Some Interesting and Fun Facts about Berlin:
Berlin Graffiti – © GNTB/Hans Merten
Mention ‘Berlin’ and the Fall of the Berlin Wall comes to mind for many people.
But apart from the Berlin Wall, there are many other interesting and fun facts about this dynamic city that most people probably aren’t aware of. Here’s just a few of them:
- 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.
Interesting and Fun Facts about Berlin Attractions
For more Berlin Info, see HERE.
Map of Berlin:
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compare like with like! paris proper is the centre of a large urban area and you cannot compare it to greater London or the whole of berlin. when compared correctly paris is slightly bigger than London and much bigger than berlin.
Hi Helen,
Thanks a million. I travel to Berlin twice a year since 2003 but still need input from wise souls. Right now, it is a new world opening with blogging and trying to gather as much of information as possible.
Really appreciate your reply.
*cheers,
Soomi
Hi Helen,
I really liked your compiled facts and I would really like to repost them on a blog I am working on with my colleague. We are going to Berlin and wanted to start up a Berlin blog for our students so they can check out different materials.
May I have your permission and of course link it back to you. I am very new to the blogging world so I don’t want to do anything wrong.
If you have any interesting tips about blogging, I would welcome them!
Kind regards,
Soomi
Hi Soomi,
Thank you for asking for permission to use material from our Berlin page to repost on your Berlin blog. Yes, you may use the material for your students, with a link back to Travelsignposts.
Tips:
– You’ve done the right thing by asking for permission and then linking back to the source of your material. Without the approval of the content owner, you could be reported to Google for ‘scrapping’ material, and your blog could be penalized.
– If you are just gathering material for use by your students, it’s okay to repost material. However, if you intend becoming a successful blog that’s found in the search engines, then original content is required. With your trip to Berlin, you will no doubt have lots of original stories to tell.
– Subscribe to blogging websites such as http://problogger.com/ or equivalent in your country and pick up tips from others.
Good luck with your trip and happy blogging.
Kind regards,
Helen
Im 12 years old i need help with a Germany project for my school but i need to know more
Other than that great job thx
You spelled kilometers wrong you spelled it like this- kilometres. Otherwise thank you for the info.
Hi Trina,
Thank you for your comment and I’m glad you found the information on this page of use. By the way, “kilometres” is the English spelling, whereas Americans spell it “kilometers”, so both spellings are fine depending on where you are.
Kind regards,
Helen
Thank you, this helped a lot. (:
Magnificent Information=))Thanks)
Awesome facts! Thanks :”)
Very interesting and helpful. Thank you.