In 2003 the destination Berlin was able to further cement its position as Germany's
favourite city destination with approx. 11.3 million registered overnight stays
in the commercial accommodation sector.
These figures for commercial accommodation
with nine or more beds are supplemented every year by a total of 68 million
day trippers and seven million business travellers. In addition, visits by friends
and relations to Berlin households generate a further 28.5 million overnight
stays every year.
This makes the German capital, along with London, Paris and
Rome, one of the most visited metropolises in Europe.
Berlin covers an area of some 890 square kilometres. So it is nine times bigger
than Paris.
The municipal boundary extends for 234 kilometres. Only by travelling
the entire length of the motorway encircling the city is it possible to appreciate
the sheer size of the area involved. Nearly on three-and-a-half million people
inhabit this urban conurbation.
The German capital consists today of 12 independently administered municipal
districts, each of city size and status in its own right. They vary in size
and character, but have three things in common - each has its own town hall,
its own market place and its own municipal services organisation.
The reason
for this lies in the capital's historical development when, in 1920, eight towns,
59 rural communities and 27 manorial properties were amalgamated to form Greater
Berlin.
Berlin was first officially mentioned in 1237 after the two mercantile
suburban colonies Coelln and Berlin had been unified.
The demolition of the Wall on 9 November 1989 marked the dawn of a new era
for Berlin - an era in which the most significant elements have been the reunification
of Germany in 1990, the decision regarding the location of the capital in 1991
and the relocation of government and parliament to the traditional centre of
the nation - in the heart of Berlin. This transfer was completed in 1999.
Berlin - in the very heart of Europe - has been, since time immemorial, a focal
point for travellers from all over the world. In the 1930s, Potsdamer Platz
carried a greater volume of traffic than any other square in Europe.
It was
here that the first traffic lights were installed, the replica of which can
be admired at this same spot. After nearly three decades of desolation caused
by the Wall, Potsdamer Platz has implemented new traffic engineering and town
planning visions for the Berlin of the third millennium.
This area mirrors the
re-emergence of and sweeping changes to the entire city. After reunification
Berlin is, geographically speaking, at the interface between East and West in
Europe.
The Berlin Wall earned the city a sorry reputation around the world for almost
30 years. What little remains of it can be seen in the East Side Gallery, on
Bernauer Straße, next to the Preußischer Landtag and in Prenzlauer
Berg.
Berlin has long since emerged from the shadow of the Wall, however. More
than 14 years after it came down, the city, subsequently regarded as the "workshop
of unity", has reinvented itself.
It is now associated with top-class architecture,
modernity and a fast pace of life. The German capital, whose profile will continue
to change, is more attractive than ever for tourists.
During the approach to the city Berlin already offers visitors a fascinating
landscape with its expansive lakes, parks and forests. More than one-third of
the city area is taken up by parks, forests and water.
The largest lake is the
Müggelsee with a water area of 750 hectares. A chain of lakes like the
Tegelersee and the Wannsee is interspersed across the city; they are connected
by a system of rivers (Havel and Spree) and canals.
It is a well-known fact
that the "Athens" on the river Spree has more bridges than Venice.
Berliners can travel by boat from their city to the North and Baltic Seas.
Berlin is Germany's "greenest" metropolis - in other words, there
are more woods, parks and cultivated areas in the inner city here than in any
other large town.
The proverbial "Berlin air" owes its clarity in
part to the many inner city parks such as the Botanical Gardens, the Zoological
Gardens (the largest in Europe both in terms of size and variety of species)
and the Tiergarten.
It was not by chance that in 1988, Berlin was officially designated Europe's
"City of Culture".
Unofficially, it still holds this title. Cultural
events of international standing are a permanent feature of everyday life in
Berlin: The internationally-acclaimed film festivals, 135 theatres, 3 opera-houses
and a host of variety theatres and music halls. Berlin's world cultural ambassador
- the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - has a true global player at its head.
Sir Simon Rattle is their principal conductor and artistic director.
The range of musical entertainment includes cabaret performances in various
folklore taverns and a notable rock and jazz scene with many clubs and major
events. Berlin's "Waldbühne" is the finest open-air theatre in
Europe.
During the summer months, it attracts up to 22,000 patrons each evening
to various events ranging from classical and rock music to film shows.
Berlin is noted for its unique variety of museums, including many collections
relating to archaeology and the history of art.
They document the 6,000 years
of the development of civilisation in countries ranging from Europe to the Far
East. On the Spree there are more museums than rainy days - a total of 175,
16 of them alone have opened in the last five years including the interactive
multi-media The Story of Berlin, the Film Museum on Potsdamer Platz or the Jewish
Museum. Besides that Berlin got another spectacular new exhibition building
As was the case with the Jewish Museum bearing the unusual signature of Daniel
Libeskind, the architecture of this new building is also attracting great attention.
The American star architect I.M. Pei designed the extension to the Deutsches
Historisches Museum (German History Museum) in the centre of Berlin. Another
milestone was the reopening of the Alte Nationalgalerie on 2 December 2001 on
the famous Museum Island. The numerous museums and collections also include
some curiosities like, for instance, a laundry museum, a hemp museum, the sugar
museum or the erotic museum.
Back in the Roaring Twenties Berlin was already the stage for world literature
and the Romanisches Cafe at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was the main
meeting place for writers and poets. Today, Berlin is once again deemed to be
a centre of German language literature.
It is not just a forum for international
literary encounters through the work of the Literary Colloquium Berlin, the
German Adacemic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Academy of the Arts but also
a forum for publishing houses, the press and the media. The international architecture
exhibitions of the 1950s and 1980s met with worldwide interest beyond expert
circles and served as inspiration for other cities thanks to the extraordinary
architectural and urban development achievements.
The construction work on the German capital has further raised the standing
of the city on the international stage and attracted investors from all over
the world (cf. Potsdamer Platz or Friedrichstadt arcades).
When it comes to
fashion design Berlin has become a centre in particular for young and avant-garde
fashion. Berlin is once again on the way to doing its reputation justice as
a city of fashion. This is documented in the many trade fairs.
With its International Congress Centre (ICC) the congress and trade fair city,
Berlin, has had a unique congress building for more than 20 years. The congress
and trade fair city, Berlin, ranks amongst the best in the world as the participant
and visitor figures clearly confirm. Empirical surveys have shown that in 2002
a total of 100 000 events with more than six million participants were staged
on the Spree.
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