Everybody loves Berlin. Last year there were more than 12 million tourists spending over 30 million nights here. Every day we have 500.000 guests here, enjoying this exciting city.
Here you have a few surprising Berlin facts and superlatives:
- In 2015 the Berlin Public Transport Company (BVG) transported more than 1 billion passengers, the trolley cars (/tram) 187 million and busses 418 mill. passengers.
Length of the Berlin road system: 5.452 km
- The first traffic light in Europe was erected 1924 right in the middle of Potsdamer Platz – by that time the busiest square in Europe.
After the reunification they placed a replica right where the original was. Today it is the meeting point at Potsdamer Square in front of Daimler Center.
- Berlin is a multicultural metropolis. 621.000 of the 3,5 million inhabitants have a foreign passport. People of 190 nations have their home here, from these 55.000 are polish and 98.000 turks. They are the biggest migrant group.
- Berlin is a green city. 30% of Berlin are parks, forests or agricultural areas.
440.000 trees shade the streets in the heat of midsummer. 2500 parks invite you to calm down and relax. Real quality of life.
- Berlin and its surroundings are rich of water. Inside Berlin city limits you will find 180 km of canals. The Spree River runs through the Berlin on a length of 45 km – also through the historical city-centre. The Spree flows into Havel River close to the old city centre of Spandau – today a Berlin district.
The Havel flows via Potsdam into the Elbe river. It is very easy to reach from here e.g. Hamburg with a boat.
The biggest lakes here are famous Wannsee in West-Berlin and the Müggelsee (7,4 square km), located south-east of the centre.
- Berlin has many fascinating graveyards. The Jewish cemetery in Weissensee is with 115.000 gravesites the biggest one in Europe. This one and the many christian and jewish cemetaries in and around the city-centre are definitively worth a visit. Here you will find well known names written on the tombstones like Karl-Friedrich Schinkel, Johann Jacob Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or Berthold Brecht – and many more famous characters of the last centuries.
- The KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens, Departement Store of the West) is the biggest departement store in continental Europe. Just one is bigger in Europe: Harrods in London.
KaDeWe has 8 floors and a sales area of 60.000 sqm.
The biggest attraction is the 6th floor – the legendary Gourmet-Departement. Here you can buy almost everything what`s eatable on this planet.
- The city boundary of Germany`s capital has a length of about 240 km. Crossing Berlin from west to east: max 45 km, from north to south: 38 km
Berlin has the geographic latitude of London and the longitude of Naples, Italy.
…to be continued