History of Berlin
The begin of Berlin
Around 1230 the counts Johan 1 and Otto 111 founded the city of Berlin-Cölln. At that time the city still consisted of two parts, in 1307 they decided to become a city and in 1400 they already had more than 8000 inhabitants. The first inhabitants of Berlin-Cölln came from Cologne. In 1819 to 1840 the population grew from 201,000 to 338,000, which was a big step to a big city. The famous street in Berlin, Unter den Linden, was designed in 1647 for a connection to Tiergarten. After the First World War in 1918, Berlin was declared a republic, the new Greater Berlin then had 4 million inhabitants.
World War II
The Nazis used the winter games in 1936 for propaganda purposes.
There were even plans to fill Berlin with huge buildings and call it Germania. But after the outbreak of the Second World War, the Allies put a stop to these daring plans. Berlin was 53 percent destroyed by the Allied bombing.
The battle for Berlin began in April 1945. The troops of the Soviet Union invaded Berlin. Berlin was defended street by street, but the Soviet Union still won the battle. Hundreds of thousands of residents and soldiers were killed in this battle.
In April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in an underground Bunker.
A few days later, Germany surrendered.