Berlin

Today as my first blog for my new topic, Germany, I am going to write about Berlin.

Berlin was made the capital of Germany in 1990 although the government headquarters were moved from Bonn to Berlin in 1991. *4

The population of Berlin (in 2017) is 3,593,000 people! That means the population has increased by 30,000 people since 2015!

The city's name comes comes from a West Slavic word meaning 'river rake,' a scaffold of beams built over a river to prevent logs from jamming. *3

Berlin is probably most well known for the Berlin wall. The Berlin wall was built on the 13th of August 1961 to separate the east of Berlin from the west of Berlin because people where trying to leave east Berlin because the conditions where bad. After weeks of civil unrest on the 19th November, 1989 the east German government granted permission for all GDR (the German democratic republic) citizens to enter west Germany and Berlin. Crowds of Germans from each side came and climbed on the wall and explored each side. Later on in the night the wall was knocked down. (I will learn some more about the Berlin wall later this month as it is a big part of German history.) *2

The Berlin wall

Here are some facts about Berlin that you may have not known:

1. It has over 1,700 bridges (that's even more bridges than Venice!) and more than 180 kilometres of navigable water.
2. It has the longest open air gallery ever! The gallery is actually a 1.3 kilometre part of the Berlin wall called the East Side Gallery that has 101 paintings by artists from 21 countries.
3. It is home to one of the tallest pieces of architecture in Europe, the Berliner Fernsehturm (the Berlin TV tower) is 368 metres high with a 207 metres high viewing floor. 
4. Berlin is the greenest city in Germany! About 44% of Berlin is made up of parks, recreational areas, woods, and rivers.  
5. Berlin is the only city in the world to have three active opera houses! *1

Here are some links to the pages used,

*1  http://www.globalblue.com/destinations/germany/berlin/top-10-facts-on-berlin/#slide7

*2  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

*3  https://www.ancestry.co.uk/name-origin?surname=berlin

*4  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_on_the_Capital_of_Germany

*5  https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Berlin