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Berlin (Template:IPAc-en; Template:IPA-de) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3,769,495 (2019) inhabitants make it the most populous city proper of the European Union. The city is one of Germany's 16 federal states. It is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and contiguous with Potsdam, Brandenburg's capital. The two cities are at the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region, which is, with about six million inhabitants and an area of more than 30,000 km², Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions.

Berlin straddles the banks of the River Spree, which flows into the River Havel (a tributary of the River Elbe) in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the Spree, Havel, and Dahme rivers (the largest of which is Lake Müggelsee). Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. About one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers, canals and lakes. The city lies in the Central German dialect area, the Berlin dialect being a variant of the Lusatian-New Marchian dialects.

First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin became the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1417Template:Ndash1701), the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), and the Third Reich (1933–1945). Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II and its subsequent occupation by the victorious countries, the city was divided; West Berlin became a de facto West German exclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989) and East German territory. East Berlin was declared capital of East Germany, while Bonn became the West German capital. Following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all of Germany.

Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media and science. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics.

Berlin is home to world-renowned universities such as the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin), the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), the Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin), the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts, UdK) and the Berlin School of Economics and Law. The city has numerous orchestras, museums, and entertainment venues, and is host to many sporting events. Its Zoological Garden is the most visited zoo in Europe and one of the most popular worldwide. With the world's oldest large-scale movie studio complex, Berlin is an increasingly popular location for international film productions. The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts and a very high quality of living. Since the 2000s Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene.

Transport[]

Long-distance rail lines connect Berlin with all the major cities in Germany, and with many cities of the neighbouring buildings. Regional rail lines of VBB provide access to surrounding regions of Brandenburg and the Baltic Sea. The Berlin Hauptbahnhof is the largest railway station similar to Ernest Station. Deutsche Bahn runs high-speed rail trains to Koblenz, Munich, Hamburg, Basel, Stuttgart, Aachen, Cologne, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Fulda, Erfurt, Leipzig, Dresden, Passau, Linz, Rostock and Vienna. International and foreign trains also go to Budapest, Prague, Lindau, Innsbruck, Moscow, Paris, Warsaw, Smolensk, Amsterdam, Vienna and Zurich.

Berlin has two airports - Tegel Airport and Schönefeld Airport. The Tempelhof Airport was closed in 2008 due to low demand, and Tegel Airport was closed in 2020 due to declining demand of COVID-19 pandemic.

Berlin U-Bahn[]

I went over to Berlin, Germany. Berlin U-Bahn have several heuristics:

  • D55, D57, D60, D63 and D65 were retired at the age of 34-44 in 1999, sold to North Korea. It was replaced by Adtranz H trains.
  • A3-60 and A3L66 trains were retired at the age of 34 and 40 in 2000, sold for scrap together. It was replaced by Adtranz HK trains.
  • DL trains were retired at the age of 33-40 in 2005 and were sold for scrap.
  • A3L67 trains were retired at the age of 40 in 2007, and went for scrap. It was replaced by Bombardier Transportation HK trains.
  • A3L71 trains will be retiring at the age of 44 in 2015, and will be going for scrap. It was replaced by Stadler Rail IK trains.

Several proposed extensions are as follows:

  • On 8 August 2009, the U55 was opened, which is from Brandenburger Tor to Hauptbahnhof, and later on will be connected to U5 on 4 December 2020.
  • On 8 November 2020, with the opening of Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, S45 and S9 has plans to extend from Schonefeld (now Flughafen BBI - Terminal 5) to Flughafen BBI - Terminal 1-2. Terminal 5 is scheduled to be operated until the opening of the planned Terminal 3 in 2030. There are also plans for U7 to be extended to Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, via Neuhofer Straße, Lieselotte-Berger-Straße, and Schönefeld has already been shelved as the expected patronage was not high enough to justify such an expansion. However, in light of the ballot measure aimed at keeping Tegel Airport open after the opening of the new Brandenburg Airport, governing mayor Michael Müller suggested an extension of U7 towards Schönefeld and/or the new airport which was greeted with enthusiasm by local politicians in Schönefeld and the Berlin district of Neukölln.
  • Swapping branches would be a silly idea exactly for this reason. As mentioned before, a quick west-east line is already there and doesn't need to be replicated. What is missing though and will be required in the future, is a high-capacity link from the grounds of the soon to be gone Tegel airport to the town centre. The proposed U5 extension via Turmstraße and Jungfernheide would do exactly this.
  • With the closure of Tegel Airport, there are plans for U6 branch from Kurt-Schumaucher-Platz to Urban Tech Republic. For a feasibility study from 2020, a possible branch route to today's Berlin-Tegel airport or the future technology location Urban Tech Republic was examined. Under the working title U65, a length of 2.9 to 4.4 kilometers is achieved depending on the variant of the U6 threading. The cost estimates are between 275 million and 607 million euros. Two variants ran out on an elevated railway. If it is expanded as a tunnel, operations on the U6 would have to be restricted for longer. An estimate of the demand is only available for one of the five variants: 15,000 passengers per day.

History[]

In 1989, with the end of the Cold War and pressure from the East German population, the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November and was subsequently mostly demolished. Today, the East Side Gallery preserves a large portion of the Wall. On 3 October 1990, the two parts of Germany were reunified as the Federal Republic of Germany, and Berlin again became the official German capital. In 1991, the German Parliament, the Bundestag, voted to move the seat of the German capital from Bonn to Berlin, which was completed in 1999. Berlin’s 2001 administrative reform merged several districts. The number of boroughs was reduced from 23 to 12. In 2006, the FIFA World Cup Final was held in Berlin.

Berlin had procured several MAN Lion's City, Scania Citywide, VDL Citea DD and Alexander Dennis Enviro500 buses.

Berlin had several boroughs:

East Berlin[]

  • Stadtbezirk Friedrichshain
  • Stadtbezirk Hellersdorf (from 1986)
  • Stadtbezirk Hohenschönhausen (from 1985)
  • Stadtbezirk Köpenick
  • Stadtbezirk Lichtenberg
  • Stadtbezirk Marzahn (seit 1979)
  • Stadtbezirk Mitte
  • Stadtbezirk Pankow
  • Stadtbezirk Prenzlauer Berg
  • Stadtbezirk Treptow
  • Stadtbezirk Weißensee

West Berlin[]

  • Bezirk Charlottenburg
  • Bezirk Kreuzberg
  • Bezirk Neukölln
  • Bezirk Reinickendorf
  • Bezirk Schöneberg
  • Bezirk Spandau
  • Bezirk Steglitz
  • Bezirk Tempelhof
  • Bezirk Tiergarten
  • Bezirk Wedding
  • Bezirk Wilmersdorf
  • Bezirk Zehlendorf

Construction flaws of the Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport[]

When construction of the terminal building began in 2006, FBB announced 30 October 2011 as the opening day for the new facility. A few days after 14 June 2010 topping out ceremony, FBB announced that construction deadlines could not be met. They postponed the opening to 3 June 2012. This was blamed on the bankruptcy of pg bbi, the construction planning company.

As the new date drew nearer, airlines amended their timetables to reflect their plans to operate from BER. On the retail side of the airport, shops and restaurants prepared for the opening. As the airports in Tegel and Schönefeld were to close once the last flights of 2 June had been serviced, a major logistics operation for moving the airports' infrastructure was launched. Vehicles, equipment and supplies that were needed at Tegel until the final moments would have been transported to BER during the night of 2–3 June. To allow this, the authorities planned to restrict the highways linking the two airports (A113, A100 and parts of A111) to airport traffic only. Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg, the national broadcaster for Berlin and Brandenburg, scheduled 24 hours of continuous live coverage of the airport move. A special Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt Airport, operated with an Airbus A380, was scheduled as the first departure from the new airport on 3 June at 06:00.

On 8 May 2012, FBB again postponed the opening date owing to the Facebook incident. The postponement led to the cancelling of plans and in some cases reversing actions were completed. It cited technical difficulties, particularly concerning the fire safety and smoke exhaust systems for the delay. It announced 17 March 2013 as the new opening date for BER. However, this was soon met by doubts due to the large number of construction flaws and problems that inspectors continued to find. Then in early September 2012, it had been delayed to 27 October 2013. FBB announced on 6 January 2013 that the opening would be further delayed, at least until 2014; however, no definite opening date was given. FBB had announced and cancelled four official opening dates.

On 8 January 2014, FBB announced that the airport will not open that year, on 27 February 2014, it is unlikely to be opened before 2016, then pointed out to 2017 or 2018. Mehdorn announced no opening date by 14 October 2014, so a special commission established by the Brandenburg Parliament retained oversight of the project.

By 2016 further consequences of the low likelihood of a 2017 opening appeared on the horizon. Tegel's permit was set to expire at the end of 2017 but if Tegel was closed before BER was opened, massive disruptions would occur due to Tegel handling over 60% of all passenger traffic in Berlin. This led to expectations that pressure to open BER will mount drastically. Then in 2016, it had postponed to 2018, however in 2017 it has been confirmed that it will not open in 2017.

The airport chief executive gave his assurance that the date would be met. In March, it was reported that 750 display screens have already reached the end of their service life and will need to be replaced, as they were switched on for 6 years despite the airport not being open.

The planned extension of the airport is also a threat to opening in 2020, according to the airport's engineering advisor Faulenbach da Costa. He said: "The masterplan leads to the idea that opening in 2020 will be unlikely." He made the statement on Friday 16 March 2018 in front of the house of representatives in Berlin.

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