Berlin (GERMANY)

Berlin :is the capital and largest city in Germany and the second largest city in the European Union . Located in the northeast of the country, it forms a Land (federal state) full and approximately 3.4 million population . Its metropolitan area covers 2,284 km2 and a population of just over 4 million people, extended 5,025,272 urban residents (the second in the country after the Ruhr area)  and its metropolitan area Greater Berlin-Brandenburg exceeds, in turn, the boundaries of land and has a total of nearly 6 million people, making it one of the ten most populous cities of the European Union .

Founded in the thirteenth century, Berlin was successively the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701-1871), the German Empire (1871-1918), the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and the Third Reich (1933-1945) . After 1945 and until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the city is divided into four zones of occupation. During the Cold War, the Soviet sector of the city, named East Berlin became the capital of the German Democratic Republic, while West Berlin was politically attached to the Federal Republic of Germany, becoming a bastion of "free world "inside the Communist bloc. After the fall of the Wall, Berlin once again became, in 1990, the then capital of the reunified Germany, and key federal institutions moved in there in 1999.
Berlin is a cultural and artistic world leading city. The city has 165 museums, 146 libraries and 60 théâtres. In 2008, Berlin received nearly 8 million visiteurs.