Berlin History

Berlin’s roots can be traced back to the 5th and 6th century but Germanic prominence only came in the 12th and 13th century, when Saxon feudal barons ousted the Slavs. The day charters were granted to two riverside towns the story of Berlin began…..

Berlin and Colln

Apart from a joint town hall the two retained their separate identities and were a major trade route to the East. In 1411 the holy roman emperor installed Friedrich Hohenzollern as head of a dynasty that ruled Berlin for over half a century.

Berlin-Colln was devastated by a number of disasters including the great plague and the thirty year war. Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg became known as the great elector as he implemented massive infrastructure development to make Berlin-Colln worthy of being a capital. He also demonstrated the value he saw on a cosmopolitan population by providing protection to Jews and South German Catholics as citizens.

The city was further revitalized by the arrival of skilled trade people (the persecuted French Huguenots), increasing the population from 20,000 to 25,000.

Berlin

Friedrich III took over from his little mourned father Friedrich II in 1709 and inherited a garrison town. He united the city under one name: Berlin and became king of Prussia. Whilst starting of on a more liberal note he soon reverted to actions in which were common to his fathers dealings – who was known as the “soldier king”.

Prussia was embroiled in various battles during his reign including the 7 year war which eventually was won with British aid and a falling out of the enemy alliance Russia and France.

It was under his reign that cultural Berlin flourished and the famous Unter den Linden came into its own.

After Friedrichs death, Prussia went into decline and Berlin found itself reluctantly welcoming French occupation with Bonaparte in 1806. The French forced state reform and population rebelled with a movement celebrating German spirit and tradition. It was from this movement notions were born of Germany in a single unified state (which occurred in 1871).

Napoleons rule came to an end in 1813 and the goddess of Victory in her chariot was reinstalled on the Brandenburg Gate.

Prussia also gained tracts of land that contained valuable iron and coal deposit and its industrial fortunes began to rise.

30 years of peace followed, but influenced by the revolutionary mood that swept Europe and the writings of Karl Marx, Berliners demanded a say in the running of their affairs. After a failed revolution in 1848, Berliners either gave up the fight or went into exile.

Friedrich was succeeded by his brother who appointed Otto von Bischmark as chancellor.

Berlin continued to grow and turned into a modern cosmopolitan city. Despite their best efforts, Berlin continued to be liberal by nature with free press and continued to elect liberal deputies to the Reichstag, which became the parliament for the whole of a unified Germany in 1871.

Urbanisation was the main cause of the rise of the SDP party as Berlins population doubled to two million between 1890 and 1900. Thousands of tenement buildings and poor conditions stocked support for the main opponents of the Reichstag.

The 1890’s saw an arms race sweep Europe and alliances were formed that eventually culminated in the First World War. Citizens everywhere greeted the war enthusiastically as patriotic emotions took hold. The political parties of Germany (including the GDP) voted in favour of war credits.

After 350,000 Berliners died during the fighting, opinion swung against the war and 19 members of the SDP withdrew their support for war and formed a new party - after various alliances this ended up as the KPD (Communist Party Germany).

Just prior to the end of the war Erich von Ludendorff, realising that allied forces would not negotiate with the old absolutist system, created a democracy whereby the chancellor would report to the Reichstag and not the Kaiser. For Berliners it was too little to late.

In 1918 Berliners took to the streets, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and Germany became a republic.

The 1919 elections confirmed the SDP as the new political leaders and a national constitution was drawn up which was attacked savagely by extremists at both ends of the political scale.

It was on this back drop of divided public opinions, sectional interest and tenuous coalitions that saw the rise of the Nazi’s.

War reparations dominated the early 1920’s economy and life of the German populace. The unbearable economic conditions created unrest and upheaval; culminating in a failed putsch – by ex army officers but one of the ringleaders soon came to prominence - Adolf Hitler.

The Dawes plan (there was a realisation that only a prosperous Germany could meet its war reparation obligations) gave relief to Germany and loans poured in leading to an upsurge of the economy.

In 1926, Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as regional head and controlling the Brown shirts he supervised a decade of violence as they became the Nazis street fighters.

1929 saw the Wall Street crash and an abrupt end to the American investment into Germany. Poverty returned accompanied by violence and gang fights.

Playing to the fear of a return to the earlier 1920’s anarchic society and that of communism, in the Presidential elections of 1932 Hitler claimed 13.5 million votes but Hindenburg won with an absolute majority.

The parliamentary election of July were tarnished by violence on an unprecedented scale and made the Nazis the largest party in the Reichstag.

With increased power the attacks on the Jewish community became more frequent and violent.

Hindenburg made a political gamble that by appointing Hitler as chancellor the Nazi party would show themselves incapable of governing - for Berliners it was a sad day as three quarters of city had voted against the Nazis at the last election.

Manipulation of the Reichstag, via the enabling act, saw the Nazis come to outright power and Hitler merge the roles of President and Chancellor. Thus declaring himself the Fuhrer – an absolute dictatorship.

Hitler proceeded to harness his power by banning opposition, persecution of such groups as church members, freemasons, politically dissatisfied people and dissenters.

May 11th 1934 the burning of thousands of books in Berlin that conflicted with Nazi ideology became symbolic of the Nazi’s repressive tactics.

Another big night of Nazi terror was Kristallnacht – the boycotting of Jewish Businesses turned into bare faced attacks, this turned into confiscating of Jewish property, making life dangerous and difficult for the Jewish community and a taste of the absolute horrors to come.

Preparation for the war was made by the Nazis throughout the 1930’s and was demonstrated by Hitlers ‘living space’ foreign policy (taking land from neighbor countries). In 1936 the German army occupied the Rhineland and encouraged by the appeasement of his actions by Britain and France Hitlers made further demands on Polish territory.

A nonaggression treaty with Russia boosted Hitlers confidence even more and on September the 1st 1939, following Germanys invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war.

Berlin suffered some 363 air raids during the war years, with 75,000 tons of bombs dropped, killing 35,000 – 50,000 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless.

May 8th 1945 saw the end of the war and Berlin was left as a devastated city – 125,000 dead in total and worse was to come.

Occupation saw minimal rationing, the collapse of agriculture and industry, the digging of mass graves to cope with the attacks of typhus, TB and hunger related diseases.

The Russians were already cementing their plans for a communist government and had installed the future GDR leader Walter Ulbricht in an administrative office in Lichtenberg.

1946 saw the merger of the SPD and KPD in what was to become the communist party.

Tensions continued over the Berlin zones as the allied forces continued to squabble and the Russians made a demand that the Berlin Mayor accepted the Ostmark as the cites only currency on June 23rd. The subsequent refusal resulted in the Russian Blockade.

This attempt to force out the allies did not work as a prominent Berlin politician prophesized that Berliners would fight with every thing they had. American and British air lifts, against all odds, kept Berliners alive for almost one year.

1949 saw the official creation of two Germanys The federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic, Berlin was now officially split into two.

The 1950’s saw an economic miracle in West Germany and the Marshall Aid plan and West German capital saw Berlin transformed into a show case for Capitalism. Whilst East Berlin did not enjoy the same economic revival, Germany was to go on to become of Europe’s strongest economies,

With tens of thousands leaving East Berlin, to escape the economic hardships and communist control, drastic action was taken and East Berlin sealed itself off with the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

Some resemblance of normal life ensued as both sides of the city managed to conduct daily life out of the international media attention, but living conditions were very different.

1989 saw the end of the Berlin Wall and symbolically the end of the communist era in Europe. Germans from both sides of the city drank champagne and embraced - Berlin was to become one city again.

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