MOMENTS IN HISTORY
1.1685: Edict of Potsdam
Berlin’s history as a cultural capital began in 1685, when the far-sighted Great Elector announced in the Edict of Potsdam that around 20,000 Huguenots would be taken in by Berlin. Many were excellent craftsmen and scientists, who, having fled Catholic France because of their Protestant beliefs, brought a new age of cultural ascendancy to the provincial town.
The Neues Palais in Potsdam, the town where the 1685 edict was signed
2.1744: Frederick the Great
Although “Old Fritz”, as Frederick the Great was nicknamed, preferred the isolation of Sanssouci to the bustle of Berlin, in 1740 he began to transform the city into a new metropolis. In particular, the “Forum Fridericianum” in Unter den Linden brought new splendours to the town, and masterpieces such as the national opera house helped transform Berlin into one of the most important European cities.
3.Golden Twenties
Between 1919 and 1933, Berlin flourished culturally and became an influential metropolis. Film, theatre, cabaret shows and thousands of restaurants and bars transformed the town into a vibrant international centre of entertainment. Berlin also set new standards in the realms of science and industry, and in architecture and fine art, particularly the Bauhaus movement.
4.1945: Surrender
Signed in Berlin-Karlshorst on 8 May 1945, Germany’s unconditional surrender marked more than the end of World War II. The previous Jewish population of 161,000 had virtually disappeared and Berliners called their city “the empire’s fields of rubble”.
5.1953: Workers’ Uprising in East Germany
On 17 June 1953, East Berlin construction workers in Frankfurter Allee demonstrated against an increase in the average rate of production and work quotas. Soviet tanks suppressed the rebellion while, in West Berlin, the uprising was interpreted as a demonstration for German unification.
Soviet tanks during the 1953 uprising
6.1961: Building of the Berlin Wall
The building of the Berlin Wall, which commenced during the night of 12 August 1961, was a traumatic event for many Berliners. Many families were torn apart by the concrete wall and more than 100 people were to be killed over the following 30 years at the border dividing East and West.
Worker building the Berlin Wall
7.1963: “I am a Berliner”
No other politician was as enthusiastically received in Berlin as the US President John F Kennedy. On 17 July 1963, in front of Rathaus Schöneberg, he declared to the cheering crowd: “I am a Berliner”. Berliners had forgiven the US for staying silent when the Wall was built. Kennedy confirmed once more that the Western Allies would stand by Berlin and support the town, just as they had done during the blockade of 1948–9, when the US and Britain airlifted food to the “island” of West Berlin.
8.1968: The late Sixties
During the late 1960s, West Berlin students transformed Germany. Rudi Dutschke and others proposed political change and a reappraisal of Germany’s Nazi past. The movement came to an untimely end when Dutschke was injured in an assassination attempt by Josef Bachmann in April 1968.
9.1989: Fall of the Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 heralded a new dawn for the city and the country. For the first time in 30 years, Berliners from both halves of the divided city were able to visit each other. The town celebrated all along Ku’damm and in front of the Brandenburg Gate. When the Wall was built, Willy Brandt, then governing mayor of West Berlin, had promised: “Berlin will survive!” He was right.
People celebrating the fall of the Wall
10.1991: Berlin becomes the capital of Germany
In June 1991, Berlin was officially declared the capital of the reunified Federal Republic of Germany. Allied Forces left the city during 1994, but it was only when the Bundestag, the German parliament, moved here from Bonn on 19 April 1999 that Berlin became the “real” capital. Today, all the main federal ministries and government authorities, the Bundesrat (upper house), and the Chancellor’s and the President’s offices are based in Berlin.
