About
Berlin Timeline
1237 The merchant settlement Cölln, on an island in the Spree River, is first noted in official records. Its sister town Berlin on the northern bank of the river is mentioned in 1244.
1280 Berlin’s new city seal includes a bear for the first time.
1360 A unified Berlin-Cölln joins the Hanseatic League, but the city lacks influence with the trade group and is officially expelled in 1518.
1415 Friedrich I becomes Elector (Kurfürst) of Brandenburg, beginning the 500 year rule of the Hohenzollern family in Berlin that only ends with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
1647 What will eventually become Berlin’s most prominent boulevard, Unter den Linden, starts out as a road built from the City Palace westward to the Tiergarten, the royal hunting grounds at the time.
1685 Friedrich Wilhelm, known as the Great Elector (Großer Kurfürst), sparks an influx of immigration by signing the Edict of Potsdam, allowing French Huguenots persecuted for their faith to settle in
Berlin.
1695 Kurfürst Friedrich III builds a palace for his wife Sophie Charlotte west of Berlin-Cölln, which is renamed Schloss Charlottenburg after her death in 1705.
1740 Friedrich der Große (Friedrich the Great) alters both the face and spirit of the city by commissioning several important buildings and incorporating ideals of the Enlightenment into his rule.
1791 Construction of the Brandenburg Gate is completed.
1805 Alexanderplatz is named in honour of the visiting Russian Tsar Alexander I.
1871 Berlin becomes the capital of the newly unified German Reich under Kaiser Wilhelm I.
1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates, ending Hohenzollern rule in Berlin and paving the way for the democratic, yet short-lived and turbulent Weimar Republic.
1920s Berlin becomes a centre for unbridled hedonism and creativity during the ‘Roaring Twenties.’
1933 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis take power in Berlin, heralding the end of democracy in Germany.
1936 Berlin hosts the Olympics, but Hitler’s racist ideology is discredited by the gold-medal success of black US athlete Jesse Owens.
1938 The Nazi persecution of Germany’s Jews escalates on 9 November in the Kristallnacht. Berlin’s synagogues burn, numerous Jewish businesses are plundered and more than 1,000 people are
arrested.
1939 Nazi Germany invades Poland starting world war two.
1942 The Nazis plot the extermination of Europe’s Jewry through ‘Final Solution’ at the Wannsee Conference in a villa on the edge of Berlin.
1945 The Red Army surrounds Berlin and lays the city to waste until Hitler’s suicide on 30 April paves the way for Germany’s surrender in May.
1948 The Soviet Union attempts to choke off West Berlin by cutting supplies to the city, but the US and its allies organise the Berlin Airlift to break the blockade.
1949 West and East Germany are founded, sealing the official separation of Berlin into two parts for the next 40 years.
1953 A worker revolt against the Communist regime in East Berlin is brutally put down with the help of the Red Army.
1961 East Germany builds the Berlin Wall to keep its citizens from fleeing to the western part of the city.
1963 US president John F Kennedy holds his famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg in West Berlin.
1987 US president Ronald Reagan demands Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ‘tear down this wall!’
1989 The first Love Parade reasserts Berlin’s hedonistic credentials and cements the city’s reputation as a leading centre for electronic music.
1989 Amid widespread peaceful protests throughout East Germany, the Berlin Wall falls on 9 November.
1990 Negotiations between the four Allied powers and the two German governments enable the reunification of Germany on 3 October.
1995 Environmental artist Christo wraps the Reichstag in plastic before its modernisation by British architect Sir Norman Foster.
1999 The German government moves from Bonn to Berlin, giving impetus to the city’s political, cultural and economic development.
2006 Berlin attracts hundred of thousands of football fans from around the world as the city hosts the World Cup finals.
1280 Berlin’s new city seal includes a bear for the first time.
1360 A unified Berlin-Cölln joins the Hanseatic League, but the city lacks influence with the trade group and is officially expelled in 1518.
1415 Friedrich I becomes Elector (Kurfürst) of Brandenburg, beginning the 500 year rule of the Hohenzollern family in Berlin that only ends with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
1647 What will eventually become Berlin’s most prominent boulevard, Unter den Linden, starts out as a road built from the City Palace westward to the Tiergarten, the royal hunting grounds at the time.
1685 Friedrich Wilhelm, known as the Great Elector (Großer Kurfürst), sparks an influx of immigration by signing the Edict of Potsdam, allowing French Huguenots persecuted for their faith to settle in
Berlin.
1695 Kurfürst Friedrich III builds a palace for his wife Sophie Charlotte west of Berlin-Cölln, which is renamed Schloss Charlottenburg after her death in 1705.
1740 Friedrich der Große (Friedrich the Great) alters both the face and spirit of the city by commissioning several important buildings and incorporating ideals of the Enlightenment into his rule.
1791 Construction of the Brandenburg Gate is completed.
1805 Alexanderplatz is named in honour of the visiting Russian Tsar Alexander I.
1871 Berlin becomes the capital of the newly unified German Reich under Kaiser Wilhelm I.
1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates, ending Hohenzollern rule in Berlin and paving the way for the democratic, yet short-lived and turbulent Weimar Republic.
1920s Berlin becomes a centre for unbridled hedonism and creativity during the ‘Roaring Twenties.’
1933 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis take power in Berlin, heralding the end of democracy in Germany.
1936 Berlin hosts the Olympics, but Hitler’s racist ideology is discredited by the gold-medal success of black US athlete Jesse Owens.
1938 The Nazi persecution of Germany’s Jews escalates on 9 November in the Kristallnacht. Berlin’s synagogues burn, numerous Jewish businesses are plundered and more than 1,000 people are
arrested.
1939 Nazi Germany invades Poland starting world war two.
1942 The Nazis plot the extermination of Europe’s Jewry through ‘Final Solution’ at the Wannsee Conference in a villa on the edge of Berlin.
1945 The Red Army surrounds Berlin and lays the city to waste until Hitler’s suicide on 30 April paves the way for Germany’s surrender in May.
1948 The Soviet Union attempts to choke off West Berlin by cutting supplies to the city, but the US and its allies organise the Berlin Airlift to break the blockade.
1949 West and East Germany are founded, sealing the official separation of Berlin into two parts for the next 40 years.
1953 A worker revolt against the Communist regime in East Berlin is brutally put down with the help of the Red Army.
1961 East Germany builds the Berlin Wall to keep its citizens from fleeing to the western part of the city.
1963 US president John F Kennedy holds his famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg in West Berlin.
1987 US president Ronald Reagan demands Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ‘tear down this wall!’
1989 The first Love Parade reasserts Berlin’s hedonistic credentials and cements the city’s reputation as a leading centre for electronic music.
1989 Amid widespread peaceful protests throughout East Germany, the Berlin Wall falls on 9 November.
1990 Negotiations between the four Allied powers and the two German governments enable the reunification of Germany on 3 October.
1995 Environmental artist Christo wraps the Reichstag in plastic before its modernisation by British architect Sir Norman Foster.
1999 The German government moves from Bonn to Berlin, giving impetus to the city’s political, cultural and economic development.
2006 Berlin attracts hundred of thousands of football fans from around the world as the city hosts the World Cup finals.
