more than 8% of the websites are in German (English 50%, French 6%, Japanese 5%, Spanish 3% and Portuguese 2%).

Dialects

The term "German" is used for the dialects of Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland (that is, outside the French-, Italian-, and Romansch-speaking areas) and some areas in the surrounding countries, as well as for several colonies and other ethnic concentrations founded by German-speaking people (for example German in the United States). The variation among the German dialects is considerable. Only the neighbouring dialects are mutually understandable. Most dialects are not understandable for someone who knows standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages because any pair of neighbouring dialects is perfectly mutually intelligible. The dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages is typically divided into Low Germanic languages and High Germanic languages. Low Germanic is defined as the varieties that were not affected by the High German consonant shift. They consist of two subgroups, Low Franconian and Plattdüütsch (Low German). Low Franconian includes Dutch and Afrikaans, spoken primarily in the Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa; Plattdüütsch includes dialects spoken primarily in the German Lowlands and in the eastern Netherlands. The Plattdüütsch varieties are considered dialects of the German language by some, but a separate language by others; the Low Franconian varieties are not considered a part of the German language (see above for a discussion of the distinction between German and Dutch). High Germanic is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Hessian, Thuringian and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardized and institutionalized and are therefore usually considered a separate language, Luxembourgish language. Upper German dialects include Alemannic (for instance Swiss German), Swabian, East Franconian, and Austro-Bavarian. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from (for example Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, or Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia). In the United States, the teaching of the German language to latter-age students has given rise to a pidgin variant which combines the German language with the grammar and spelling rules of the English language. It is often understandable by either party. The speakers of this language often refer to it as Amerikanisch or Amerikanischdeutsch, although it is known in English as American German.

Standard German

In German linguistics, only the traditional regional varieties are called dialects, not the different varieties of standard German. Standard German has originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German (especially in major cities of Germany, and to some extent in Vienna). Standard German differs regionally, especially between German-speaking countries, especially in vocabulary, but also in some instances of pronunciation and even grammar. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectical varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is almost entirely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Standard German is rarely spoken, for instance when speaking with people who do not understand the Swiss German dialects at all, and it is expected to be used in school.

Grammar

Main article: German grammar German is an inflected language.

Noun inflection

German nouns inflect into:
- one of four declension classes
- one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Word endings indicate some grammatical genders; others are arbitrary and must be memorised.
- two numbers: singular and plural
- four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative case. Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, it should be noted that the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in Icelandic today. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. This dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or written language. Weak masculine nouns share an common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, six inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -en, -ns, -e In the German orthography, unlike any other orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which makes it quite easy for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence. On the other hand, things get more difficult for the writer. Like most Germanic languages, German forms left-branching noun compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: Hundehütte (eng. doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest official German word is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. There is even a child's game played in kindergartens and primary schools where a child begins the spelling of a word (which is not told) by naming the first letter. The next one tells the next letter, the third one tells the third and so on. The game is over when the a child can not think of another letter to be added to the word.

Verb Inflection

Standard German verbs inflect into:
- one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (note: in fact there is a third class, called "gemischte Verben", which can be either weak ("active meaning") or strong ("passive meaning")) There are about 200 irregular verbs.
- three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
- two numbers: singular and plural
- three moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative
- two genera verbi: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic.
- 2 non-composed tenses (Present, Preterite) and 4 composed tenses (Perfect, Plusquamperfect, Future I, Future II)
- no distinction between aspects (in English, perfect and progressive; in Polish between completed and incompleted form; in Turkish between first-hand and second-hand information) There are also many ways to expand, an sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through several prefixes. Example: haften=to stick, verhaften=to imprison The word order is much more flexible than in English. The word order can be changed for subtle changes of a sentence's meaning. In normal positive sentences the verb always has position 2, in questions it has position 1. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, French, and most recently English.

Writing system

German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely ä, ö and ü, as well as a special symbol for "ss", which is used only after long vowels or diphthongs (and not used at all in Switzerland), the Eszett or Scharfes-S (sharp "s") ß. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and Sütterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif antiqua typefaces used today, and are difficult for the untrained to read. They were abolished by the Nazis (incorrectly claiming that these letters are Jewish) in 1941 but this has been retained for broader and easier usability.

Alphabet

Main article: German alphabet.

Phonology

Main article: German phonology (pronunciation, historical sound changes).

Cognates with English

There are many German words that are cognate to English words. Most of them are easily identifiable and have almost the same meaning. When these cognates have slightly different consonants, this is often due to the High German consonant shift. There are cognates whose meanings in either language have changed through the centuries. It is sometimes difficult for both English and German speakers to discern the relationship. On the other hand, once the definitions are made clear, then the logical relation becomes obvious. There are many English loanwords in German, and a somewhat smaller number of German loanwords in English. Sometimes these also involve semantic changes, for example German Dogge, 'mastiff', from English dog, or German Handy, 'mobile phone'. German and English also share many borrowings from other languages, especially from Latin, French and Greek, but also from many other languages. Most of these word have the same meaning, while a few have subtle differences in meaning. As many of these words have been borrowed by numerous languages, not only German and English, they are called internationalisms in German linguistics.

Examples of German

Names of the German language in other languages

Because of the turbulent history of both Germany and the German language, the names that other peoples have chosen to use to refer to it varies more than for most other languages. In general, the names for the German language can be arranged in five groups according to their origin: Lao is unique in that both under the influence of English "German" (through Thai "yenman") and French (the colonial language) "Allemand", it chose a name in between: ພາສາເຢຍລະມັນ (phaxa yeylaman), which could be ranked both under category 2 and category 5. Note: The Romanian language used to use in the past the Slavonic term "nemţeşte", but "germană" is now widely used. Hungarian "német" is also a Slavonic loan-word. The Arabic name for Austria, النمسا ("an-namsa"), is derived from the Slavonic term. A possible explanation for the use of "mute" to refer to German (and also to Germans) in Slavic languages is that Germans were the first people Slavic tribes encountered, with whom they could not communicate. The corresponding experience for the Germans was with the Volcae, whose name they subsequently also applied to the Slavs, see etymology of Vlach. Hebrew traditionally (nowadays this is not the case) used the Biblical term Ashkenaz (Genesis 10.3) to refer to Germany, or to certain parts of it, and the Ashkenazi Jews are those who originate from Germany and Eastern Europe and formerly spoke Yiddish as their native language, derived from Middle High German.

External links

-
- [http://www.declan-software.com/german German language learning audio software]
- [http://learno.com/german Online Learno german course] Free online German tutorial at Learno.com
- [http://www.washjeff.edu/capl/ Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon] Free online visual lexicon of the German language with authentic photos from German speaking world.
- [http://www.sprachtausch.net Sprachtausch.net] — German website to find someone to teach you, for example german in exchange with your language.
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=deu Ethnologue report for German]
- [http://www.travlang.com/languages/german/ihgg/ Internet Handbook of German Grammar]
- [http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/ German resources] at the University of Michigan
- [http://german.languages4everyone.com Learn German Online] with this internet German course for beginners
- [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,2469,00.html Deutsche Welle's Online German Courses]
- [http://www.applelanguages.com/en/learn/german.php German courses in Germany]
- [http://www.vds-ev.de Verein Deutsche Sprache] (in German)
- A beginning [http://wikibooks.org/wiki/German German Language Textbook] under development at [http://wikibooks.org/ Wikibooks]
- [http://www.diwa.info/ Digital Wenker-Atlas] Project publishing the 19th century Linguistic Atlas of the German Empire
- [http://www.geocities.com/language_directory/languages/german.htm List of online German-related resources]
- [http://eserver.org/langs/the-awful-german-language.txt That awful German language] — A humourous essay by Mark Twain
- [http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/german/index.html Why learn German? A German language profile]
- [http://www.vistawide.com/german/why_german.htm Why learn German?] — 12 reasons to learn German
- [http://www.actilingua.com/german_courses/german_language.php Short summary on German language and varieties with a map!]
- [http://www.ielanguages.com/German.html Free German Language Tutorial from ielanguages.com]
- [http://www.passwort-deutsch.de/ Passwort Deutsch] - A German course
- [http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/ Learn German Online] containing free courses
- [http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover_pop.php?lang=en&to_lang=1&learn-German/ Learn and listen to useful expressions in German] Each expression is presented with an audio recording and an illustration
- [http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=37&name=Germany+Education Articles on learning German] Also has a service whereby learners of German can send questions to a German teacher

Dictionary and word translations

- [http://dict.leo.org/ The LEO Online Dictionary] German-English-German dictionary at Leo.org
- [http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/ TU Chemnitz Dictionary] a 185000+ German-English Dictionary with proverbs and pronounciation
- [http://www.dict.cc/ dict.cc: User-editable German-English-German Dictionary] works similar to Wikipedia, more than 840,000 keywords (420,000 translation pairs)
- [http://odge.info/ Odge.info] uses dict.cc's data according to [http://odge.info/License/ license] page
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/German-english/ German — English Dictionary]: from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] — the Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.canoo.net/index_en.html German Grammar, Online Dictionary for Spelling, Infection and Wordformation for the German Language]
- [http://www.geodic.de GEODic] German-English-Online-Dictionary
- [http://www.woerterbuch.info woerterbuch.info — Free English-German Online Dictionary] with over 600.000 translations
- [http://www.dwds.de The Digital Dictonary Project]in German - Dictionary, Corpus and Statistics
- http://www.dedict.de - English-German Online Dictionary
- http://www.spell-it.net - Free English-German Online Dictionary

Grammar

- [http://www.wm.edu/modlang/gasmit/grammar/grammnu.html Grammar of German]
- [http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~skidmore/grammarpage.htm German Grammar on the Web]
- [http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~oberle/courses/review.html German Review Grammar]
- [http://www.cas.muohio.edu/~greal/netzgrammatik/grammar.html German Grammar Charts]

Reference

Berlin

:This article is about the city in Germany. For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation).

Basic Information

, IPA: , is the capital of Germany and its largest city; the city is now home to 3.4 million residents, down from a peak of 4.5 million before World War II. From 1949 to 1990 it was divided into East Berlin and West Berlin. Berlin, built on sand, is located on the rivers Spree and Havel in the north of Germany. It is enclosed by the German state of Brandenburg, and has constituted a state of its own since 1920.

Political Berlin

The state

Berlin originally was a main city in the Duchy of Brandenburg. Today, it is the national capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, and was expanded to form Greater Berlin in 1920. Since German reunification on 3 October 1990 it has been one of the three city states, together with Hamburg and Bremen, among the present 16 German Bundesländer. Berlin is governed by the Senate of Berlin, which consists of the Regierender Bürgermeister (governing mayor) and up to eight senators holding ministerial portfolios. The governing mayor is mayor of the city and representative of the Bundesland (state) at the same time. The seat of office for the Berlin Mayor is the Rotes Rathaus. Presently, this office is held by Klaus Wowereit (SPD): for earlier mayors, see the list of Mayors of Berlin. The city and state parliament is called the Abgeordnetenhaus or House of Representatives. The current Senate consists of a coalition of the social democrat SPD and the socialist Left Party.

The boroughs

Left Party Berlin is subdivided into 12 boroughs, called Bezirke, which were created from the previously existing 23 boroughs, effective since 1 January 2001. For a map and a list of the old and new borough names, see Boroughs of Berlin. Each borough is governed by a Bezirksamt consisting of ten Stadträte (town councillors) and a mayor. The Bezirksamt is elected by the district-parliament, the Bezirksverordnetenversammlung. The boroughs of Berlin are not independent municipalities, and the political power of the district-parliaments is fairly minimal and dependent on the Senate of Berlin. The district mayors form the council of mayors, called Rat der Bürgermeister under the leadership of the Regierende Bürgermeister (governing mayor), to advise the Senate.

Population

Berlin has 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005) on a surface of 891.75 square kilometres, thus, the population density of the region amounts to 3,811 inhabitants per square kilometre. Berlin citizens' average age is 41.7 years (as of 2004). 450,900 inhabitants are foreigners coming from 185 states (as of December 2004). Among them, approximately 36,000 citizens come from the nearest neighbouring country, Poland and 119,000 are Turkish - Berlin has the largest Turkish municipality in Europe outside of Turkey. According to official statistics, in 2004, 22.3% of the population were Protestants, 9.1% were Catholics, 6.2% were Muslims, and 0.4% were Jews. Between approximately the 1890s and the mid-1920s, Berlin was the fourth-largest urban area in the world after New York, London, and Paris. Today, it is only the sixth-largest urban area in the European Union, and approximately the 80th-largest urban area in the world.

History

Berlin today

Tourist attractions

urban area in the European Union Even though Berlin does have a number of impressive buildings from earlier centuries, the city's appearance today is mainly shaped by the key role it played in Germany's history in the 20th century. Each of the national governments which had their seat in Berlin — the 1871 German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and now the reunified Germany — initiated ambitious construction programs, each with its own distinctive character. Berlin was devastated by bombing raids during World War II, and many of the old buildings that escaped the bombs were eradicated in the 1950s and 1960s in both West and East. Much of this destruction was caused by overambitious architecture programs, especially to build new residential or business quarters and main roads. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no other city in the world offers Berlin's unusual mix of architecture, especially 20th-century architecture. The city's tense and unique recent history has left it with a distinctive array of sights. Not much is left of the Berlin Wall. The East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke over the Spree preserves a portion of the Wall. By looking at the architecture it is still possible to tell if one is in the former eastern or western part of the city. In the eastern part, many Plattenbauten can be found, reminders of Eastern Bloc ambitions to create complete residential areas with fixed ratios of shops, kindergartens and schools. Another difference between former east and west is in the design of little red and green men on pedestrian crossing lights (Ampelmännchen in German); the eastern versions received an opt-out during the standardization of road traffic signs after re-unification, and have survived to become a popular icon in tourist products. They are however starting to appear in western Berlin too.

Historical sights in the city centre

Ampelmännchen Ampelmännchen
- The Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden, symbols of Berlin, Prussia, and now Germany. The Brandenburg Gate appears on German Euro coins.
- Reichstag building, the old and new seat of the German parliament, renovated by Sir Norman Foster. Features a glass dome in which you can walk around and watch the parliamentarians from above.
- Gendarmenmarkt, arguably the most beautiful square in Berlin, surrounded by two famous cathedrals and the concert hall.
- Berlin victory column, monument to Prussia's victories.
- The Berliner Dom, an historic cathedral. A large 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 the residence of the German President
- Schloss Charlottenburg, the largest surviving historical palace in Berlin
- The Neptunbrunnen, a famous fountain in Berlin Mitte.
- Tiergarten is Berlin's largest park and a masterpiece of park design.

Cold War and sightseeing in the former East Berlin

park
- The Palast der Republik, the old East German parliament building. It is seen by some as ugly, former East Berliners remember with affection restaurants, shops, clubs, and the concerts that took place there in the 1980s. Although it has some significance as a historical tourist attraction, the German Parliament voted for its demolition, which will commence in 2005. The Palast der Republik is built on the site of the Berlin City Palace, which was demolished in 1950 by the Communists. The Palace Square was renamed Marx-Engels-Platz at the same time.
- The Fernsehturm, the TV tower, the highest building in the city at 368 m (1207 ft), and the second largest structure in Europe (after Moscow's Ostankino Tower). The Fernsehturm is easily visible throughout most of the central districts of Berlin. Which boasts one of the fastest lifts in Europe, at 45 metres per minute
- Alexanderplatz, formerly East Berlin's major shopping center, and home to the Centrum-Warenhaus, which was the DDR's department store. It is now a thoroughly Westernized shopping centre, belonging to the Kaufhof chain.
- East Side Gallery a memorial for freedom based on the last parts of the Berlin Wall
- Rotes Rathaus (the Red City Hall), historic town hall famous for its distinctive 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 a museum about one of the crossing points (albeit restricted to Allied forces) in the Berlin Wall. The museum, which is a private venture, exhibits interesting material about people who devised ingenious plans to leave the East, but is controversial in the city for its propagandistic Cold War didactics and publicity stunts that many consider tasteless.

Sights of modern Berlin

Cold War
- Potsdamer Platz, an entire quarter built from scratch after 1995. The historic Potsdamer Platz was not rebuilt as it was divided by the Wall. A must-see for people who like modern city planning. Just to the West of Potsdamer Platz is the Kulturforum, which houses the Gemäldegalerie, and is flanked by the Neue Nationalgalerie and the Philharmonie.
- Hackescher Markt, Spandauer Vorstadt and Scheunenviertel, the home to fashionable culture, with countless small clothing shops, clubs, bars, and galleries. This includes the New Synagogue area in Oranienburger Straße (originally built in the 1860s in Moorish style with a large golden dome and reconstructed in 1993), and the Hackesche Höfe, a conglomeration of several buildings around several courtyards, nicely reconstructed after 1996. This area was a centre of Jewish culture up until the 1930s.
- Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a Holocaust memorial opened in May 2005.

Panoramic viewing points

Holocaust
- Berliner Funkturm— the only observation tower in the world which stands on insulators. Its open-air observation deck is popular for photography.
- Berlin Television Tower [http://www.berlinerfernsehturm.de/] — 368-m high television tower, built in 1969 close to Alexanderplatz. The entire city can be viewed from its 204-m high observation platform.
- Grunewaldturm [http://www.grunewaldturm.de] — this 59-m high historic tower stands on a hill in Grunewald forest close to Wannsee lake.
- Französischer Dom [http://www.franzoesischer-dom-berlin.de] — located on Gendarmenmarkt in the very heart of the city, the platform of the cathedral offers unique views.
- Bierpinsel — literally "Beer Stick". 1970s style tower in the Berlin Borough of Steglitz with a café and bar at the top giving views over south-western Berlin.
- Restaurant of the Forum Hotel Berlin
- Berliner Dom [http://www.berliner-dom.de] — Protestant cathedral situated next to the Lustgarten, with a circular observation platform around the dome.
- Bell tower at the Olympic Stadium [http://www.glockenturm.de] — part of the Reichssportfeld complex, the tower offers a view 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 in 1938–39 from its previous position in front of the Reichstag.
- Müggelturm — a tower giving panoramic views over the Müggelsee lake.
- Reichstag building— the roof of the parliament building, crowned by a large glass cupola designed by Lord Foster is open to the public giving an impressive view over the city, especially at night.

Other interesting structures (not accessible to public)

Foster
- 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

Power station Reutter
- Unter den Linden is the street that heads east from the Brandenburg Gate. Many Classical buildings line the street. Part of Humboldt University is located there.
- Friedrichstraße, Berlin's legendary street of the "Golden Twenties" which combines the tradition of the last century with modern architecture of today's Berlin.
- Kurfürstendamm (Ku'damm), with the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church), which lies right at the top end of Kurfürstendamm, on Breitscheidplatz (underground station Kurfürstendamm). The church was bombed out in World War II and its ruins have been preserved in their damaged state. Near by is the Ka-De-We Berlin's equivalent to London's Harrods. Also nearby is the Zoologischer Garten, a zoo with a large number of species.
- 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 the golden Siegessäule (Statue of Victory), which used to stand in front of the Reichstag.
- The Karl-Marx-Allee (formerly Stalinalle), a boulevard lined by monumental landmark buildings designed in the Socialist Classicism of the Stalin era. It is located in Friedrichshain and Mitte.

Street lighting

Berlin is unique in that it still has around 43,800 gas lamp standards in working order, usually to be found on back streets and historically sensitive places. The first 1,800 lanterns were erected by the English Gas Company in 1826. Operation of the Gas lamps was taken over by the City Authorities in 1847. The first electric street lighting appeared around 1880. Between 1963 and 1982 replacement of the gas lamps in East Berlin was completed apart from a few remaining streets in Köpenick. In West Berlin the reverse was the situation, new styles of gas lamp standards being introduced as late as the 1950s. There was a debate in the late 1970´s on whether replacement with electric lighting should go ahead, but public opinion was against it. This debate was revived again in 2005, due to rising costs of gas, but no definite decision on replacement has been made. There is an open-air collection of working gas lamps in Tiergarten near to S-Bahnhof Tiergarten, which as well as displaying historic examples from Berlin and other German cities also has examples from other European cities. [http://www.dtmb.de/Aktuelles/Kooperationen/Laternen/body.html]

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 Berlin [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

Technische Fachhochschule
- Zoologischer Garten Berlin, Berlin's oldest zoo, located in the city center.
- Tierpark Friedrichsfelde, founded by the GDR in a historic castle park in eastern Berlin.
- Botanic Garden and Botanic Museum Berlin, one of the most important botanical gardens of the world and the largest in Europe.

The Arts and Culture

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 many buildings in the former city centre of East Berlin (today the district Mitte) were renovated. Many had not been rebuilt since World War II. Illegally occupied by young people, they had become a fertile ground for all sorts of underground and counter-culture gatherings. It was also home to many nightclubs, including Tacheles, Techno clubs Tresor, WMF, Ufo and E-Werk. The art scene in Berlin is extremely rich and it is home to hundreds of art galleries. The city is host to the Art Forum annual international art fair. Berlin also offers one of the most diverse and vibrant nightlife scenes in Europe. Most Berliners take great pride in their city's reputation as one of the most socially progressive cities on the continent. [http://www.presse.tk/ Source: Press] Berlin's annual Carnival of Cultures, a multi-ethnic street parade, and Chistopher Street Day celebrations, Central Europe's largest gay-lesbian pride event, are openly supported by the 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]. Another event is the techno-demonstration "Loveparade" (every year in July or August). Despite the city's high unemployment levels, a significant number of young Germans and artists continue to settle in the city, and Berlin has established itself as the premiere centre of youth and pop culture in Europe. Signs of this expanding role were the 2003 announcement that the annual Popkomm, Europe's largest music industry convention, would move to Berlin after 15 years in Cologne. Shortly thereafter, German MTV also decided to move its headquarters and main studios from Munich to Berlin. Universal Music opened its European headquarters on the banks of the River Spree in an area known as the [http://www.mediaspree.de mediaspree].

Film industry and films about Berlin

Berlin is the centre of the German film industry, partly due to the existence of the Babelsberg Studios and many important film and TV production companies like UFA, Senator Film, Goldkind etc. Many international movies and European co-productions have been filmed there. Berlin is also home of the European Film Academy, the German Film Academy and host of the Berlinale film festival. There are many films that were set in or portray the special "Berlin-Atmosphere" from different eras, among them are:
- Die Sinfonie der Großstadt - 1927 Documentary Type Film "Day in the life of Berlin" [http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0017668/]
- Berlin Alexanderplatz - 1920s Berlin
- M - Early 1930s Berlin
- The Testament of Dr. Mabuse - 1933 Berlin
- Germany, Year Zero - Shows the nightmarishly dilapidated remains of 1945 Berlin, post WWII.
- One, Two, Three - Cold War before the Wall 1961
- Funeral in Berlin 1966 Cold War Thriller - A bit dated, filmed in Berlin with some nice scenes in Kreuzberg
- Cabaret - Filmed in 1972, set in the early 1930s
- Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo - 1970s
- Linie 1 - 1988 Film of the 1986 Musical about U-Bahn Line 1 in West Berlin
- Run Lola Run - Filmed 1998 in post-reunification Berlin
- Good bye, Lenin! - Set in 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 who escapes East Berlin in 1989. 2001.
- Der Untergang (Downfall) - 2004 German film portraying the final days of the Third Reich in Hitler's bunker.
- Sonnenallee - A teen comedy set in East Berlin in the 1970s.
Museums
Sonnenallee
- 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 the site of an old freight train hub
- Museum for Post and Telecommunication
- Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery), European art (mostly paintings) from the 13th to the 18th century [http://www.museen-berlin.de/gg/e/s.html]
- Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), one of the last 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/]
- [http://www.dtmb.de/Aktuelles/Kooperationen/Laternen/body.html Berlin open-air Gas Lamp Museum, adjacent to S-Bahnhof Tiergaten(see section on Street lighting)]
- [http://www.berliner-unterwelten.de Berlin Underworld`s Association]
- [http://www.ag-berliner-u-bahn.de/ Undergroundtrain / Tube-Museum]
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 system, mainly in eastern Berlin
- Bus,
- Passenger Berlin Ferry
- All means of public transport - U- & S- Bahn, trams, buses and ferries - can be accessed with the same ticket.
- A map of the current [http://www.bvg.de/index.php/de/Common/Document/field/file/id/68 public transport network] (BVG)
Railway Termini
Berlin was, pre-1945, the hub of the central European railway network. World War Two and the political division of Germany had very negative effects on the railway network in Berlin. Today only two pre-1945 Termini, Ostbahnhof and Zoologischer Garten, remain in service. In the early 1950s, in an effort by the East German government to isolate West Berlin, railway services were diverted away from termini in West Berlin . These stations became disused and were demolished during the 1950s and 1960s.
- Anhalter Bahnhof
- Stettiner Bahnhof
- Görlitzer Bahnhof
- Potsdamer Bahnhof
- Lehrter Bahnhof See also List of Berlin metro stations
Airports

- Tegel International Airport (TXL), to close after BBI starts operations
- Schönefeld International Airport (SXF), to be expanded and renamed Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) in 2011
- Tempelhof International Airport (THF), to close 2007
- [http://www.berlin-airport.de Berlin Airports Website]
Ports

- Westhafen (Westport) - largest port in Berlin with an area of 173,000 m²: transshipment of grain, pieced and heavy goods.
- Südhafen (Southport) - an area of about 103,000 m² for transshipment of pieced and heavy goods.
- Osthafen (Eastport) - the area of 57,500 m² is still in use, but partly under urban redevelopment
- Hafen Neukölln (Port Neukölln) - with only 19,000 m² the smallest port; transshipment of building materials.
Power Supply
The power supply of Berlin has some peculiarities. In World War II it was planned to supply the grid of Berlin over an HVDC-underground cable from Dessau power station . The construction of this facility was begun in 1943, but was abandoned (see Elbe-Project). During the time of the division, the power grid of former West Berlin was cut off from the power grid of the surrounding 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 of these power stations, which were connected by static inverters to the power grid and were loaded during times of low power consumption and unloaded during times of high consumption. In 1993 the power connections to the surrounding country, which were broken in 1951, were restored again. In the western districts of Berlin nearly all power lines are underground cables - only a 380 kV and a 110 kV-line, which run from Reuter power station to the urban motorway, are overhead lines. In Berlin there is the longest 380 kV three phase cable, the 380kV-crossing Berlin. It may be the most expensive power line in Germany ([http://www.seo.ag/ SEO]).
Sport

- Berlin hosted the 1936 Olympics.
- Berlin will be one of the host cities for the , to be held in Germany.
- Berlin will be hosting the 2009 athletics world championships.
- Berlin is home to Hertha BSC Berlin, a football team in the Bundesliga.
- Berlin is home to Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe.
Quotes concerning Berlin
"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy." ("Berlin is poor, but sexy.")
(Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor, in a television interview, 2004)
" Ich bin ein Berliner."
(John F. Kennedy, President of the USA, 1963 while visiting Berlin)
"Ihr Völker der Welt ... schaut auf diese Stadt!" ("Peoples of the world ... look at this city!")
(Ernst Reuter, Governing Mayor, during the Berlin blockade, 1948) "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!"
(Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987) "Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin" ("I still keep a suitcase in Berlin")
(Marlene Dietrich, actress and singer born 1901 in Berlin-Schöneberg) "Paris is always Paris and Berlin is never Berlin!"
(Jack Lang, French former culture minister, talking about how fast Berlin is changing, 2001) "What could have possessed people to found a city in the middle of all this sand?"
(Stendhal, French writer who travelled extensively in Germany and elsewhere) "Berlin is a city that never is, but is always in the process of becoming."
(Karl Scheffler, author of Berlin: Ein Stadtschicksal)
External links

- [http://www.berlin.de/english/index.html Official Website]
- [http://www.berlinonline.de/ Berlin Online Berlin's information web site]
- [http://www.alt-berlin.info/ Alt-Berlin - Extensive archive of historical maps of Berlin, from 1738 to the present day - in German and English]
- [http://germany.archiseek.com/brandenburg/berlin/index.html Architecture of Berlin]
- [http://www.statistik-berlin.de Berlin statistics - in German]
- [http://www.panorama-cities.net/berlin/berlin.html City Panoramas - Panoramic Views of Berlin's Highlights]
- [http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/stadtmodelle/de/extra_fenster_schwarzplaene.shtml Comparison of historic layouts of the city]
- [http://www.western-allies-berlin.com/ Western Allies Berlin - History of the western allies in Berlin from 1945 to 1994] Category:Capitals in Europe Category:German state capitals Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:States of Germany Category:Cities in Germany als:Berlin ko:베를린 ja:ベルリン simple:Berlin th:เบอร์ลิน

Berlin

:This article is about the city in Germany. For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation).