There can be few cities in the world that can claim as much history as Berlin. In recent times, Berlin has witnessed the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, WW2, the Berlin Wall and reunification - that’s a lot of history and that’s only in the last century!
By European standards, Berlin is a relatively new city, founded in the 13th or 14th century as a small fishing and farming town on the banks of the River Spree. It existed until 1710 as the twin cities of Berlin-Cölln before becoming the “Royal Capital and Residence of Berlin” when the cities of Berlin, Cölln, Dorotheenstadt, Friedrichswerder and Friedrichstadt were united.
The city continued to grow as the capital of Prussia and by 1755 had a population of 100,000, a quarter of which were in the military. However, this large military presence was not big enough to stop the armies of Napoleon Bonapart who strolled into the city in 1806 and stayed, until 1814. It was during and just after this time that Berlin became one of the major European cities, by midway through the 19 century, Berlin had become the 4th largest city in Europe with a population of 400,000. This growth then accelerated as the Industrial Revolution spread from England, and Berlin became an important hub for rail, retail and business. The city also grew in area and by 1871 was the capital of the new German Empire.
German Empire
The days of Berlin as the capital of a unified German Empire were signified by periods of boom and bust. Under Emperor Wilhelm I and II, the population of Berlin swelled further, to 800,000 and the city became industrial in nature. Major construction projects were taken on, such as the building of the parliament building or Reichstag and the underground system or U-bahn. This was followed by WWI which caused suffering and hardship in Germany with a high number of people dependent on food air for survival. The end of the war brought the German Empire to a close, Wilheim II abdicated and the Weimer Republic was called.
Weimar Republic
The first years of the Weimar republic were extremely tough. Germany was broke, it was forced to pay huge amounts of reparation money after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and hyperinflation meant that the money in circulation was basically worthless. It was during this time that the stories of people burning money to keep warm were first heard, and they were true, it was cheaper to burn money than to buy firewood. In 1920, the Greater Berlin Act created “Groß-Berlin” by expanding the city borders to include several neighbouring towns and villages, this increased the size of the city from 66 square kilometres (25.5 sq mi) to 883 square kilometres (341 sq mi). Once the likes of Charlottenburg, Köpenick and Spandau, now districts of the city, were incorporated, Berlin’s population doubled from about 2 to nearly 4 million inhabitants.
In the next few years, things did improve for the new Republic, aid from the US and a rearrangement of the reparation payments meant that Germany and Berlin were no-longer destitute. Industry was growing rapidly and massive infrastructural changes were made to the newly enlarged city, these included improved train lines and airports. Berlin was not only the largest industrial city in Europe but during the mid 1920s, it was also the cultural capital of the continent, Berlin was swinging. But this period of excitement and fun was not to last, dark clouds were gathering, especially on the right of the political spectrum. The Nazi party was gaining support, winning its first seats in 1929 and by 1933, Adolf Hitler was chancellor.
Third Reich
Berlin was the capital of Hitler’s Third Reich or Deutsches Reich, it was also the setting for one of the major events in Nazi history - the Reichstag Fire. Less than a month after taking power, a mysterious fire at the parliament building was used for political gain to greatly increase the influence of the Nazi party, promote a fear of communism and infringe on civil liberties. This led to the Nazis, through legal means, gaining enough support to pass the Enabling Act of 1933, which essentially gave Hitler a carte blanche to run the country as a dictatorship. The Nazi party was in full control and this was showcased to the world during the 1936 Summer Olympics which were hosted in Berlin.
In the following years, persecution of Berlin’s Jewish community was stepped up. What had started with ordering the population not to use Jewish shops and banning Jews from certain areas, eventually led to the mass imprisonment of the community. Of course, during WW2, this was taken even further, with the Holocaust.
After the War
At the end of WW2, both the country and Berlin were divided between the 4 Allied Forces; UK, France, US and the Soviet Union. In Berlin, the Soviet Union was given control over the eastern part of the city, with the UK, US and France sharing the Western part. Of course, the city itself was situated deep into the Soviet controlled area of Eastern Germany. This confusing situation and the sense of distrust between the Soviet Union and the other allies, led to deterioration in relationship. This culminated with the formation of East Germany in 1949, and the choosing of Berlin as its capital. West Germany was also formed and while legally it too had Berlin as its capital, Bonn was used as the de facto capital. In practice, legal definitions aside, it was simple, East Berlin was part of East Germany and West Berlin was part of West Germany. Even though West Berlin was completely isolated from the rest of West Germany in the middle of a Soviet-controlled country, some East Berliners were able to escape to the west via West Berlin. It is for this reason that in 1961, the Berlin wall was built and the city was divided.
The wall divided the city for nearly 30 years and in the end was weakened not just by hammer and chisel but rather by the weakening of the Iron curtain itself. With more and more East Germans trying to escape to the west through Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the uncertainty caused by the resignation of Erich Honeckah, the will of so many people to cross into West Berlin became too much. The border guards started letting people through and the wall was never to be closed again.
On 3rd October 1990, East and West Germany was reunified as the Federal Republic of Germany, and Berlin became the German capital. In 1999, the German parliament and government began their work in Berlin.
