Berlin

 

City foundation:

13th century

 

Population:
3 431 700 inhabitants

 

Area:
891,82 km2

 

Density:
 3.848 inhab./km2

 

Dividing the city:
12 boroughs

 

Governing Mayor:

Klaus Wowereit (SPD)

Governing parties:

SPD / Die Linke

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berlin is the capital city from the unification of Germany in 1991 and in the same time it is one of sixteen states of Germany. It is the second most populous city and the eight most populous area in the European Union with a population of 3.4 million within its city limits.

Germany took part in both devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century. After the WW II. it became the centre of the Cold War conflict between East (USSR) and West (USA), which led to the division of Germany into Eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR) / under influence of USSR/ and the of the whole country became the Berlin wall, dividing both part of country from 1948 until 1989. End of the Cold War allowed reunion in 1990, when the German Parliament (the Bundestag) voted to move the capital back from Bonn to Berlin. West Germany was a founding member of the

European Community (EC) in 1957, which became the European Union in 1993. It is part of the Schengen zone and adopted the European currency, the Euro, in 1999.

 

 

From the photography exhibition

Thomas Kutschker, Global Berlin, Berlin 2008

Are we sure in which metropolis have we actually found ourselves?

 

Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk, Berlin 2009

Private property is confronted by emptiness left by torn down monuments of recent times