Berlin

VII

Government

Berlin is both a German state and a city. Its local government consists of a House of Representatives containing no fewer than 200 elected members and a Senate comprising no more than 16 department heads nominated by the mayor and approved by the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives elects a mayor and a deputy mayor. The mayor presides over the Senate. Each of the 12 boroughs has its own city hall and elects a borough mayor and a 45-member assembly. The borough governments have no power other than implementing laws passed by the Berlin Senate. A council composed of the borough mayors serves as an advisory body to the Berlin Senate.

VIII

History

A

Early History

Archaeologists have found traces of hunter-gatherer activity near Berlin that date from as early as 8000 bc. In the 1st century ad Germanic tribes settled in the region, but by ad 500 they had moved south and west, leaving the area to a group of powerful Slavic tribes known as the Wends. The Frankish king Charlemagne conquered the lands in the 8th century, but the Wends regained control in the 10th century.

In 1147 German feudal lords drove out the Wends. In 1230 German nobles founded Berlin on the western bank of the Spree and a twin settlement, Kölln, on an island in the Spree (now Museum Island). The two towns prospered and, like many other German cities, took advantage of the chaotic political conditions of the 13th and 14th centuries to become virtually independent of aristocratic authority. In 1359 they joined the Hanseatic League, a federation of independent northern European trading cities organized for the protection of mutual commercial interests. Berlin eventually absorbed Kölln, although the two towns were not officially merged until 1709.

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Berlin and Kölln were part of a small hereditary state known as Brandenburg. Until the formation of the German Empire in 1871, the area now known as Germany was divided into a series of small principalities and independent cities. Although Brandenburg was not a rich or powerful region, its ruler possessed considerable influence as an elector, one of the German aristocrats who held the right to vote in the selection of the Holy Roman Emperor (see Holy Roman Empire).

In 1411 the ruler of Brandenburg died without an heir and in 1415 the emperor granted control of Brandenburg to Frederick of Nüremberg, a member of the aristocratic Hohenzollern family. To reduce the power of Berlin’s city leaders, Frederick withdrew both Berlin and Kölln from the Hanseatic League and jointly made them the capital of Brandenburg. Under the Hohenzollerns, important leather, textile, and paper industries were developed in Berlin. The city also became known as a producer of pottery and beer.

Beginning in 1576, Berlin entered a period of decline as repeated outbreaks of plague reduced its population. During the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) armies from across Europe fought on German territory in a religious conflict that pitted Protestant and Catholic rulers against each other. Although Brandenburg had adopted Protestantism in about 1540, its rulers remained neutral during the early years of the conflict. Berlin at first benefited from Brandenburg’s neutrality, but after 1631 it came under attack by Swedish armies. These armies occupied the city on several occasions and exacted heavy financial contributions from the population. Starvation, new outbreaks of plague, arson, and robberies further impoverished the town and reduced its population to about 6,000 by the end of the war, compared to a prewar population of about 12,000 in 1600. All but a handful of its buildings were destroyed.

B

Prussian Capital

Despite these setbacks, the Hohenzollern family remained in power in Brandenburg and Berlin. Under the leadership of Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, Berlin’s fortunes recovered in the late 17th century. Frederick William established Berlin as a major commercial, financial, and industrial center. He fortified the city, built an aristocratic quarter in the west along Unter den Linden, and established the Royal Library. In 1685 he admitted large numbers of Huguenots, Protestant religious refugees from France, who made important contributions to Berlin in the arts and sciences. Many of the Huguenot immigrants were skilled traders and craftspeople who helped develop Berlin’s economy. Frederick William reorganized Brandenburg under a central administration located in Berlin and left a well-organized government for his son Frederick III.

In 1701 Frederick became King Frederick I of Prussia, a kingdom formed by the merger of Brandenburg and other territories that the Hohenzollerns had inherited in Germany and eastern Europe. Like Brandenburg, Prussia was one of many principalities and independent cities located in the region now known as Germany. Prussian territory stretched from northwest Germany to what is now the Baltic Coast of Russia. Berlin became Prussia’s capital.

Frederick I provided support and encouragement for artists and scholars. His efforts helped make Berlin a center of European culture and science. During Frederick’s reign, sculptor and architect Andreas Schlüter built a number of baroque buildings in Berlin, including the New Palace, which was built in 1706 and destroyed in World War II. Frederick founded the Academy of the Arts as well as the Academy of Sciences, whose first president was the great philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.

Under a series of able kings, Prussia continued to expand its territory and increase its influence in European affairs. Frederick William I concentrated on expanding Prussia’s military strength in order to ensure that Prussia would not be dominated by Sweden, Russia, or Austria (the major military powers in eastern and northern Europe). By the end of his reign in 1740, Berlin’s population had grown to 60,000. Under his son and successor, Frederick II, who was also known as Frederick the Great, Berlin continued to expand westward and became a major European capital. When Frederick William II became king of Prussia in 1786, Berlin’s population had grown to 150,000.

Under Frederick William II and his son Frederick William III, Berlin and Prussia faced a powerful foreign opponent. After the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789-1799), a series of wars took place between France and many of the major military powers in Europe (see Napoleonic Wars). The army of French emperor Napoleon I occupied Berlin in 1806, forcing the Prussian king to transfer his government temporarily to the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) on the Baltic Coast. However, Napoleon’s occupation of Berlin was relatively uneventful.

Prussia’s fortunes changed following Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. A conference known as the Congress of Vienna redrew the borders of European nations affected by the Napoleonic Wars and attempted to establish a balance of power among Europe’s most powerful nations. The Congress restored Prussia’s territory and reestablished it as one of the leading powers among the German states.

During this period, Berlin entered a new phase of cultural and economic expansion. The famous University of Berlin, or Friedrich Wilhelm University, was founded in 1810. It soon grew into the greatest center of learning in Germany, attracting scholars of international rank, among them naturalist and explorer Alexander Humboldt and philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Between 1821 and 1834 architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed the Altes Museum and other fine public buildings in accordance with the king’s desire to turn Berlin into a capital befitting a major European power. Prussia’s first railroad, linking Berlin and Potsdam, was opened in 1838. Berlin became the hub of the state’s rail network. By 1844 almost all German states had economic links with Prussia.

C

German Unity

Prussia reached the peak of its power under William I and Prince Otto von Bismarck, his chancellor. Bismarck was a master of diplomacy, and he used his skills to provoke Prussia’s rivals into wars aimed at increasing Prussia’s territory and power. Prussia went to war with Denmark in 1864, with Austria in 1866, and with France in 1870. Prussia’s highly trained and well-equipped army easily won these wars.

Following Prussia’s victory in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), William I and Bismarck convinced the independent German cities and states to unite into a single nation under Prussian leadership. Berlin became the capital of the newly created German Empire. King William of Prussia became Emperor William I of Germany, and Berlin traded its royal status as the capital of the kingdom of Prussia for an imperial one as the capital of the German Empire. See German Unification (1871).

Berlin’s physical and economic growth during the next 30 years was explosive. Between 1871 and 1900 the population doubled to 1.9 million. With the suburbs included, the population reached 2.7 million. In 1912 the Greater Berlin Association was created to coordinate the supervision of the capital and its independent suburbs. Administrative conflicts were not resolved until the creation of the city of Greater Berlin in 1920, which comprised 20 administrative districts and had a population of 3.8 million.

During the early 20th century the city grew into a major industrial center, specializing in machinery, electrical goods, and textiles. Berlin’s economy benefited from a wide network of railroads, which converged at the city. Extensive construction of factories and commercial buildings attracted thousands of workers, most of whom were housed in large tracts of shoddy tenements. Culturally, Berlin won worldwide fame for its excellent theaters, concerts, and exhibitions.

Following Germany’s defeat in World War I (1914-1918), Emperor William II abdicated, and the imperial government dissolved. A parliamentary government, known as the Weimar Republic, took office. Berlin served as the capital of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933. During the republic Berlin was noted for its radical political groups and frequent clashes between Communists and Nazis.

Berlin experienced a severe economic downturn during the early 1920s when extreme inflation made the German currency nearly worthless. The economy began to recover in the late 1920s, but Berlin was particularly hard hit during the worldwide economic depression, which began in 1929.

During the 1920s, despite the economic and political turmoil of the times, Berlin became the center of a thriving artistic community. Its artists were at the forefront of experimental movements in painting, literature, theater, film, and architecture. German and international artists flocked to Berlin, including composers Kurt Weill and Artur Schnabel, theatrical director Max Reinhardt, writer Gerhard Hauptmann, and playwright Bertolt Brecht.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933 under the leadership of German dictator Adolf Hitler, they suppressed all political activities not under Nazi control and put an end to Berlin’s flourishing artistic community. Under the Nazis, Berlin became one of the world’s major centers of political and military power. Hitler and his primary architect, Albert Speer, set out to transform the city through a massive rebuilding program, but they never completed their grandiose scheme. A few Nazi buildings survive, including the Olympic Stadium, site of the 1936 Olympic Games.

A reminder of the brutality of the Nazi regime may be found in Berlin’s northern suburb of Sachsenhausen, the site of one of the first concentration camps in Germany, which was built in 1936. The Nazis initially constructed concentration camps as centers for confining socialists, Communists, and other political enemies. Later, they were used as death camps for Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, and other “enemies of the people.” In May 2005 another stark reminder of the Holocaust, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, was completed in the center of Berlin. The memorial, designed by American architect Peter Eisenman, features more than 2,700 concrete pillars and an information center that pays tribute to the millions of victims of the Nazis.

D

World War II

When World War II began in 1939, the British and U.S. air forces made Berlin a focus of aerial bombardments because it was the political center of Germany. Street fighting between the Soviet and German armies at the war’s end further damaged the city. By 1945 the war had destroyed about 60 percent of the city. The historic core and government quarter were left partially standing. About 42 percent of the city’s 1.5 million houses and apartments were completely devastated, and another 31 percent were damaged. Berlin’s population was reduced to about 2.8 million from a prewar high of about 4.4 million.

In February 1945 the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France agreed to divide the defeated Germany into four zones of occupation. When Berlin was finally captured by Soviet troops in May 1945, it was divided into four sectors, which were jointly administered by all four nations. The Soviet sector in the eastern part of Berlin was 390 sq km (150 sq mi) in area, while the combined British, American, and French sectors in the western part of the city totaled about 480 sq km (185 sq mi) in area.

Following the war, tensions developed between Communist countries led by the USSR and non-Communist countries under the leadership of the United States. The former Allies were unable to agree on terms for the political and economic reunification of Germany. The USSR regarded the four-power presence in Berlin as temporary and maintained that the city belonged to the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany. The Western powers asserted that the citizens of Berlin had the right to determine their own future through a democratically elected government.

In June 1948 the Allied-occupied zones of Germany, including those in Berlin, adopted a new currency despite Soviet protests. In response, the USSR imposed a complete ban on overland traffic between Berlin and the zones of Germany controlled by the Allies. The USSR acted as though it intended to use the blockade to force the integration of the western sectors of Berlin with the Soviet-occupied part of Germany that surrounded the city. The Western powers, determined to preserve their sectors as non-Communist enclaves, responded with an airlift that supplied West Berlin with food and fuel for almost 11 months. The USSR eventually lifted the ban on overland travel in May 1949. In November 1949 the city was formally divided when the USSR established a separate administration in East Berlin.