IV.

History

Archaeologists have found traces of hunter-gatherer activity in the area dating from around 8000 bc. In the early part of the first century, Germanic tribes settled the region. By ad 500 they had moved south and west, leaving the area to the Wends. Frankish king Charlemagne conquered the lands in the 8th century, but by the 10th century Wendish tribes regained control.

In 1147 the Wends were vanquished by Conrad III, Duke Henry the Lion, and Count Albert the Bear; the latter became Margrave of Brandenburg. Germans reinforced the Wendish forts, and around 1230 founded western Berlin and Kölln, its twin settlement on an island in the Spree River (now Museum Island). The two towns prospered commercially and in 1359 joined the Hanseatic League. In 1415 Berlin-Köln, as part of the electorate of Brandenburg, came under the rule of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Both towns were then forced to withdraw from the league and were jointly made the capital of Brandenburg. They were formally merged into one town in 1709.

Under the Hohenzollerns, important leather, textile, and paper industries were developed in Berlin, and the city also became known for its potteries and breweries. From 1576, however, repeated outbreaks of plague reduced its population by many thousands. In 1600 Berlin had about 12,000 inhabitants.

During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) Berlin at first benefited from Brandenburg's neutrality, but after 1631 it had to provide quarters for several Swedish armies, which also exacted heavy contributions. Starvation, new outbreaks of plague, and arson and robberies further impoverished the town and depopulated it by half.

A.

Prussian Capital

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg from 1640 to 1688, quickly rehabilitated Berlin. He expanded Hohenzollern lands and encouraged immigration, welcoming 15,000 Huguenot refugees from France, 6,000 of whom settled in Berlin. The subsequent French influence on the city's life was significant. His son Frederick I—Elector of Brandenburg from 1688 to 1701 and the first king of Prussia from 1701 to 1713—transformed Brandenburg into the kingdom of Prussia, and adorned the new royal capital with elaborate public buildings. By the time of his death, Berlin's population had grown to 60,000.

Berlin continued to grow throughout the 18th century. Even the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) did not long delay the city's expansion; by 1786, the year Frederick II (Frederick the Great of Prussia from 1740 to 1786) died, Berlin's population had grown to 150,000.

After the Napoleonic Wars, during part of which Berlin was occupied by the French, the city became a lively cultural centre, with a world-famous university. It was a focus of the German Revolution of 1848 but suffered little disruption; it prospered during the subsequent political and economic ascendance of Prussia and by 1870 boasted a population of 800,000.

B.

European Metropolis

In 1871 Berlin became the capital of the unified German Empire. During the following decades the city grew into a major industrial centre, specializing in machinery, electrical goods, and textiles. Culturally Berlin won worldwide fame for its excellent theatres, concerts, and exhibitions; commercially, it benefited from a wide rail network converging on the city. Extensive construction of factories and commercial buildings attracted thousands of workers, most of them housed in large tracts of shoddy tenements.

After World War I Berlin's adjacent communities were incorporated into the city, increasing its population to 3,850,000. Berlin suffered economic setbacks during the troubled Weimar Republic, but the wealth of its theatrical, musical, and other cultural offerings remained unequalled.

During the restrictive Nazi years Berlin's cultural life suffered a grave decline. An ambitious building programme, by which German dictator Adolf Hitler aimed to make the city the world's foremost capital, was architecturally uninspired and never completed. In 1936 the city was host to the Olympic Games. During World War II large parts of Berlin were destroyed by air raids and, towards the end of the war, by artillery fire and street fighting. By 1945, about 50,000 pre-war buildings had been destroyed, many were in ruins, and the city contained some 75 million cu m (101,250,000 cu yd) of rubble. Berlin's population was 2.8 million, down from 4.4 million before the war.

C.

Divided City

When Germany was divided into American, Soviet, British, and French occupation zones after World War II, Berlin, although located within the Soviet Zone, became a separate unit. The arrangement symbolized the city's continuing role as the capital of a Germany that was still considered one country. In 1948, however, soon after the breakup of the four-power administration of the former country of Germany, the joint administration of Berlin also came to an end. Claiming that Berlin had lost its status as the capital of a united Germany and should therefore be incorporated into the Soviet Zone, the USSR tried to force the Western powers out of their respective sectors of the city by blockading the land routes to that part of Berlin. The attempt was foiled with the massive, 11-month-long Berlin Airlift, but the city remained divided. Soviet-held East Berlin was eventually incorporated into the GDR, but West Berlin remained a separate territory, with its own government and close economic and cultural ties to the Federal Republic of Germany (known as West Germany).

In June 1953, workers on the Stalinallee construction project in East Berlin struck to protest a 10 per cent rise in production goals. This grew to a wave of demonstrations and strikes throughout the GDR. Some 100,000 demonstrators marched on the GDR House of Ministries in East Berlin. Clashes with police and attacks on state offices and food stores followed, and Soviet tanks and troops arrived to restore order. Some 260 demonstrators, 116 police, and 18 Soviet soldiers were killed during the fighting; it is estimated that more than 100 civilians were executed and many imprisoned after the suppression of the uprising.

Beginning in August 1961 the East German government built the Berlin Wall along the frontier between East and West Berlin, to stop the flight of East Germans to West Berlin and thence to West Germany.

In the mid-1960s, pass agreements allowed West Berliners to visit East Berlin for brief periods. This and further normalization of relations between the two parts of Berlin and Germany in 1971 were due largely to the Ostpolitik policy of Willy Brandt, mayor of Berlin from 1957 to 1966 and Chancellor of Germany from 1969 to 1974.

In 1967 and 1968, West Berlin was the scene of major student demonstrations for educational and political reforms.

By the 1980s West Berlin once again enjoyed a rich cultural life and material prosperity, thanks to West German government subsidies. East Berlin also improved in major ways; by the 1980s it too was a well-known cultural centre, and its government quarter had been completely rebuilt. East Berliners could not pass freely into West Berlin until late 1989, when dismantling of the wall began.

D.

After Reunification

When Germany reunified in October 1990, a reunited Berlin once again became the national capital. The seat of the federal government was scheduled to shift from Bonn to Berlin over a 12-year period beginning in 1991. The remodelled Reichstag parliamentary building was opened in April 1999, with most of the neighbouring new federal office buildings also ready for use. South of the Reichstag, Potsdamerplatz is undergoing major development, which will make it the centre of Berlin once more. Huge celebrations were held in the city in November to mark the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In February 2000 the illustrious Berlin Film Festival celebrated its 50th year.

In September 2001, a gala attended by President Johannes Rau, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and Henry Kissinger, among others, heralded the opening of the city’s first Jewish museum since the war.