Berlin is a city with a mixed history. From industrialization to world wars, the Berlin Wall, and reunification. But what are the historical highlights that have shaped the city and its inhabitants?
On the front page, you will find a historical event that took place on the current date. Here you will find a complete list of notable events in Berlin’s history.
Events in Berlin History
Jan 10
1927 (99 years ago)Fritz Lang’s science fiction film Metropolis premieres at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo. The film is a commercial failure, but is now considered a classic of expressionist cinema.
Jan 15
1919 (107 years ago)Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are murdered by the Freikorps, a right-wing extremist militia.
Jan 16
1945 (81 years ago)Hitler moves into the Führer bunker, where he lives until he commits suicide on April 30 of the same year.
Jan 18
1701 (325 years ago)Berlin becomes the capital of Prussia.
1871 (155 years ago)Berlin becomes the capital of the newly unified German Empire.
Jan 20
1942 (84 years ago)The Wannsee Conference is held. At the behest of Hermann Göring, Reinhard Heydrich has summoned a number of high-ranking Nazis to decide on the “Final solution to the Jewish question”. Within 90 minutes, they have decided on the industrialized extermination of Europe’s Jews.
Jan 30
1933 (93 years ago)Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany in a short-lived coalition government with the conservative German National People’s Party.
Feb 3
1945 (81 years ago)The largest air raid hit Berlin with American bombers and around fighters. It caused a huge firestorm that lasted four days. people was killed and leaving more than homeless.
Feb 4
1933 (93 years ago)President Paul von Hindenburg issues a decree restricting many of the freedoms of the Weimar Republic, including freedom of assembly and freedom of the press.
Feb 5
1989 (37 years ago)Chris Gueffroy is killed. He was the last person to be shot and killed while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall from East Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall nine months later. He was 20 years old.
2018 (8 years ago)It’s what’s known as a circle day. The Berlin Wall has been gone for as long as it stood. days in total.
Feb 6
1888 (138 years ago)Conscription is extended in the German Empire to seven years, and the armed forces are increased to in wartime.
2006 (20 years ago)The East German parliament, The Palace of the Public, which housed the so-called People’s Assembly, is being demolished. The demolition is expected to take 15 months, but it will not be completely removed until two and a half years later.
Feb 7
1882 (144 years ago)The Berliner Stadtbahn (S-Bahn) runs for the first time. The first section is part of the ring line that runs around the city’s developed area.
Feb 8
1950 (76 years ago)By unanimous decision of the East German People’s Chamber, the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) is established.
Feb 18
1902 (124 years ago)The first U-Bahn line (today’s U1 line) opened on the section between Stralauer Tor and Potsdamer Platz.
1943 (83 years ago)Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declares total war from all Germans in a speech at the Sport Palast.
Feb 27
1933 (93 years ago)The Reichstag catches fire around 9 p.m. The fire is arson, and Hitler exploits the situation to invoke a state of emergency and seize full power.
1943 (83 years ago)The Rosenstrasse protest breaks out. It is a rare mass demonstration in Germany against the Third Reich’s deportation of Jews in Berlin. Non-Jewish wives and relatives of imprisoned Jewish men protest for a week, resulting in the release of approximately Jews.
Mar 4
1922 (104 years ago)The world’s first vampire film, Nosferatu, an unofficial and unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, premieres at Berlin’s Zoological Garden.
Mar 8
2019 (7 years ago)International Women’s Day is a public holiday in Berlin for the first time.
Mar 18
1799 (227 years ago)The Building Academy is founded by Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm III. In 1836, it gets its own building, designed and managed by architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
1945 (81 years ago)The second largest air raid hits Berlin. American bombers and 733 fighter planes bomb Berlin. A conservative estimate suggests that around Berliners were killed in the air raid.
1990 (36 years ago)General elections are held in the German Democratic Republic, the first free elections since 1932 in the Weimar Republic and the only free elections in the republic. In October of the same year, the GDR is dissolved and reunited with the Federal Republic of Germany.
Mar 20
1307 (719 years ago)The two towns of Berlin and Cölln are officially united into one single city, Berlin. Between and inhabitants live in the united city.
Mar 22
1876 (150 years ago)The National Gallery is opening its doors to 19th-century art for the first time. Today, the museum houses art spanning three centuries.
Mar 25
1809 (217 years ago)The Royal Prussian Police in Berlin is founded. Today, the state police of Berlin has changed its name to Polizei Berlin.
Mar 27
1907 (119 years ago)The Kaufhaus des Westens department store, abbreviated to KaDeWe, is founded at Wittenbergplatz.
Mar 28
1935 (91 years ago)Leni Reifenstahl’s propaganda film Triumph of the Will premieres at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo.
Apr 10
1945 (81 years ago)The medieval Franciscan monastery church is hit during one of the British air raids and left in ruins. The monastery church is never rebuilt, but the ruins are preserved as an architectural memorial.
Apr 11
1929 (97 years ago)The legendary Kino Babylon cinema opens for the first time. The cinema is still in operation and shows silent films accompanied by a live orchestra, among other things.
1968 (58 years ago)The socialist activist Rudy Dutschke is shot and wounded at Kurfürstendamm 142 by a Neo-Nazi. Dutschke survives but suffers brain damage that causes epileptic seizures. Dutschke dies in exile in Denmark in a drowning accident caused by an epileptic seizure.
Apr 16
1892 (134 years ago)Dora Richter is born. In 1922, she becomes the first trans woman to undergo gender confirmation surgery. The surgery is performed by Charité in Berlin.
1945 (81 years ago)The Battle of Berlin begins as Soviet soldiers reach the city limits of the German capital.
Apr 22
1956 (70 years ago)The Soviet Union staged the discovery of a 400-meter-long spy tunnel running from West Berlin into East Berlin. The spy tunnel had been built by the American and British intelligence services to tap East German telephone lines to Moscow. However, the Soviet Union had a double agent on the team and had been aware of the tunnel all along.
Apr 23
1976 (50 years ago)The Palace of the Republic opens for the first time. The building houses the People’s Chamber, which is East Germany’s parliament. The Palace of the Republic also serves as a cultural center hosting events for the public.
Apr 26
1966 (60 years ago)Dora Richter dies in exile in Czechoslovakia. In 1922, she was the first transgender woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Apr 30
1945 (81 years ago)Hitler commits suicide in the Führer bunker, where he has been living since January 16 of the same year.
May 2
1945 (81 years ago)The Soviet army takes control of the Reichstag, and Soviet soldier Yevgeny Khaldei waves a Soviet flag from the roof of the building.
May 6
1859 (167 years ago)Explorer Alexander von Humboldt dies. He is often considered the father of environmentalism.
1933 (93 years ago)Magnus Hirschfeld’s library is looted by students from the German Student Union and members of the Nazi Party. The library contained unique books, journals, and studies on gender and sexuality.
May 8
1945 (81 years ago)Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signs Germany’s unconditional surrender, marking Europe’s liberation from the Third Reich and the end of World War II in Europe.
May 10
1859 (167 years ago)Explorer Alexander von Humboldt is buried at Schloss Tegel. He died four days earlier at the age of 89.
1933 (93 years ago)The infamous book burning takes place at Bebelplatz, then known as Opernplatz. The books include works by Bertolt Brecht and Karl Marx, among others, as well as Magnus Hirschfeld’s entire library, which contained unique books, journals, and studies on gender and sexuality.
2005 (21 years ago)The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is officially unveiled. The monument was designed by Peter Eisenman.
May 12
1949 (77 years ago)Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ends the Berlin Blockade after American and British bombers successfully fly supplies and food to West Berliners for 11 months.
May 13
1927 (99 years ago)Huge losses hit the Berlin Stock Exchange, where the index lost 31.9% of its value. The day became known as Black Friday.
1933 (93 years ago)Christopher Isherwood leaves Berlin due to the Nazi regime’s persecution of LGBT+ people. He initially travels to Greece and lives briefly in other European countries, but eventually settles in the United States in 1939.
May 14
1935 (91 years ago)Dr. Magnus Hirshfeld (b. 1868) dies in exile in France on his birthday. From the late 1800s until 1933, Hirshfeld conducted research on LGBT+ issues and was an activist for the rights of gay and transgender people.
May 15
1897 (129 years ago)Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (WhK) is founded by Magnus Hirschfeld and others. The WhK is the world’s first organization to advocate for LGBT+ rights.
May 27
1952 (74 years ago)As part of the establishment of the inner-German border, the telephone lines between West Berlin and East Germany were cut.
2008 (18 years ago)The Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism is unveiled in Tiergarten. The memorial was created by the Scandinavian artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset.
Jun 12
1987 (39 years ago)US President Ronald Reagan gives a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, where he utters the famous words:
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Jun 13
1990 (36 years ago)The demolition of the Berlin Wall along Bernauerstraße officially begins.
Jun 15
1961 (65 years ago)The Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, declared at a press conference: “Nobody has any intention of building a wall!” Two months later, the Berlin Wall was erected.
Jun 17
1953 (73 years ago)An uprising was violently quelled in Berlin by Soviet military forces and East German police using tanks and machine guns, resulting in an estimated 55 to over 125 deaths and thousands of arrests.
Jun 24
1948 (78 years ago)The Berlin Blockade begins when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin blocks all access to supplies and food to West Berlin.
Jun 26
1948 (78 years ago)The so-called Airlift begins, with British and American aircraft transporting food and supplies into West Berlin, because Stalin has cut off the city from the outside world two days earlier.
1963 (63 years ago)US President John F. Kennedy gives a speech in Berlin, declaring that an attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO. In the speech, he utters the famous quote: Ich bin ein Berliner.
Jun 29
1685 (341 years ago)The Berlin Stock Exchange is founded.
Jul 1
1989 (37 years ago)The first Love Parade, an outdoor techno music festival, is held. It is later followed by Rave the Planet, an electronic music festival.
Jul 2
1955 (71 years ago)The East Berlin zoo, Tierpark Berlin, is opening for the first time.
Jul 9
2022 (4 years ago)The first Rave the Planet is held. It is an electronic music festival that succeeds the techno festival Love Parade, which had been shut down due to a violent fatal accident a few years earlier.
Jul 21
1944 (82 years ago)Claus von Stauffenberg and the other conspirators involved in Operation Valkyrie are executed. The day before, von Stauffenberg had attempted to overthrow the Nazi regime by killing Hitler with a bomb in the Wolf’s Lair bunker complex.
1990 (36 years ago)Roger Waters of Pink Floyd is performing The Wall at Potsdamer Platz to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Jul 25
1892 (134 years ago)The Berlin soccer club Hertha BSC was founded.
Aug 1
1936 (90 years ago)Hitler opens the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The 1936 Summer Olympics torch relay was the first of its kind. Fritz Schilgen ran the final leg with the torch and lit the Olympic flame.
Aug 13
1961 (65 years ago)The Berlin Wall is built in the middle of the night, taking Berliners by surprise when they wake up the next morning and find they can no longer cross the border between East and West Berlin.
Aug 17
1962 (64 years ago)East German border guards shoot and kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to flee over the Berlin Wall to West Berlin.
Aug 25
1960 (66 years ago)Anhalter train station is being demolished. The station is located in West Berlin, while trains on the line run to and from East Germany. The station no longer serves any purpose and was damaged during air raids in World War II. Part of the facade will remain standing as a reminder of the war.
Sep 1
1895 (131 years ago)Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was consecrated. The church’s architecture was inspired by Bonn Minister.
Sep 2
1873 (153 years ago)The Victory Column, commemorating the victories over Denmark, France, and Austria in a series of wars between 1864 and 1871, was inaugurated on Königsplatz in front of the Reichstag. Today, the Victory Column stands on Großer Stern in Tiergarten.
Sep 3
1926 (100 years ago)After two years of construction, the Berlin Radio Tower is finally complete and is be officially inaugurated.
Sep 18
1818 (208 years ago)Neue Wache is inaugurated.
Sep 30
1949 (77 years ago)The last planes in the so-called airlift deliver food and supplies to West Berliners. Stalin lifted the blockade back in May, and now supplies can once again reach West Berlin by train and truck.
1969 (57 years ago)The World Clock at Alexanderplatz is unveiled. Designed by Erich John, it has since become one of the city’s most famous landmarks.
Oct 1
1842 (184 years ago)Stettiner railway station opens. Trains run from Berlin to Szczecin, then the capital of the state of Pomerania, which is now part of Poland. Stettiner railway station is hit several times by air raids during WWII, and only the S-Bahn section remains today under the name Nordbahnhof.
Oct 3
1869 (157 years ago)Rotes Rathaus, Berlin’s city hall, opens for the first time.
1969 (57 years ago)The TV tower at Alexanderplatz has been completed. The tower serves both to broadcast television to East Berliners and as a symbol of East German superiority.
1990 (36 years ago)The German Democratic Republic is dissolved, and the re-established federal states in the east are integrated into the Federal Republic of Germany. The day is celebrated annually as German Unity Day.
Oct 7
1949 (77 years ago)The German Democratic Republic is established in the Soviet sector, and East Berlin becomes its new capital.
Oct 13
1974 (52 years ago)The first Berlin Marathon takes place in West Berlin.
Oct 14
1884 (142 years ago)Hamburger Bahnhof is closing permanently. It is a temporary train station that is now an art museum.
Oct 15
1846 (180 years ago)Hamburger Bahnhof opens for the first time. It is a short-lived train station that is now an art museum.
Oct 23
1944 (82 years ago)Hitler’s bunker, known as the Führerbunker, has been completed.
Oct 24
1806 (220 years ago)Napoleon’s troops occupy Berlin.
Oct 25
1805 (221 years ago)Alexanderplatz is named after Tsar Alexander I of Russia. The square was previously called Paradeplatz.
Oct 27
1961 (65 years ago)Tanks on both the American and Soviet sides of Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin begin a standoff just 100 meters apart.
Nov 9
1989 (37 years ago)The fall of the Berlin Wall. East Berlin opens its borders at the Bornholmer Strasse crossing as thousands arrive after East German government official Günter Schabowski mistakenly announces that restrictions on travel to the West will be lifted immediately, without delay.
Nov 23
1943 (83 years ago)Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is hit by a bomb during a British air raid. The church is not rebuilt until the late 1950s, while the bombed church tower remains in ruins.
Nov 24
1943 (83 years ago)The Bohemian Bethlehem Church was hit by an Allied air raid. Only the outer walls remained standing.
Dec 19
2016 (10 years ago)Berlin is hit by terror when a truck crashes into the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz, killing 13 people and injuring another 48.
Dec 22
1989 (37 years ago)Workers knocked a hole in the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, and as soon as the hole was made, East German border guards and West German police shook hands. Later that day, the then West German Chancellor Helmuth Kohl walked through the famous landmark and shook hands with East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow.