Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
statistics. It didn't help that Berlin lost the hefty federal subsidies it had received during the
years of division. More than 250,000 manufacturing jobs were lost between 1991 and 2006,
most of them through closures of unprofitable factories in East Berlin. Add to that the mis-
management, corruption and excessive spending led by governing mayor Eberhard Diepgen
and it's no surprise that the city ran up a whopping debt of €60 million.
Elected in 2001, the new governing mayor Klaus Wowereit responded by making across-
the-board spending cuts, but with a tax base eroded by high unemployment and ever-grow-
ing welfare payments, they did little initially to get Berlin out of the poorhouse. Eventually,
though, the economic restructure away from a manufacturing base and towards the service
sector began to bear fruit. Job creation in the capital has outpaced that of Germany in gener-
al for almost 10 years. No German city has a greater number of business start-ups. Its export
quota has risen steadily, as has its population. The health, transport and green-technology in-
dustries are growing in leaps and bounds.
On the cultural front, Berlin exploded into a hive of cultural cool with unbridled nightlife,
a vibrant art scene and booming fashion and design industries. In 2006 it became part of Un-
esco's Creative Cities Network. Some 170,000 people are employed in the cultural sector,
which generates an annual turnover of around €13 billion. An especially important subsector
is music, with nearly 10% of all related companies, including Universal and MTV, moving
to Berlin over the past 20 years.
The first Love Parade, a techno cavalcade that would draw millions of people to Berlin
each summer between 1989 and 2006, actually kicked off modestly with just one truck
and 150 ravers partying on West Berlin's Kurfürstendamm.
TIMELINE
1244
Berlin is referenced in a document for the first time in recorded history, but the city's
birthday is pegged to the first mention of its sister settlement Cölln seven years earli-
er in 1237.
1307
Berlin and Cölln join forces by merging into a single town to assert their independence
from local rulers.
