In the city of Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany

 Berlin is by far the largest city in Germany.

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(in Berlin, the capital and chief urban center of Germany.) The city lies at the heart of the North German Plain, athwart an east-west commercial and geographic axis that helped make it the capital of the kingdom of Prussia and then, from 1871, of a unified Germany. Berlin’s former glory ended in 1945. The Berlin Wall is a reminder of the city’s history, but the graffiti art that now covers it has become symbolic of social progress. Science lovers should not miss the Weltzeituhr (world time) Clock, topped by a model of the solar system, and history buffs will want to snag a seat at the historic Zur Letzten Instanz, a 16th-century restaurant that was frequented by Napoleon and Beethoven.

+ Germany’s division after WWII put Berlin entirely within the territory of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany). The city itself echoed the national partition, East Berlin being the capital of East Germany, and West Berlin a Land (state) of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany). West Berlin’s isolation was later reinforced by the concrete barrier erected in 1961, known as the Berlin Wall. Its status as an enclave made Berlin a continuous focus of confrontation between the Eastern and Western powers as well as a symbol of Western lifestyle for 45 years. The fall of the East German communist regime (and the accompanying opening of the wall, in late 1989, unexpectedly raised the prospect for Berlin’s reinstatement as the all-German capital. That status was restored in 1990 under the terms of the unification treaty, and subsequently Berlin was designated a state, one of the 16 constituting Germany. These developments heralded the city’s return to its historic position of prominence in European culture and commerce.

+ Berlin lies in the valley of the Spree River that runs through the center of the city. While still a small town, it became the capital of the electoral princes of Brandenburg from the end of the 15th century onward. From the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when the electors of Brandenburg (also kings of Prussia from 1701) developed into powerful figures on the European political stage, the city expanded and gained a Baroque appearance; new castles, such as Charlottenburg Palace, were built.

+ The Tiergarten, west of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin has always been a green city, with trees softening the effect of the apartment blocks in many streets. Water is even more prevalent, with the Spree River running through the city, a broad belt of lakes spreading out east and west, and canals that run through much of the city. Until the of 1989, the most notorious feature of the city’s topography was the Berlin Wall, erected by the East German communist government in 1961 to stop free movement between East Berlin (and indeed East Germany) and West Berlin. Of the several heavily guarded crossing points, Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse was the most famous.