State capital: NA Population: 3.5 million Area: 884 sq km
Like Hamburg, Bremen, or Vienna in Austria, Berlin is both a city and a state unto itself.
Founded in the first half of the thirteenth century, Berlin became the capital of Germany in 1709 by the order of the Prussian Frederick the Great.
It remained capital throughout the German Reich of Otto von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was also the capital of the Third Reich. During the long and bloody Battle of Berlin, Russian troops took the city and Hitler committed suicide. After the war, the victorious allies cut Germany into pieces, and Berlin as well. Being deep in the heart of Soviet territory, the Russians, who had taken the city, were given half. The other half was divided between the British, French, and Americans.
Later, these three withdrew, but the Russians remained, and turned their portion into the German Democratic Republic, East Germany, a satellite of the USSR. The infamous Berlin Wall was erected to keep in East Germans, and soon became a symbol of the Cold War.
In 1989, the Wall was torn down, and soon after, the East German government,
and then the USSR itself, collapsed, ending the Cold War without bloodshed. Today, Berlin is again the capital of a united Germany.
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Later, these three withdrew, but the Russians remained, and turned their portion into the German Democratic Republic, East Germany, a satellite of the USSR. The infamous Berlin Wall was erected to keep in East Germans, and soon became a symbol of the Cold War.