II.

Berlin and Its Metropolitan Area

Modern Berlin covers 883 sq km (341 sq mi). In 1920 the old city merged with 8 towns, nearly 60 villages, and a number of surrounding farms and estates to form the current city boundaries. Berlin’s city limits encompass the entire metropolitan area and include large areas of undeveloped land. Forests and farmlands cover nearly one-third of the city. From reunification until 2001, the city was divided into 23 boroughs. In an effort to make urban government more efficient, an administrative reform that took effect in 2001 reduced the number of boroughs to 12.

At the heart of Berlin lies the medieval core of the city, located along the western bank of the Spree River. To the west of the medieval city is a formal grid of streets laid out on either side of Unter den Linden, a wide central avenue stretching from east to west and flanked with double rows of linden trees. Before the postwar division of Berlin, this area, called the Mitte (city center), served as the administrative and financial center of Berlin and contained the main banks, publishing houses, large stores, the university, and government buildings. Well-known streets crossing Unter den Linden are Friedrichstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse. The former royal park known as the Tiergarten occupies the land to the west of the Mitte district.

Gradually the city’s residential and industrial areas grew around the city center. In the mid-19th century a dense mass of tenements was erected to the north, east, and south of the central Mitte district. Known as Mietskasernen (rent barracks), these buildings were home to members of the working class who labored in nearby industrial plants. In contrast, aristocrats and members of the middle class lived in the peripheral communities of that time (Dahlem, Grunewald, Köpenick).

Prior to World War II, Berlin contained many imposing buildings, many of them built after 1871, when Berlin became the German national capital. Much of old Berlin was devastated during World War II by Allied bombing raids and by fierce house-to-house fighting that occurred when Soviet troops captured the city in 1945 at the end of the war. Wartime destruction left the historic core of the city standing amidst 26 sq km (10 sq mi) of rubble.

The victorious Allies faced a daunting task in 1945. Berlin had lost almost three-quarters of its 1.5 million residential units. During the first two months of occupation, when the USSR held full sway over all of Berlin, the Soviet Army also dismantled and removed 67 percent of Berlin’s industrial capacity.

After the war, the boundary between East and West Berlin was drawn through the heart of the city. In 1961 the East German government encircled West Berlin with a fortified wall that traced the boundary. This wall was known as the Berlin Wall. In the postwar redevelopment period, both East and West Berlin turned their backs on the wall and the area on either side of it, which remained a partially abandoned zone.

A.

East Berlin

For several years after 1945, East Germany paid war reparations to the USSR, thereby slowing its economic redevelopment considerably. When funds became available, East German leaders opted to focus on building housing for workers. Postwar housing construction in East Berlin often took the form of prefabricated high-rise apartment blocks that surrounded a central area containing schools, playgrounds, and shops. The largest of these, such as Marzahn on the eastern fringe of the city, housed about 100,000 people.

Before reunification in 1990, the East German government restored some of the historic buildings on Unter den Linden, including the classical State Opera House and Saint Hedwig’s Cathedral, both built in the mid-1700s. The East German government also restored the neoclassical Brandenburg Gate, an 18th-century city gateway at the western end of Unter den Linden that has become an international symbol of the city.

B.

West Berlin

As Berlin became a focus of the Cold War during the 1940s, West Berlin’s Allied protectors strove to keep the city alive. West Germany gave tax breaks to West German firms that established or maintained businesses in West Berlin or bought goods produced there, and the Western allies provided massive economic assistance. During the Cold War years, West Berlin rebuilt its infrastructure and residential areas, expanded its subway system, and constructed a major international airport.

The rebuilding of West Berlin was particularly dramatic in the 1960s, when the West German government and its allies made an effort to make the city a showcase for the benefits of capitalism. A new central business district was developed southwest of Tiergarten along the Kurfüstendamm and other nearby streets. Department stores, sidewalk cafes, throngs of people, and office towers brilliantly lit at night by neon signs made this district the equal of any other modern city center in the Western world.

C.

United Berlin

Today the borough of Mitte again forms the heart of the unified city. Following the administrative reform of 2001, Mitte was enlarged to include the former central boroughs of Wedding and Tiergarten. Other important central areas include Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, now united as the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, and Prenzlauer Berg, now incorporated as a part of the Pankow borough.

Tiergarten contains a large wooded park, a zoo, and a variety of public monuments as well as the large, modern Congress Hall and the Reichstag building, which was built from 1884 to 1894. The Reichstag and the surrounding area have undergone renovation to accommodate the Bundestag (the lower house of Germany’s parliament) and new offices of the federal government. Near Tiergarten is the Kulturforum complex, including the Museum of Applied Arts, and the Bauhaus Archives and Museum, which documents the modernist Bauhaus school of architecture and design that flourished from 1919 to 1933. A museum complex lines the south edge of Tiergarten.

West of the city center, in the contemporary borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, is the Kurfürstendamm, a boulevard that became the commercial center of West Berlin after the end of World War II. The ruined tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was built in the 1890s and destroyed in World War II, stands at the east end of the Kurfürstendamm. The memorial serves as a reminder of the devastation of war. Near Kurfürstendamm is Tauentzienstrasse, a prominent shopping area and site of the Europa Center, which houses a 22-story complex of restaurants, shops, offices, and cinemas.

Kreuzberg, now a part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, located directly south of the Mitte, is a residential area known for its large Turkish immigrant community and its concentration of younger residents. To the west of Kreuzberg and south of Tiergarten is Schöneberg, a largely middle-class residential neighborhood. This neighborhood is now part of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough.

A half-mile north of the Unter den Linden is the Oranienburger Strasse, the heart of prewar Berlin’s Jewish district. Revitalization of the area includes the restoration of the New Synagogue, built in 1866. Gangs of Nazis badly damaged the synagogue on November 9, 1938, when they organized a night of anti-Jewish rioting known as Kristallnacht (German for “Night of Broken Glass”). The synagogue is now a center for the study and preservation of Jewish culture. Berlin’s oldest Jewish cemetery is nearby.

To the east of the city center, the Friedrichshain neighborhood contains largely residential sections in its northern portion. One of Friedrichshain’s major streets, Karl-Marx-Allee, is lined by an imposing series of high-rise residential buildings constructed during the 1950s in an ornate monumental style of architecture popular in the USSR. The southern part of Friedrichshain contains storage yards for manufactured goods and industrial products.

At the edge of Friedrichshain, next to the city center along the eastern bank of the Spree, is Alexanderplatz, a large square with restaurants and stores. Prior to unification, Alexanderplatz was the cultural center of East Berlin. Its most prominent feature is the Fernsehturm, a 365-m (1,198-ft) television tower topped by a popular revolving café. Berlin’s tallest building, the Fernsehturm was built during the 1960s in a futuristic style and has become a popular stopping point for tourists. Near the square are the Gothic-style Marienkirche (Church of Saint Mary) and the 19th-century red brick Rathaus (city hall).

To the north of the city center lie two working class neighborhoods: Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg. Wedding is an industrial center, while Prenzlauer Berg, which lies just east of the former Berlin Wall, houses workers as well as a growing community of artists and students. Even before unification, Prenzlauer Berg was a gathering point for artists and nonconformists dissatisfied with East German politics and society. Bullet holes from the war still scar the walls of the district’s aging tenement buildings, many of which are in a state of disrepair and neglect.

In the west and southwestern portions of the city, the landscape becomes more open, with grasslands, parks, and lakes dominating the scenery. Major natural features in this region include the extensive Grunewald forest and the Havel lakes, whose shores include a kilometer-long stretch of sandy beach. The Grunewald forest, which covers 32 sq km (12 sq mi) in southwestern Berlin, is a major recreational area for Berliners seeking relief from the crowded central city. North of the Grunewald are the residential neighborhoods of Charlottenberg and Spandau. Founded in the 13th century as an independent town, Spandau is best known as the site of a prison that housed Nazi war criminals. Its medieval streets remained relatively undamaged by World War II bombings.