柏林英文简介最好不要金山快译的!

柏林英文简介最好不要金山快译的!
柏林英文简介
最好不要金山快译的!

柏林英文简介最好不要金山快译的!
Berlin
I INTRODUCTION
Berlin, capital and largest city of the Federal Republic of Germany. Administratively, Berlin also constitutes one of Germany’s 16 states. Berlin became the capital of Germany in 1871, when the numerous independent kingdoms and principalities of Germany united to form a single nation-state (see German Unification (1871)). The city quickly developed into one of Europe’s major industrial and cultural centers and became the single most important city in Germany.
From 1945 until 1990 Berlin was a divided city. Following the defeat of the Nazi regime (see National Socialism) in World War II (1939-1945), the victorious Allied Powers—the United States, Britain, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)—divided Germany into four zones, each occupied by one of the Allied Powers. They also divided Berlin, which was in the Soviet sector, into similar zones. The Soviet-controlled sector of the city became known as East Berlin, and the Western-occupied sector became known as West Berlin. In 1949 East Berlin became the capital of the German Democratic Republic (known as East Germany), one of two successor states established in Germany after the war. That same year the capital of West Germany, the other successor state, was established in the city of Bonn. West Berlin remained an urban island surrounded by Communist East Germany. The city became a focus of Cold War tensions between Communist countries led by the USSR and anti-Communist states led by the United States.
In 1990, following the collapse of Communism in the USSR and East Germany, Germany was reunified, and a united Berlin was declared its capital. The government gradually began moving its offices from Bonn to Berlin, a process that was largely completed by early 2000.
Berlin is located in the northern European lowlands on a broad, sandy plain that surrounds the Spree River. The city’s highest hill, which rises 120 m (394 ft) above sea level, consists of rubble collected after World War II. Berlin lies so far north that it gets dark by mid-afternoon in December but stays light until almost 10 pm in June. High temperatures average 23ºC (74ºF) in July and 2ºC (35ºF) in January. Precipitation averages 590 mm (23 in) a year.
II BERLIN AND ITS METROPOLITAN AREA
Modern Berlin covers 883 sq km (341 sq mi). In 1920 the old city merged with 8 towns, nearly 60 villages, and a number of surrounding farms and estates to form the current city boundaries. Berlin’s city limits encompass the entire metropolitan area and include large areas of undeveloped land. Forests and farmlands cover nearly one-third of the city. From reunification until 2001, the city was divided into 23 boroughs. In an effort to make urban government more efficient, an administrative reform that took effect in 2001 reduced the number of boroughs to 12.
At the heart of Berlin lies the medieval core of the city, located along the western bank of the Spree River. To the west of the medieval city is a formal grid of streets laid out on either side of Unter den Linden, a wide central avenue stretching from east to west and flanked with double rows of linden trees. Before the postwar division of Berlin, this area, called the Mitte (city center), served as the administrative and financial center of Berlin and contained the main banks, publishing houses, large stores, the university, and government buildings. Well-known streets crossing Unter den Linden are Friedrichstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse. The former royal park known as the Tiergarten occupies the land to the west of the Mitte district.
Gradually the city’s residential and industrial areas grew around the city center. In the mid-19th century a dense mass of tenements was erected to the north, east, and south of the central Mitte district. Known as Mietskasernen (rent barracks), these buildings were home to members of the working class who labored in nearby industrial plants. In contrast, aristocrats and members of the middle class lived in the peripheral communities of that time (Dahlem, Grunewald, Köpenick).
Prior to World War II, Berlin contained many imposing buildings, many of them built after 1871, when Berlin became the German national capital. Much of old Berlin was devastated during World War II by Allied bombing raids and by fierce house-to-house fighting that occurred when Soviet troops captured the city in 1945 at the end of the war. Wartime destruction left the historic core of the city standing amidst 26 sq km (10 sq mi) of rubble.
The victorious Allies faced a daunting task in 1945. Berlin had lost almost three-quarters of its 1.5 million residential units. During the first two months of occupation, when the USSR held full sway over all of Berlin, the Soviet Army also dismantled and removed 67 percent of Berlin’s industrial capacity.
After the war, the boundary between East and West Berlin was drawn through the heart of the city. In 1961 the East German government encircled West Berlin with a fortified wall that traced the boundary. This wall was known as the Berlin Wall. In the postwar redevelopment period, both East and West Berlin turned their backs on the wall and the area on either side of it, which remained a partially abandoned zone.
A East Berlin
For several years after 1945, East Germany paid war reparations to the USSR, thereby slowing its economic redevelopment considerably. When funds became available, East German leaders opted to focus on building housing for workers. Postwar housing construction in East Berlin often took the form of prefabricated high-rise apartment blocks that surrounded a central area containing schools, playgrounds, and shops. The largest of these, such as Marzahn on the eastern fringe of the city, housed about 100,000 people.
Before reunification in 1990, the East German government restored some of the historic buildings on Unter den Linden, including the classical State Opera House and Saint Hedwig’s Cathedral, both built in the mid-1700s. The East German government also restored the neoclassical Brandenburg Gate, an 18th-century city gateway at the western end of Unter den Linden that has become an international symbol of the city.
B West Berlin
As Berlin became a focus of the Cold War during the 1940s, West Berlin’s Allied protectors strove to keep the city alive. West Germany gave tax breaks to West German firms that established or maintained businesses in West Berlin or bought goods produced there, and the Western allies provided massive economic assistance. During the Cold War years, West Berlin rebuilt its infrastructure and residential areas, expanded its subway system, and constructed a major international airport.
The rebuilding of West Berlin was particularly dramatic in the 1960s, when the West German government and its allies made an effort to make the city a showcase for the benefits of capitalism. A new central business district was developed southwest of Tiergarten along the Kurfüstendamm and other nearby streets. Department stores, sidewalk cafes, throngs of people, and office towers brilliantly lit at night by neon signs made this district the equal of any other modern city center in the Western world.
C United Berlin
Today the borough of Mitte again forms the heart of the unified city. Following the administrative reform of 2001, Mitte was enlarged to include the former central boroughs of Wedding and Tiergarten. Other important central areas include Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, now united as the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, and Prenzlauer Berg, now incorporated as a part of the Pankow borough.
Tiergarten contains a large wooded park, a zoo, and a variety of public monuments as well as the large, modern Congress Hall and the Reichstag building, which was built from 1884 to 1894. The Reichstag and the surrounding area have undergone renovation to accommodate the Bundestag (the lower house of Germany’s parliament) and new offices of the federal government. Near Tiergarten is the Kulturforum complex, including the Museum of Applied Arts, and the Bauhaus Archives and Museum, which documents the modernist Bauhaus school of architecture and design that flourished from 1919 to 1933. A museum complex lines the south edge of Tiergarten.
West of the city center, in the contemporary borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, is the Kurfüstendamm, a boulevard that became the commercial center of West Berlin after the end of World War II. The ruined tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was built in the 1890s and destroyed in World War II, stands at the east end of the Kurfüstendamm. The memorial serves as a reminder of the devastation of war. Near Kurfüstendamm is Tauentzienstrasse, a prominent shopping area and site of the Europa Center, which houses a 22-story complex of restaurants, shops, offices, and cinemas.
Kreuzberg, now a part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, located directly south of the Mitte, is a residential area known for its large Turkish immigrant community and its concentration of younger residents. To the west of Kreuzberg and south of Tiergarten is Schöneberg, a largely middle-class residential neighborhood. This neighborhood is now part of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough.
A half-mile north of the Unter den Linden is the Oranienburger Strasse, the heart of prewar Berlin’s Jewish district. Revitalization of the area includes the restoration of the New Synagogue, built in 1866. Gangs of Nazis badly damaged the synagogue on November 9, 1938, when they organized a night of anti-Jewish rioting known as Kristallnacht (German for “Night of Broken Glass”). The synagogue is now a center for the study and preservation of Jewish culture. Berlin’s oldest Jewish cemetery is nearby.
To the east of the city center, the Friedrichshain neighborhood contains largely residential sections in its northern portion. One of Friedrichshain’s major streets, Karl-Marx-Allee, is lined by an imposing series of high-rise residential buildings constructed during the 1950s in an ornate monumental style of architecture popular in the USSR. The southern part of Friedrichshain contains storage yards for manufactured goods and industrial products.
At the edge of Friedrichshain, next to the city center along the eastern bank of the Spree, is Alexanderplatz, a large square with restaurants and stores. Prior to unification, Alexanderplatz was the cultural center of East Berlin. Its most prominent feature is the Fernsehturm, a 365-m (1,198-ft) television tower topped by a popular revolving café. Berlin’s tallest building, the Fernsehturm was built during the 1960s in a futuristic style and has become a popular stopping point for tourists. Near the square are the Gothic-style Marienkirche (Church of Saint Mary) and the 19th-century red brick Rathaus (city hall).
To the north of the city center lie two working class neighborhoods: Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg. Wedding is an industrial center, while Prenzlauer Berg, which lies just east of the former Berlin Wall, houses workers as well as a growing community of artists and students. Even before unification, Prenzlauer Berg was a gathering point for artists and nonconformists dissatisfied with East German politics and society. Bullet holes from the war still scar the walls of the district’s aging tenement buildings, many of which are in a state of disrepair and neglect.
In the west and southwestern portions of the city, the landscape becomes more open, with grasslands, parks, and lakes dominating the scenery. Major natural features in this region include the extensive Grunewald forest and the Havel lakes, whose shores include a kilometer-long stretch of sandy beach. The Grunewald forest, which covers 32 sq km (12 sq mi) in southwestern Berlin, is a major recreational area for Berliners seeking relief from the crowded central city. North of the Grunewald are the residential neighborhoods of Charlottenberg and Spandau. Founded in the 13th century as an independent town, Spandau is best known as the site of a prison that housed Nazi war criminals. Its medieval streets remained relatively undamaged by World War II bombings.
III POPULATION
In 1998 Berlin had a population of 3,417,200, far fewer than the 4.5 million who called the city home in 1942. Between 1945 and 1990, Berlin’s population diminished slightly in size. After unification, it increased by almost one-sixth. Compared to most major cities, Berlin’s population began aging after 1945. In the mid-1990s the largest age group, which made up 19 percent of the population, consisted of people between the ages of 25 and 34. The next largest group included those 65 years of age or older (16 percent of the population).
During the mid-1990s Berlin was home to more than 400,000 foreign citizens. Most of these immigrants came from other European countries to seek better economic conditions in Germany. More than 30 percent of Berlin’s foreigners were guest workers who came from Turkey to work at temporary jobs.
Protestants make up Berlin’s major religious group, with nearly 950,000 members. Roman Catholics form the next largest group at 341,000. The number of Muslims stands at 183,000. The smallest religious group is the Jewish community, which has about 11,000 members. This compares to 161,000 Jews living in Berlin in 1933. Most of the prewar Jewish population was devastated during the Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s, when Nazi leaders organized the systematic destruction of Jewish people.
IV EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Berlin has been a center of scientific research and theory, attracting luminaries such as Swiss physicist Albert Einstein and German physicist Werner Heisenberg. The Humboldt University of Berlin, formerly the University of Berlin (1810), has been the site of important scientific research, and its faculty has included more than 25 Nobel Prize winners. A highly regarded teaching hospital, the Charitè, was founded in Berlin in 1727. Other institutions of higher education include the Technical University of Berlin and the Free University of Berlin, as well as scientific research institutes such as the Max Planck Society and Sciences Center Berlin.
The German State Library, founded in 1661, is on Unter den Linden. It contains nearly 7 million books as well as collections of maps, musical scores, records, and paintings. Located several blocks south of Tiergarten on Potsdamerstrasse, the National Library contains many of the prewar holdings from the historic Prussian State Library.
Berlin has also been home to many important artists, musicians, and architects. Early architectural landmarks in Berlin include the Gothic Church of Saint Nicholas, which was built in the late 14th to early 15th century, and the Charlottenburg summer palace, which houses the Museum of Decorative Arts. In the entrance court to Charlottenburg Palace stands a famous equestrian statue of the 17th-century Great Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William. Internationally influential architects who have worked in Berlin include 19th-century neoclassical architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and 20th-century architect Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school of architecture.
An exhibition on the history of Germany is housed in the baroque Zeughaus, one of Berlin’s finest buildings on the Unter den Linden, designed by German sculptor Andreas Schlüter and built from 1695 to 1706. Just north of Unter den Linden, the Museum Island contains some of the world’s most important art collections. The Pergamon Museum has excellent displays of Greco-Roman and Asian art. The Bode Museum contains fine examples of ancient Egyptian and Byzantine art. The National Gallery exhibits paintings and sculpture from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.
Berlin is also home to another group of famous institutions, including the Painting Gallery, which displays European painting from the 13th to 16th centuries, and the Staatliche Museum, home to the famous 14th-century-bc painted limestone bust of Egyptian queen Nefertiti. A new cultural quarter, located south of Tiergarten, contains the New National Gallery, which houses part of Berlin’s collection of 20th-century Western art.
Musical events take place at the State Opera House, German Opera Berlin, Komische Opera, and Schauspielhaus, a concert hall. Among the city’s many theaters, two have received worldwide accord: the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz and the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, which is still home to the Berliner Ensemble, a theatrical group founded by playwright Bertolt Brecht in 1954. Located south of Tiergarten is the Philharmonie Concert Hall, a striking asymmetrical structure that serves as the home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The city is the site of an annual International Film Festival and JazzFest Berlin.
V RECREATION
Berlin has an extensive system of parks and recreational facilities including the Wannsee (a lake), the beautiful botanical gardens in Steglitz, and the 31-sq-km (12-sq-mi) forest of Grunewald. Tiergarten contains the largest of Berlin’s nearly 50 parks and is home to the city’s enormous Zoological Garden, one of the largest and oldest in the world.
Berlin has about 1,600 sports and recreation groups with about 500,000 participants regulated and administered by a division of the city government. The largest of the many sports clubs is the Berlin Soccer Club. While soccer is clearly the national sport, bicycling, tennis, track and field events, car racing, horse racing, and boxing also enjoy a wide following. Each of the city’s 12 boroughs runs its own recreation facilities. The most famous is the Olympic Stadium, constructed for the 1936 Olympics and still used for many different events.
VI ECONOMY
Following the division of the city of Berlin in 1949, the economies of the two halves of the city were integrated into their respective municipal and national economic systems. Although East Berlin constitutes only a third of the unified city and its population, it became the hub of East Germany’s commercial, financial, and transportation systems, and a huge manufacturing center.
Much of Berlin’s industrial capacity was destroyed during and after World War II, and the economy of West Berlin suffered again during 1948 and 1949, when the USSR blockaded West Berlin in an attempt to drive out the Western powers. Beginning in the 1950s, however, West Berlin’s economy was revitalized with a great deal of assistance from West Germany and from the United States, which provided support under the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan). The city eventually became an important manufacturing center, producing electrical and electronic equipment and substantial quantities of machinery, metal, textiles, clothing, chemicals, printed materials, and processed food. The city also developed as a center for international finance, research, and science.
With the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the two halves of the city were once again physically integrated. Their economic integration began in July 1990. Of the two sections of the city, East Berlin underwent a greater economic upheaval, with many formerly state-owned businesses becoming private. United Berlin plays a significant role in international commerce. In 1995 the city exported and imported 8 million metric tons of goods.
Since reunification, Berlin has been forced to deal with housing shortages, growing unemployment, and strikes and demonstrations by workers. Increased taxes, reduced government subsidies, and cuts in social services resulted as the German government faced the cost of revamping East Germany’s economic system from a state-controlled to a free-market system. Despite these