The City of Berlin, with an area of 892 square kilometres, is nine times bigger than Paris.
Berlin has around 1,700 bridges, easily beating even Venice.
At 368 metres the Berliner Fernsehturm (Television Tower) is the tallest building in Germany and one of the tallest constructions in Europe.
To date six US presidents have made historic speeches here since the war – most memorable being John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” (1963) and Ronald Reagan’s emphatic “Mr Gorbachev – tear this wall down!” (1987).
The first set of traffic lights in Europe was put into service in Potsdamer Platz in 1924. A replica of the lights can still be admired there today.
With the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station), the city has become a proper central rail hub for the first time in its history – and the largest in Europe.
Berlin is the most multi-cultural city in Germany. Its 3.5 million inhabitants include over 470,000 residents with foreign passports. People from over 184 nations are long-term residents in the city.
With 175 museums, Berlin is said to have more museums than rainy days.
The Berlin dialect was largely influenced by the Huguenots in the late 17th century. A few words of French origin are: “Budike” (pub or shop), “Boulette” (meatballs), “Roulade” (rolled meat slices) and “Destille” (pub). However other linguistic influences, e.g. Hebrew (via Yiddish) have left their audible mark in expressions like “Ganove” (crook) or “Macke” (quirk).
With four universities, four art schools and ten technical colleges, and around 134,000 students, Berlin is Germany’s biggest university city. In addition there are around 130 non-university research facilities.
There are over 180 kilometres of navigable waterways within the Berlin city limits. This makes it possible to explore Berlin by boat.
