The History of Berlin: Timeline & Facts

This is our guide to the history of Berlin.

Berlin was founded in the 13th century and is relatively young compared to other metropolises.

Nevertheless, the city was subject to profound changes and has a very eventful history. Berlin experienced glorious times, but also extremely dark periods, which were especially close in the 20th century.

We have created a timetable of Berlin's history, which will give you a tabular overview of Berlin's almost 800-year existence.

But first, let's look at the origin of Berlin's name!

What is the Origin of Berlin's Name?

The name Berlin has its origin in the Slavic language.

It is composed of the word "brl" for swamp or morass and the suffix "in" typical for place names. Berlin therefore means the place in the swamp.

Until the End of the 12th Century: Prehistory and Early History

• 60,000 BC → First settlement of the Berlin area.
• 9th century BC → Hunters and fishermen settle at Spree, Dahme and Bäke.
• 4th century BC → First cultures with agriculture and animal husbandry.
• 2000 BC → Increasingly dense settlement along Spree and Havel (Lusatian culture).
• 600 BC → Jastorf culture (predecessor culture of the Elbe Germanic tribes).
• Until 4th and 5th century AD → Elbe Germanic Semnones (tribe of the Swebs), East Germanic Burgundians. Decrease in settlement density due to withdrawal of the majority of Germanic tribes.

Slavs

• From 6th century → Slavic tribes come to the Lusatian region.
• End of 7th century → Slavs also settle in the Spree-Havel region (Heveller, Sprewanen).
• Around 750 → Construction of the Slavic fortress south of the mouth of the Spree (Burgwallinsel).
• 9th century → Construction of the Spandau castle rampart on Köpenick Castle Island

Mark Brandenburg

• Spring 1157 → Victory of the Ascanian leader Albrecht I of Brandenburg (Albrecht the Bear) over Sprewan prince Jaxa of Köpenick.
• 11.6.1157 → Foundation of the Mark Brandenburg, Albrecht appoints himself first margrave.
• 12th century → Relocation of the early city to the area of today's Spandau Citadel. A new city center develops opposite the mouth of the Spree River.

Until 1415: Trading Town in the Middle Ages

• End of 12th century → merchants from the Lower Rhine-Westphalian area establish a settlement on the Spree Island.
• 1230 → Beginning of the first porch of the Nikolaikirche church.
• 1237 → Cölln is first mentioned in a document. This year is considered the official founding year (in 2008, an oak beam was excavated at Petriplatz, presumably dating from 1183).
• 1244 → The settlement of Berlin is founded opposite Cölln on the northern bank of the Spree. The name Berlin is also mentioned in documents for the first time.
• 1280 → Berlin receives a city coat of arms on which two bears are depicted.
• 1292 → St. Mary's Church is mentioned in a document for the first time.
• 1307 → Berlin and Cölln join together in a union to secure their rights vis-à-vis the sovereign and pursue a common alliance and defense policy. 12 Berlin councilmen and 6 Cöllners sit in the new town hall.
• 1319 → The last Ascanian of the Marches, Henry II, dies.
• 1323 → The Roman-German King Ludwig IV, a descendant of the House of Wittelsbach and an uncle of the last Ascanian, transfers the Mark Brandenburg to his eldest son Ludwig the Brandenburger.
• 1360 → Berlin-Cölln becomes a member of the Hanseatic League.
• 1373 → The Union of Cities falls with the Mark of Brandenburg to the Luxembourgers.
• 1378 → Great fire in Cölln.
• 1380 → Great fire in Berlin. The town hall and almost all churches are destroyed, most of the city charters and documents of the cities fall victim to the flames.
• 1390 → A Berlin town hall is documented on the site of today's Berlin Town Hall.
• 1400 → The twin city has circa 8,500 inhabitants and about 1,100 houses.

Until 1701: Electoral Residential City

• 1415 → Beginning of over 500 years of Hohenzollern rule due to the appointment of Frederick I by King Sigismund as Elector and Margraviate of Brandenburg.
• 1432 → Berlin and Cölln finally merge to form a municipality with joint administration.
• 1442 → Elector Frederick II dissolves this union again. Withdrawal from the Hanseatic League.
• 1443 → Foundation stone laid for the later Berlin City Palace on the Spree Island in Cölln.
• 1486 → Under Elector Johann Cicero, the palace becomes the residence of the Brandenburg electors from the House of Hohenzollern. The twin city gains political importance but loses its urban liberties.
• 1500 → Berlin and Cölln have about 12,000 inhabitants.
• 1510 → 100 Jews are unlawfully accused of stealing and desecrating hosts. 38 of them are burned, two are beheaded after converting to Christianity, the other 60 and all other Jews are expelled from the city.
• 1527 → The Tiergarten is laid out west of Berlin as a hunting ground for the electors.
• 1539 → The first printing press goes into operation.
• Nov. 1, 1539 → Elector Joachim II takes communion according to the Lutheran rite in St. Nikolai Church.
• Summer 1540 → The Reformation is proclaimed by a new church order for all of Brandenburg.
• 1540 → After the innocence of Jews accused of theft in 1510 is proven after 30 years, Jews are allowed to settle in Berlin again if they pay a fee.
• 1542 → Elector Joachim II establishes a bridle path between the city palace and the Grunewald hunting lodge, which is built in the same year. Many years later, this path is called Kurfürstendamm.
• 1567 → Three-day bludgeoning war between Berlin and Spandau triggered by ambitious Spandauers who refused to accept the planned defeat of a staged play and beat the Berliners with clubs.
• 1571 → The restaurant "Zum Nußbaum" is opened on the Fischerinsel in Cölln. The oldest surviving inn in Berlin is destroyed in bombing raids in 1943 and reconstructed in 1986/87 in the Nikolai Quarter.
• 1573 → Elector Johann Georg creates a bridle path between the City Palace and the Tiergarten, which Elector Friedrich Wilhelm has fortified and planted with linden trees in 1647. The later boulevard "Unter der Linden" is created. Jews are expelled from the city for 100 years.
• 1648 → The Thirty Years' War halves the population of Berlin-Cölln. One third of the houses are damaged.
• 1658 → The twin city is developed as a fortress in the form of a star with 13 bastions.
• 1668 → The Friedrich Wilhelm Canal between the Oder and Spree rivers brings economic advantages due to lower freight costs.
• 1671 → Foundation of the Jewish community. 50 families expelled from Austria get a new home.
• 1685 → Frederick William, the Great Elector, invites French Huguenots, persecuted for their faith, to Brandenburg. Over 15,000 arrive, 6,000 settle in Berlin. Moabit comes into being.
• 1688 → The city has 20,000 inhabitants. Boom in economy and trade due to the many immigrants. The Gendarmenmarkt is built.
• 1695 → Elector Frederick III has a palace built for his wife Sophie Charlotte. It is the famous Charlottenburg Palace.

Until 1806: Royal Capital and Residence City

• 18.01.1701 → Elector Frederick III is crowned King Frederick I in Prussia. Berlin becomes royal residence city.
• 1709 → Berlin, Cölln, Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichstadt are united to form the capital and royal residence city of Berlin. Berlin now has 55,000 inhabitants.
• 1717 → Compulsory education introduced, but its implementation takes decades.
• 1726 → The Charité is founded. It is the oldest hospital in Berlin and the oldest medical educational institution in Germany.
• 1730 → A large parade ground is built. It gives rise to Königsplatz, today's Platz der Republik.
• 1732 → About 1,200 Bohemian religious refugees arrive in Berlin.
• 1734 → The old city fortifications are demolished and replaced by a new 14.5 km long wall. The enclosed area covers 1,330 hectares. Berlin now has about 80,000 inhabitants.
• 1737 → Bohemian-Rixdorf (today Neukölln) is founded.
• 1740 → Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great and popularly known as Alter Fritz, makes Berlin the center of the Enlightenment.
• 1756 → Outbreak of the Seven Years' War. Brief occupation of Berlin by Austria (Berlin Hussar Stroke 1757) and Russia (1760).
• 1764 → The first German-language theater opens in Bärenstrasse.
• 1791 → The new Brandenburg Gate is inaugurated.
• 1795 → The first steam engine runs.
• 1800 → Berlin has circa 170,000 inhabitants, including 25,000 soldiers.
• 1805 → The ox market and parade ground is named Alexanderplatz in honor of the Russian Tsar Alexander I.

Until 1848: French Period

• Oct. 27, 1806 → French Emperor Napoleon enters Berlin with his troops. 116 paintings, 204 statues, busts and reliefs, thousands of coins, 48 objects made of ivory and amber, and the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate are taken to Paris. Berliners deride Napoleon as a horse thief.
• December 1808 → The French occupation troops leave again.

Reform Period

• 1809 → Freiherr vom Stein's new Prussian city code for self-government rights comes into force.
• 18-22.4.1809 → A city council is elected for the first time.
• 1.5.1809 → Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach is elected the first Lord Mayor.
• 1810 → The first university, today's Humboldt University, is opened. Introduction of freedom of trade and trade tax.
• 1812 → Edict on the equality of Jews.
• 1815 → End of the Napoleonic Wars and beginning of a period of peace that lasts for decades and brings rapid population growth.
• 1816 → The city has 200,000 inhabitants. The first steam locomotive in Europe is completed.
• 1824 → Due to the strong influx of workers in the course of industrialization, the first so-called tenements are built, in which sometimes 2000 people have to share 300 apartments.
• 1826 → Unter den Linden is henceforth lit with gas.

Vormärz (the Period between the French July Revolution of 1830 and the German March Revolution of 1848/49)

• 1830 → The first museum in Prussia opens at the Lustgarten on Spree Island. It is today's Altes Museum.
• 20.9.1830 → The first riot in the city due to police arbitrariness goes down in history as the Tailors' Revolution.
• 1831 → The first cholera epidemic reaches Berlin. 2000 people are carried off.
• Aug. 3, 1835 → The Fireworks Revolution is the second riot in Berlin and signals the increasing politicization of the working population.
• 1837 → Alfred Borsig opens a machine factory in Wedding.
• 22.9.1838 → As Prussia's first railroad connection, the Berlin - Potsdam line goes into operation.
• 1840 → The city has 330,000 inhabitants.
• 1841 → The first German locomotive sets off on its maiden voyage from Anhalter Bahnhof.
• 1844 → Germany's first zoo opens its doors. It is the largest zoo in the world until 1900. Founding of the Berlin Craftsmen's Association, which has a great influence on the political education of the middle classes.
• 1846 → The city has 406,000 inhabitants. The Volkspark Friedrichshain is established.
• 1847 → Werner Siemens opens his first factory in Friedrichstadt. Increasing mechanization leads to the impoverishment of large parts of the workforce. Poor relief takes up 40 percent of the city budget. Average life expectancy is 54 years, for workers 42 years.
• April 21, 1847 → The famine of broad masses and the overpriced food lead to the potato revolution.

Until 1878: Revolution of 1848/49

• 18.3.1848 → 10,000 people take part in a rally. There are barricade fights with the troops loyal to the king. The latter suppress the uprising until March 21. 192 deaths are counted.
• 14.6.1848 → Storming and looting of the armory.
• 1848 → In response to the uprisings, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly are introduced, and the first political associations, the forerunners of later parties, are formed. Large numbers of unemployed. Expansion of the waterway system through emergency works.
• Nov. 10, 1848 → Prussian troops enter Berlin again.
• 12.11.1848 → State of siege is declared. Many achievements of the revolution are thus nullified.
• 1849 → The Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau news agency is founded. The Gerson department store opens as the city's first department store.

Time of the Wars of Unification (Franco-German War)

• 1855 → The first advertising pillars are erected.
• 1856 → The first waterworks goes into operation.
• 1861 → Incorporation of several suburbs increases the city area to 59 square kilometers, the population rises to about 550,000, making Berlin Europe's fourth-largest city after London, Paris and Vienna.
• 1862 → Establishment of the first postal districts.
• 1863 → Foundation of the General German Workers' Association (ADAV).
• 1864 → First German Unification War between Prussia/Austria and Denmark. Ernst Schering's chemical factory opens its doors.
• 1865 → The history of the Berlin tramway begins with the commissioning of the first horse-drawn streetcar.
• 1868 → Second German Unification War between Prussia and Austria.
• 1869 → Founding of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). The Red City Hall is completed.
• 1870/71 → Third German War of Unification between the North German Confederation led by Prussia and France.

Until 1914: Capital of the German Empire

• 1.1.1871 → Foundation of the German Empire. King Wilhelm I of Prussia becomes the first German Emperor. Berlin becomes capital and political, economic and scientific center of the Empire.
• 1871 → Berlin has 826,815 inhabitants.
• 1873 → Foundation of Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation (Agfa).
• 1874 → Construction of a comprehensive drainage system begins. Opening of the first municipal hospital.
• 1875 → The ADAV and the SDAP unite under the leadership of August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAP). The party's headquarters are in Berlin.
• 1877 → Commissioning of the Berlin Ringbahn. The Imperial Patent Office begins its work.
• Dec. 31, 1877 → With 1,008,566 inhabitants, Berlin exceeds the one-million mark.
• 1878 → The "Law against the Publicly Dangerous Aspirations of Social Democracy" bans organizations, pamphlets and meetings of the Social Democrats, who are considered "enemies of the Reich.
• 1879 → The world's first electric railroad built by Siemens & Halske is presented at the Berlin Trade Exhibition. Founding of the Reichsdruckerei for banknotes and stamps.
• 1885 → The first Berlin soccer club is called Berliner FC Frankfurt.
• 1886 → Kurfürstendamm is officially inaugurated.
• 1883 → The Deutsches Theater is founded. AEG opens its first factory.
• 1888 → The BFC Germania soccer club is founded. Today it is the oldest soccer club still in existence in Germany.
• Feb. 20, 1890 → The SAP wins an absolute majority in the Reichstag elections.
• 1.5.1890 → The first May Day celebration of the workers' movement takes place.
• Autumn 1890 → The SAP renames itself the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
• 1891 → The Berlin mechanical engineer Otto Lilienthal achieves the world's first safe gliding flight at 25 meters.
• 1894 → The Reichstag building is opened on Königsplatz.
• 1902 → The first subway line between Warschauer Brücke and Knie (today Ernst-Reuter-Platz) goes into operation.
• 1905 → Berlin cracks the two-million mark with 2,040,148 inhabitants. Berliner TuFC Union 1892 becomes the first Berlin soccer club to win the German championship.
• 1906 → The cobbler Wilhelm Voigt goes down in history as the "Captain of Köpenick" and is later filmed with Heinz Rühmann. He occupies Köpenick town hall in a captain's uniform and with real soldiers who believe he is actually a captain, arrests the mayor and robs the town treasury.
• September 23, 1906 → The courtyards vis-à-vis Hackescher Markt (Hackesche Höfe) are opened.
• March 27, 1907 → Kaufhaus des Westens, KaDeWe, opens its doors.
• Jan. 28, 1909 → First powered flight on Tempelhofer Feld.
• 15.3.1909 → First six-day race in the exhibition hall at Zoologischer Garten.
• September 1910 → Moabit riots between striking workers and residents of Moabit and strikebreakers and police.
• Nov. 17, 1910 → Opening of the Berlin Sports Palace with the largest artificial ice rink in the world at the time. Sports include ice hockey, speed skating, boxing and six-day racing. At times, the hall is also used as a movie theater and in 1919 is touted as the largest cinema in the world. During the Weimar Republic, party conventions of the major parties are held. The hall achieves sad fame with the speech of Göbbels on 18.2.1943, in which he calls for "total war".
• 1911 → Foundation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (now the Max Planck Society).
• 1911/1912 → Berlin merges with Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, Wilmersdorf, Lichtenberg, Neukölln, Spandau, Nieder-Barnim and Teltow to form the Zweckverband Groß-Berlin. Adolf Wermuth becomes Lord Mayor.

Until 1918: World War I and November Revolution

• Aug. 1, 1914 → Kaiser Wilhelm II declares war on Russia from the balcony of the City Palace.
• Aug. 3, 1914 → Declaration of war on France.
• August 1914 → Theater performances are canceled, museums closed, public transportation and electricity consumption restricted.
• 1915 → Introduction of "bread cards". Beginning of the long lines in front of grocery stores popularly known as "polonaises".
• 20.3.1916 → The "potato card" limits supplies to 500 grams per day per adult, children get half.
• Winter 1916/1917 → The "turnip winter" has begun. Instead of potatoes, there are turnips. As a result of the 1st World War, 150,000 people are dependent on hunger relief. The official daily ration for adults is 270 grams of bread, 35 grams of meat (including bones), 25 grams of sugar, a quarter of an egg.
• April 1917 → Further cuts in rations lead to mass strikes. The October Revolution in Russia raises hopes for overthrow in Berlin as well.
• Jan. 28, 1918 → 400,000 Berlin workers strike, demanding "Peace and bread!"
• 3.2.1918 → Forced end to the strike. Mass arrests follow. 50,000 men are sent to the front. Many of them fall in the trenches.
• Autumn 1918 → More people died of hunger during World War 1 than from bombs during World War 2.

Until 1933: Weimar Republic

• Nov. 9, 1918 → Revolution in Berlin again! Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and goes into exile in the Netherlands. Philipp Scheidemann proclaims the "Free German Republic" from the balcony of the Reichstag. The Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert becomes Reich Chancellor. Karl Liebknecht unsuccessfully proclaims the "Free Socialist Republic of Germany" from the balcony of the Berlin Palace.
• Dec. 30, 1918 → Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and Wilhelm Pieck found the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Berlin.
• Jan. 5, 1919 → Start of the Spartacus Uprising, triggered by Friedrich Ebert's dismissal of the Berlin police president. The actual background is the opposing political goals of the groups involved in the November Revolution. The SPD leadership wanted to push through elections to the National Assembly. USPD and KPD seek socialization, disempowerment of the military and dictatorship of the proletariat. The uprising is bloodily put down by Jan. 12.
• Jan. 15, 1919 → Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are murdered by Freikorps soldiers.
• Feb. 29, 1919 → Election of the Berlin City Council. The USPD receives 47 seats, the SPD 46, i.e. 93 of the 144 seats. For the first time, 25 women are also represented in the city parliament. Adolf Wermuth becomes mayor again.
• March 13, 1920 → The Kapp Putsch breaks out. Parts of the Reichswehr and other military units revolt against their dissolution ordered by the Treaty of Versailles. They declare the government deposed and the right-wing conservative politician Wolfgang Kapp as Reich Chancellor.
• March 17, 1920 → A general strike organized by the SPD and KPD causes the Kapp putsch to collapse.
• Oct. 1, 1920 → The "Greater Berlin Law" incorporates areas surrounding Berlin. The city area covers 878 km² and is divided into 20 districts. The population is 3.8 million. Berlin becomes the fifth largest city in the world behind New York, London, Tokyo and Paris and the largest industrial city in Europe.
• Jan. 20, 1921 → Following Adolf Wermuth's resignation, Gustav Böß is elected Lord Mayor. After eight years of construction, the "Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstrecke" (AVUS) is opened. It is the world's first autobahn.
• June 24, 1922 → German Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau is assassinated by right-wing militants. He had moved closer to the precursor state of the Soviet Union with the "Treaty of Rapallo".
• September 1923 → Inflation reaches its peak. A kilo of rye bread costs 3.6 million marks. The assets of large sections of the middle class and pensioners are wiped out.
• Oct. 8, 1923 → Tempelhof Airport is put into operation.
• Oct. 19, 1923 → The history of radio in Germany begins in the Vox House.
• Nov. 22, 1923 → A streetcar ride costs 150,000 marks.
• Aug. 16, 1924 → The "Dawes Plan" defuses the situation. The immense repair payments imposed by the Treaty of Versailles are reorganized and adjusted to the economic performance of the Weimar Republic. This heralds the beginning of the "Golden Twenties" and the city on the Spree rises to become a legendary cultural metropolis by 1929.
• Dec. 4, 1924 → The "1st Great German Radio Exhibition" opens on the exhibition grounds.
• 1925 → Berlin just exceeds the 4-million mark.
• Feb. 20, 1926 → The first "Green Week" is held.
• Sept. 3, 1926 → The Berlin Radio Tower is opened with a speech by Albert Einstein.
• 1928 → 147 newspapers are published in Berlin. Television is demonstrated in public for the first time.
• 1929 → The world economic crisis hits Berlin. The city counts 664 bankruptcies and 450,000 unemployed. Violent demonstrations break out. The "Blutmai" claims over 30 lives and several hundred injured.
• Nov. 17, 1929 → In the elections to the city council, the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) receives 5.8% of the votes and enters the city parliament with 13 deputies.
• 1930 → Berlin's urban, ring and suburban railroads are combined under the name S-Bahn. The Wannsee lido is opened. First tests by the Verein für Raumschifffahrt with liquid rockets at the Tegel rocket airfield.
• Nov. 6, 1932 → The NSDAP becomes the strongest faction in the Reichstag elections with 33.1%. In Berlin, it has a 25.9% share of the vote.
• December 1932 → Unemployment rises to 630,000. Left-wing and right-wing extremist groups engage in violent clashes with many dead and injured.

Until 1945: The Period of National Socialism

• Jan. 30, 1933 → Adolf Hitler's "seizure of power" ends the Weimar Republic. Reich President Paul von Hindenburg appoints him Reich Chancellor.
• Feb. 27, 1933 → The Reichstag burns! The sole authorship of a left-leaning Dutchman seems doubtful. Many suspect the NSDAP behind the arson.
• March 20, 1933 → The mandates of all Communist deputies are revoked.
• March 21, 1933 → The first concentration camp is opened in Sachsenhausen, just outside Berlin, for the imprisoned opponents of the regime.
• April 1, 1933 → First organized boycott actions against Jewish stores, doctors and lawyers.
• May 10, 1933 → Books burned "against the un-German spirit" on the square in front of the Old Library (today Bebelplatz).
• June 21, 1933 → Start of the "Köpenicker Blutwoche," an arrest, torture, and murder campaign by the SA against some 500 opponents of the regime.
• July 1933 → The mandates of all Social Democratic deputies are revoked.
• 1934/35 → All elected bodies in the city are dissolved. The administration is "brought into line".
• March 22, 1935 → The world's first public television program starts in Berlin.
• Aug. 1, 1936 → The 11th Summer Olympics are held in Berlin. For this time, anti-Jewish posters and inflammatory slogans are not seen in the city.
• 1937 → The 700th anniversary of the city is celebrated with a big party.
• April 1937 → Architect Albert Speer presents Hitler with his first draft for the radical redesign of Berlin as the Reich capital Germania.
• March 12, 1938 → With the "homecoming" of Austria into the Reich, Berlin becomes the capital of the "Greater German Reich”.
• Nov. 9, 1938 → "Reichskristallnacht"! SA and SS men set fire to nine Berlin synagogues, looting and terrorizing. Around 1,200 arrested Jewish citizens are deported, mostly to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

World War II

• Sept. 1, 1939 → World War II begins with the declaration of war on Poland.
• August 1940 → First bombing raids on Berlin by British air forces.
• Jan. 20, 1942 → The "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" is decided at the "Wannsee Conference.
• Dec. 31, 1942 → Berlin's population reaches an all-time high of 4,478,102.
• Feb. 18, 1943 → Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels proclaims "Total War" in the Berlin Sports Palace.
• Autumn 1943 → Large-scale area bombing by Anglo-American air forces begins. By the end of the war, 450,000 tons fall on Berlin. The city center is almost completely destroyed. Around 1.5 million inhabitants become homeless, more than 50,000 die. Much later, criticism is leveled at the fact that any closer analysis of the fate of the civilian population in this inferno was dispensed with in the reappraisal of those days.
• July 20, 1944 → The assassination attempt of Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg on Adolf Hitler fails.
• April 21, 1945 → The Red Army crosses the city border. The "Battle for Berlin" begins.
• April 30, 1945 → Hitler commits suicide in his bunker.
• May 2, 1945 → The German Wehrmacht ceases all combat operations. For Berlin, the war is over.
• May 8, 1945 → In the casino hall of a Wehrmacht barracks in the Karlshorst district of Berlin, the formal surrender is declared for all of Germany. Berlin's population has dropped from 4.3 to 2.8 million, 600,000 homes are destroyed.

Until 1971: Division of the City

• Note: As early as February 1945, the Allies decided at the Yalta Conference to divide Germany into four occupation zones and Berlin into four sectors.
• May 1945 → The Soviet city command establishes a city administration consisting of KPD members.
• Summer 1945 → Soviet forces withdraw from the western sectors.
• July 1, 1945 → American, British, and French troops occupy their assigned sectors. Berlin continues to be administered by a joint Allied command. Soon, the first conflicts of interest arise between the victorious powers regarding the postwar order of Europe and Germany and Berlin in particular. The city develops into a focal point of the "Cold War" in the following years.
• 1946 → Under pressure from the Soviet military administration, the KPD and SPD unite in the eastern part of the city to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).
• Oct. 20, 1946 → Berlin's first city council after the war is elected with a turnout of 92.3%. The SPD receives 48.7% of the votes, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), founded only in 1945, 22.2%, the SED 19.8% and the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDP), also founded in 1945, 9%.
• June 24, 1948 → Beginning of the "Berlin Blockade" by the Soviet Union due to disputes over currency reform. The Western Allies can no longer supply West Berlin by land and water, since the three sectors are an enclave in the Soviet occupation zone.
• June 26, 1948 → Start of the "Berlin Airlift," the supply of around 2.2 million inhabitants as well as some 9,000 American, 7,600 British, and 6,100 French soldiers with their dependents from the air, in response to the blockade.
• Sept. 9, 1948 → Ernst Reuter appeals to the "peoples of the world" not to abandon "this city and this people" in his speech in front of the ruins of the Reichstag before more than 300,000 Berliners.
• Dec. 4, 1949 → The "Free University of Berlin" is founded in West Berlin.
• May 12, 1949 → The Soviet Union lifts the blockade of West Berlin again. As a result, the Western Allies stop the economic sanctions imposed on the Soviet occupied zone. However, access to West Berlin continues to be possible only via established transit routes and air corridors.
• May 23, 1949 → The Federal Republic of Germany is founded in the western zones of Germany. Berlin retains its special Allied status.
• Oct. 7, 1949 → The German Democratic Republic (GDR) is founded in the Soviet occupation zone. East Berlin becomes the capital of the GDR.
• September 1950 → East Berlin: demolition of the Berlin City Palace, a symbol of "Prussian feudalism".
• Oct. 1, 1950 → Berlin's constitution, adopted in 1948 for the entire city, comes into force only for the three West Berlin sectors.
• Jan. 18, 1951 → Ernst Reuter (SPD) is elected the first governing mayor of Berlin.
• Summer 1951 → The Berlinale International Film Festival is held for the first time.
• August 1951 → The 3rd World Youth and Student Festival with 26,000 participants from 104 countries takes place in East Berlin.
• Jan. 4, 1952 → By "Law on Berlin's Position in the Federal Financial System," West Berlin receives federal financial aid.
• March 29, 1952 → Opening of the English Garden in West Berlin.
• June 17, 1953 → The popular uprising against the SED regime and for free elections throughout Germany, starting in East Berlin, spreads to other cities in the GDR. It is violently put down by Soviet troops. There are several hundred dead, over 1000 injured and numerous arrests.
• Aug. 4, 1953 → June 17 is established as a national day of commemoration for "German Unity Day."
• Aug. 22, 1953 → The Marienfelde emergency reception camp for GDR refugees is opened.
• Sept. 16, 1955 → Deutsche Lufthansa der DDR (from 1959 "Interflug") opens Schönefeld Airport as the GDR's first commercial airport.
• Nov. 30, 1955 → The rebuilt East Berlin City Hall is handed over to Mayor Friedrich Ebert.
• 1956 → Construction of the city highway in West Berlin begins.
• Oct. 3, 1957 → Willy Brandt (SPD) is elected Governing Mayor of Berlin.
• September 1958 → The Quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate is reerected.
• Nov. 27, 1958 → In view of the continuing flow of refugees from the GDR to the West via Berlin, the "Khrushchev Ultimatum" calls on the three Western Allies to withdraw and demands the transformation of the West Sector into a "demilitarized free city."
• June 18, 1959 → Federal President Theodor Heuss (FDP) moves into Bellevue Palace.
• 1960 → Nearly 200,000 people flee across the open sector border to West Berlin that year.
• June 15, 1961 → GDR Council of State Chairman, Walter Ulbricht, says: "No one has the intention of building a wall."
• July 25, 1961 → U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces the vital interests of the Western protective powers in Berlin: 1. the right of the Allies to be present in West Berlin, 2. the right of the Allies to have free access to West Berlin, and 3. the preservation of viability and the right to self-determination for West Berlin.
• July 1961 → 30,415 people flee to West Berlin. This is the highest number in one month since 1053.
• Aug. 13, 1961 → The GDR begins building the Wall along the sector border, sealing off both parts of the city from each other.
• Aug. 25, 1961 → The International Radio Exhibition is held again for the first time in 22 years.
• Dec. 17, 1961 → The new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is consecrated.
• Jan. 17, 1963 → Soviet party and state leader Nikita Khrushchev visits East Berlin.
• June 26, 1963 → U.S. President Kennedy visits West Berlin and delivers his famous speech (...ich bin ein Berliner!).
• Dec. 19, 1963 → By Jan. 5, 1964. 1.2 million West Berliners visit their relatives in East Berlin.
• Dec. 1, 1966 → Willy Brandt resigns as Governing Mayor becomes Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister under Chancellor Kurt-Georg-Kiesinger.
• June 2, 1967 → During a protest demonstration against the visit of the Shah of Persia to West Berlin, student Benno Ohnesorg is shot dead by a policeman.
• Oct. 2, 1967 → With the discontinuation of Line 55, the age of the streetcar ends in West Berlin. In East Berlin it continues to run.
• April 11, 1968 → Berlin student leader Rudi Dutschke survives assassination attempt on him, although two bullets hit his head.
• Feb. 27, 1969 → U.S. President Richard Nixon visits West Berlin.
• Oct. 2, 1969 → The World Time Clock on Alexanderplatz goes into operation.
• Oct. 3, 1969 → The television tower on Alexanderplatz is opened.
• Dec. 16, 1969 → The Western powers propose talks to the USSR to solve the problems surrounding Berlin.
• March 26, 1970 → Beginning of these talks.
• April 19, 1970 → The 19-meter-high Lenin Monument is unveiled in East Berlin.
• Jan. 31, 1971 → Ten direct telephone lines between West and East Berlin have been connected again since 1952.
• July 3, 1971 → Negotiations between the Berlin Senate and the GDR government on "issues of mutual interest" begin.

Until 1989: From the Four Power Agreement to the Fall of Berlin Wall

• Sept. 3, 1971 → The Four Power Agreement, which clarifies the ties between Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany, is signed.
• Dec. 17, 1971 → The Transit Agreement on the facilitation of traffic to and from West Berlin through the GDR is signed.
• Dec. 20, 1971 → The "Agreement on Facilitation and Improvement of Travel and Visitor Traffic" and the "Agreement on the Settlement of the Question of Enclaves by Exchange of Territory" are signed.
• June 3, 1972 → The Four-Power Final Protocol to the Berlin Agreement of 1971 is signed. This also marks the entry into force of the follow-up agreements on transit traffic and travel and visits.
• June 21, 1973 → The Basic Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR enters into force. This agrees "on the development of good neighborly relations on an equal footing".
• Nov. 1, 1974 → Tegel Airport is opened in West Berlin.
• Nov. 10, 1974 → Kammergericht President Günter von Drenkmann is killed by the June 2 Movement.
• Feb. 27, 1975 → The chairman of the Berlin CDU, Peter Lorenz, is kidnapped by the June 2 Movement and released in an exchange for imprisoned members of the June 3 Movement on March 4.
• 1975 → Reconstruction work begins on the Berlin Cathedral on Spree Island in East Berlin's Mitte district.
• April 23, 1976 → The Palace of the Republic opens on the site of the former City Palace in East Berlin's Mitte district.
• Dec. 15, 1978 → The new State Library opens in West Berlin.
• April 2, 1979 → The International Congress Center (ICC) opens on the exhibition grounds in West Berlin.
• July 1981 → The number of squatted houses in West Berlin peaks at 165. The squatter scene had developed as a reaction to the housing shortage and simultaneous speculation-induced vacancies.
• Nov. 20, 1982 → The new transit highway to Hamburg is opened.
• Jan. 9, 1984 → The West Berlin transport company BVG takes over operation of the S-Bahn in West Berlin from the GDR Reichsbahn.
• April 5, 1986 → Two people die and 193 are injured in the bomb attack on the West Berlin discotheque "La Belle."
• 1987 → Efforts to celebrate Berlin's 750th anniversary together fail, so both parts of the city celebrate the anniversary in separate events.
• June 12, 1987 → U.S. President Ronald Reagan delivers his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Says: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
• Feb. 11, 1988 → In East Berlin's Schloss Niederschönhausen, Berlin's governing mayor, Eberhard Diepgen (CDU), meets with GDR Council of State Chairman Erich Honecker (SED). Topics of discussion include easing travel and visitor traffic and opening additional border crossings.
• Nov. 10, 1988 → Laying of the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the New Synagogue in East Berlin's Mitte district.
• 1989 → The GDR's citizens' movement increasingly puts the state leadership on the defensive with demands for reforms in the country.
• July 1, 1989 → The first Love Parade takes place with around 150 techno fans. The music festival reaches its peak in 1999 with around 1.5 million participants.
• Oct. 7, 1989 → The GDR celebrates the 40th anniversary of its founding in East Berlin, and among the guests is Mikhail Gorbachev, head of the USSR party and state. During his speech, he says that he would not allow the GDR to be tough on refugees who fled across the borders of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
• Oct. 18, 1989 → Erich Honecker declares his resignation as general secretary of the Central Committee, from the post of GDR Council of State chairman and chairman of the National Defense Council "for health reasons." Egon Krenz becomes his successor.
• Nov. 4, 1989 → More than 500,000 citizens of East Berlin gather for a demonstration on Alexanderplatz demanding the right to freedom of speech, press and assembly. The SED leadership promises to facilitate travel to the West.

Until Today: Fall of the Berlin Wall & Reunification

• Nov. 9, 1989 → Border troops initially allow crowds waiting at the Bornholmer Strasse crossing, and later at other border crossings, to pass after a misunderstood statement by Politburo member Günter Schabowski. Many East Berliners still travel to West Berlin that night. At the Brandenburg Gate, they climb the Berlin Wall; there is a festival atmosphere. The inner-German border is opened, the Wall has fallen.
• March 18, 1990 → The first and only free elections to the GDR's Volkskammer take place.
• May 1990 → The first free elections to the East Berlin City Council since 1946 take place.
• Sept. 12, 1990 → The 2+4 Treaty between the victorious powers of World War II and the two German states is signed in Moscow. It regulates German unity under international law.
• Oct. 3, 1990 → A state ceremony in Berlin marks the unification of Germany.
• Dec. 2, 1990 → The Berlin House of Representatives and the German Bundestag are newly elected.

Berlin after the Reunification until Today

• Jan. 11, 1991 → The House of Representatives elected the first all-Berlin Senate.
• June 20, 1991 → The German Bundestag decides to move the seat of government and parliament to Berlin, the declared capital of reunified Germany.
• 1991 → The Governing Mayor moves from Schöneberg City Hall to the "Red City Hall" in the Mitte district.
• 1993 → The House of Representatives has its new seat in the building of the former Prussian Parliament.
• Summer 1994 → The American, British, French and Russian troops leave Berlin with celebrations and parades.
• Oct. 22, 1995 → Berlin's constitution is approved in a referendum with 75.1 percent of the votes cast.
• April 19, 1999 → The first session of the German Bundestag is held in the redesigned Reichstag building.
• 1999-2000 → Parliament and federal ministries take up their work in Berlin. The Bundesrat is also now in Berlin. Many states establish embassies in the capital.
• May 2001 → With the occupation of the Federal Chancellery, the relocation of the Bundestag and the Federal Government to Berlin is officially completed.
• 2002 → The subway has been running in Berlin for 100 years.
• June 30, 2004 → The new Olympiastadion opens after nearly four years of renovation.
• May 10, 2005 → The central Holocaust Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany is inaugurated.
• March 26, 2006 → The Tiergarten Tunnel is ceremoniously opened. Around 50,000 cars are expected to pass through it every day, relieving congestion in the city center.
• May 26, 2006 → Berlin Central Station is officially opened after almost eight years of construction.
• June 7 - July 9 → Four group matches as well as the quarterfinals and final are held in Berlin as part of the soccer World Cup.
• June 13, 2007 → The Museum für Naturkunde reopens on June 13 after two years of renovation.
• 2009 → Berlin's Olympiastadion hosts the World Championships in Athletics. The Neues Museum with the world-famous bust of Egypt's Queen Nefertiti reopens.
• 2010 → 350 years of the Staatsbibliothek, 300 years of the Charité, 200 years of Humboldt University, 100 years of the Max Planck Society.
• 2012 → Berlin celebrates its 775th anniversary.
• Sept. 18, 2016 → A red-red-green coalition of SPD, Left Party and Greens governs Berlin.
• Dec. 19, 2016 → The attack on Berlin's Christmas market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church kills 11 people and injures 55.
• 2019 → The soccer club 1.FC Union Berlin, founded in Köpenick during the GDR era, is promoted to the 1st Bundesliga.

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