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Newsblitz: The famous Loveparade will be held this year too, but on July 21.
Geography
Berlin is located at the river Spree, its biggest forest is the Grunewald
Sights
Culture
When the city was still divided, its center was the end of world, as it was the place where you would be closest to the Cold War enemy, so it was pretty abandoned when the Wall came down. The availability of many cheap old houses in the middle of the city became a fertile ground for all sorts of underground and off-culture as well as many nightclubs, like the world-famous Tresor, which is one of the most important Techno clubs on earth. Berlin has a rich art scene, but it is increasingly coming under pressure, because since the government moved in, the rents went up considerably.
History see also: History of Germany
During the Cold War of the 20th Century the east part of Berlin was the capital of East Germany, while the western part of the city, in spite of being geographically divided from West Germany, continued to belong to West Germany. In 1962 the Berlin Wall was built, dividing the city into West Berlin and East Berlin. This was undertaken by the East German government for economic and political reasons. According to most Westerners, the reason for it was to prevent East Germans from immigrating to the West. So, up to 1999, the capital of West Germany was a small town in Nordrhein-Westfalen called Bonn.
After the breakdown of Communism in Europe the city, like the whole country, was united and soon became capital of all of Germany once again.
John F. Kennedy gave a speech about the Berlin Wall in which he said, with a bad accent, "Ich bin ein Berliner" -- something Germans now find hilarious, since it means he's a kind of doughnut, although at that time it meant much to a city that was an island in enemy territory. Much of the Cold War was fought in Berlin, with espionage, counter-espionage and all sorts of evils, like Stalin's blockade of the city.
In 1968 and the following years, Berlin became one of the centers of the student revolt, especially its district Kreuzberg was the center of lots of riots.