Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The green octagonal public pissoirs scattered around Berlin are a legacy of the late 19th
century when the municipal sanitation system could not keep up with the exploding pop-
ulation. About two dozen survive, including one on Chamissoplatz in Kreuzberg and an-
other on Senefelderplatz in Prenzlauer Berg.
Bismarck & the Birth of an Empire
When Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered a stroke in 1857, his brother Wilhelm became first re-
gent and then, in 1861, King Wilhelm I (r 1861-88). Unlike his brother, Wilhelm had his
finger on the pulse of the times and was less averse to progress. One of his key moves was
to appoint Otto von Bismarck as Prussian prime minister in 1862.
Bismarck's glorious ambition was the creation of a unified Germany with Prussia at the
helm. An old-guard militarist, he used intricate diplomacy and a series of wars with neigh-
bouring Denmark and Austria to achieve his aims. By 1871 Berlin stood as the proud capital
of the German Reich (empire), a bicameral, constitutional monarchy. On 18 January the
Prussian king was crowned Kaiser (emperor) at Versailles, with Bismarck as his 'Iron Chan-
cellor'.
The early years of the German empire - a period called
Gründerzeit
(foundation years) -
were marked by major economic growth, fuelled in part by a steady flow of French repara-
tion payments. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into Berlin in search of work in the
factories. Housing shortages were solved by building labyrinthine tenements (
Miet-
skasernen,
literally 'rental barracks'), where entire families subsisted in tiny and poorly
ventilated flats without indoor plumbing.
New political parties gave a voice to the proletariat, foremost the Socialist Workers' Party
(SAP), the forerunner of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD; Social Demo-
cratic Party of Germany). Founded in 1875, the SAP captured 40% of the Berlin vote only
two years later. Bismarck tried to make the party illegal but eventually, under pressure from
the growing and increasingly antagonistic socialist movement, he enacted Germany's first
modern social reforms, though this was not his true nature. When Wilhelm II (r 1888-1918)
came to power, he wanted to extend social reform while Bismarck wanted stricter antisocial-
ist laws. Finally, in March 1890, the Kaiser's scalpel excised his renegade chancellor from
the political scene. After that, the legacy of Bismarck's diplomacy unravelled and a wealthy,
unified and industrially powerful Germany paddled into the new century.
Discover stat after stat on Berlin at the website of the Office of Statistics in Berlin
