IUCR: The City and its History

Did you know that...

photo brandenburg gate while sunset — the famous brandenburg gate while sunset

... Berlin's city boundary is 234 kilometres long? The largest extension from east to west is 45 kilometres, and that from north to south 38 kilometres.
... Berlin, with an area of 892 square kilometres, is almost nine times as big as Paris?
... Berlin has approximately the same latitude as London and the same longitude as Naples in Italy?
... at 368 metres, the Berlin TV Tower is the tallest building in Germany?
... the new solar plant at Messe Berlin puts the capital at the third place as far as Germany's largest rooftop solar plants are concerned? Until the end of 2024, a system with 20,000 photovoltaic modules and a total output of up to 8.5 megawatts will be installed on an area of approximately 50,000 square metres on more than 20 halls of the grounds at the Radio Tower. This will allow Messe Berlin to avoid 2,900 tonnes of CO2 per year.
... Berlin has between 960 and 2,100 bridges? Of course, this would depend on what you mean by a bridge. More than 600 of these cross over waterways, which means Berlin easily beats Venice. The oldest bridge is the Jungfernbrücke, built in 1798 and largely preserved in its original form.
... Europe's first traffic lights were put into operation on Potsdamer Platz in 1924? It is still possible to visit a replica of the traffic light tower there today.
... the Quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate was taken to France by Napoleon in 1806? He had the Berlin landmark taken away as a symbol of his victory over Prussia in the Battle of Auerstedt. It was brought back to Berlin in 1814 after the victory of the European allies over Napoleon. Since then, the quadriga has been popularly known as the "Retourkutsche". However contrary to rumours, the Quadriga has always faced eastwards - i.e. towards the city in old Berlin.
... many names in the city go back to the Prussian kings from the House of Hohenzollern, and only a few first names among them have been in use over the last 300 years? These include, for example, Friedrichstadt and Friedrichstraße, Friedrichstadt-Palast and Friedrichswerder, Friedrichshain, Friedrichsfelde, Friedrichshagen, Wilhelmstraße and Wilhelmshagen.
... the Berlin football club Hertha BSC, founded in 1892, is named after a pleasure boat, which one of the co-founders had taken a trip on with his father?
... in the olden days, the city of Berlin ended at the Brandenburg Gate? This historic city boundary can still be identified from street names such as Wallstraße, Mauerstraße, Linienstraße or Palisadenstraße. The former city gates are mainly preserved in the names of underground stations - Schlesisches Tor, Kottbusser Tor, Hallesches Tor and Oranienburger Tor.
... the city reached its population peak in 1942? At that time, 4,478,102 people were living in Berlin. Today, the figure is around 3.9 million.
... seven American presidents have visited Berlin after the war? John F. Kennedy's statement "Ich bin ein Berliner" [I am a Berliner] (1963) and Ronald Reagan's emphatic appeal "Mr. Gorbachev - Reißen Sie diese Mauer ein!" [Mr. Gorbachev - Tear down this wall!] (1987) has remained etched in people's minds.
... visitors who wanted to go from the western part of the city to the eastern part during the Wall era had to exchange at least 25 Deutschmarks per day for GDR marks at an exchange rate of 1:1? Money that was not spent could not be exchanged back. However, it could be "deposited" at the border branches of the GDR's state bank when leaving the country and collected again when entering the country. For tourists from West Germany, the visa cost five DM, whereas it was free for West Berliners.