the capital of Prussia, and one of the most beautiful towns in Europe, is situated in the province of Brandenburg, regency of Potsdam, in Lat. 52° 30' N. and Long. 13° 24'. E., in the middle of a sandy plain on both banks of the Spree, and is twelve miles in circumference. It is the ordinary residence of the king, and seat of the principal authorities.
It is divided into five large parts or quarters, which in German are called towns: Berlin, properly so called; Cologne, divided into Old and New Cologne; Friedrichswerder, Friedrichstadt, Dorotheenstadt or Neustadt. These are divided into 22 quarters or sections, which altogether comprehend 280 streets and 20 public places. The streets are broad and straight, crossing at right angles; the houses and even the greater part of the public buildings are of brick and plaster; and, from the flatness of the ground, the water in the drains stagnates, causing disagreeable and noxious odours, and the foot pavements are so narrow that two persons can scarcely walk abreast. Among the streets the principal are the Friederichstrasse, 4068 paces in length, and the magnificent street called Unter den Linden, 1032 paces long and 161 feet in breadth, planted with four rows of trees, and lined with superb edifices. This fine street is terminated on the west by the magnificent Brandenburg gate, erected in 1790, of colossal size, designed as an imitation of the Propyleum at Athens, and surmounted by a car of Victory drawn by four horses, which was carried away by the French in 1807, and brought back in triumph in 1814, when the Prussians bestowed upon the goddess the eagle and the iron cross which she now bears. Among the places or squares may be mentioned the Wilhelmplatz, bordered with lime trees and ornamented with statues of the celebrated warriors of Prussia; the Lustgarten, planted with poplars and chestnut trees, and adorned by a statue of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau; the square of the Opera, with the statue of Blucher and other military heroes.
Berlin is encircled by a wall with sixteen gates, besides two portes d'eau. The ramparts serve for the purposes of police, but are useless as means of defence. There are 41 bridges, the most remarkable of which are the Lange-Brücke, adorned by a statue of Frederick William, and the Königs-Brücke.
The city is embellished with many splendid buildings. Among the principal of these is the royal palace or schloss, imposing by its magnitude. In the White Hall, fitted up at an expense of L120,000, the first meeting of the Prussian parliament was held (April 1847). The museum, begun in 1823 and finished in 1830 from designs by the architect Schinkel, is the finest edifice in the city. Opposite the entrance is a gigantic basin of polished granite, 22 feet in diameter, which was formed out of a vast isolated boulder which lay at Fürstenwald, about 30 miles from Berlin, and was conveyed in a flat-bottomed boat along the Spree to the city. The royal library is a tasteless looking-building: it contains about 500,000 volumes, and nearly 5000 manuscripts, the former including Luther's Hebrew bible. This library is entitled to a copy of every work printed in the Prussian dominions. The arsenal, erected in 1695, forms a square each side of which is 268 feet in length, and previously to the revolution of 1848 contained a large store of warlike ammunition. When taken possession of by the mob it was plundered. The churches are numerous, but by no means handsome. Among these are the cathedral, an unsightly building; the Lutheran church of St Nicholas, the most ancient in the town; that of St Mary, with a steeple or tower 286 feet high; the Reformed church; the French church. Among the other buildings are the bourse, the opera-house, the charity and maternity hospitals, the invalid hotel, the custom-house, the mint, the post-office, the barracks, &c. The Tiergarten promenade is renowned throughout Germany.
It was not till 1851 that a monument was raised in honour of Frederick the Great. In that year an equestrian statue in bronze, modelled by Rauch, was erected in the Unter den Linden, opposite Prince William's palace and the university; the statue is 17 feet 3 inches in height, and stands on a granite pedestal 25 feet high. The monarch is represented in the costume he usually wore, and on each face of the pedestal are represented the great military commanders in the Seven Years' War, with other figures. This is one of the most magnificent monuments in Europe. A little out of the town, near the Halle gate, is a Gothic spire in bronze, raised to the memory of the brave men who fell in the campaigns of 1813–14–15.
The university, founded in 1810, ranks among the first in Germany, especially as a medical school, and has the largest number of pupils next to that of Vienna. Before the late disturbances it was attended by nearly 1800 students. The number of professors, regular and extraordinary, amounts to 156, besides 8 teachers of languages and gymnastics. The number of students for the session ending June 1852 was 1409 (exceeding that of the previous year by 81), classed as follows:
| Subject | Natives | Foreigners | Total | |---------------|---------|------------|-------| | Theology | 128 | 41 | 169 | | Law | 497 | 123 | 620 | | Medicine | 210 | 65 | 275 | | Philosophy | 210 | 106 | 316 |
Total (besides unmatriculated auditors, 762) 1409
Berlin may be regarded as the principal centre of the intelligence of Germany, and it possesses to a great extent the means of intellectual advancement. Besides the university, there are six royal gymnasiaums or high schools, numerous inferior academies, schools for trade, the fine arts, architecture, &c. All these institutions are under the direction of men of distinguished merit. The benevolent establishments, which are no less numerous, include seventeen hospitals, institutions for the deaf and dumb and for the blind, hospitals for orphans, &c.
Berlin is one of the first manufacturing towns in Germany. Its principal branches of industry—which supply the simplest wants as well as the delicacies of the most refined luxury—are porcelain, silks, linen and cotton stuffs, hosiery, ribbon-weaving, gunpowder, paper, tobacco, jewellery, clock-making, Berlin iron, &c. Cast-iron goods of all kinds are manufactured at the foundry outside the Oranienburg gate. The finer kinds of ornamental iron-work of Berlin are very celebrated. The navigation of the Spree, which communicates by means of canals with the Elbe and the Oder, and the numerous railroads and the different routes of which Berlin is the centre, promote the commerce of this town with the interior of the country and with Europe.
In 1688 the population of Berlin was about 18,000; in 1775 it had increased to 135,900; in 1816 it was 182,381; in 1838, 290,797; and in 1849, 423,902—of whom, 22,748 were military, 220,874 males, 203,028 females, 398,727 Protestants, 15,532 Roman Catholics, and 9604 Jews. The number of dwelling-houses at this date was 9155. The denseness of the population arises from the custom of different families dwelling in the separate stories of the same house. In May 1852 the population was 446,931, exclusive of military. The total number of deaths in 1852 was 11,614. Of these 226 were by violence (of which 107 were suicides), and 2389 by bronchial affections and consumptions.
Among the many celebrated men to whom Berlin has given birth, may be mentioned the philosopher Baumgarten, the chemist Achard, the lawyer Albrecht, the diplomatist Ancillon, Tieck the poet, and the two Humboldts. The history of Berlin is very obscure. According to the most common opinion, Albert the Bear, Count of Anhalt, who took the title of Margrave of Brandenburg, founded the city. It increased and acquired importance under Waldeimar of Anhalt, who died in the year 1319. It declined, however, considerably under the reign of the princes of the house of Luxembourg; but under Frederic of Hohenzollern, elector of Brandenburg, Berlin entered on a new era of prosperity. Lutheranism, adopted by the house of Brandenburg under the reign of Joachim II. (1535-1570), gave an increasing impulse to arts and sciences, trade, commerce, and everything which makes towns flourishing and a people happy. In spite of a terrible pestilence which ravaged the town in 1582, and the disasters of the Thirty Years' War, Berlin continued to advance in prosperity. It is to Frederick William, and especially to Frederick the Great, that the capital of Prussia is indebted for its prosperity and magnificence. The two most remarkable events connected with the history of the town are its occupation by the Austrians in 1760, and by the French in 1806, after the battle of Jena. It contains no remains of the mediæval period, but is entirely indebted to modern art for its present magnificence.