Fun facts about Berlin
01
Save the Little Man
Berliners once protested to save the Ampelmännchen, the distinctive East German traffic-light figure. Today, the little man is one of Berlin’s most recognisable symbols.
02
Pink Pipes, Seriously?
Those bright pink pipes you see across Berlin are actually pumping groundwater away from construction sites. They’ve become an iconic part of the cityscape.
03
Techno Goes Official
Berlin’s techno and club culture is recognised as cultural heritage. What started in the post-Wall era has become part of the city’s identity.
04
Döner: Berlin Style
The modern döner kebab as we know it was developed in Berlin in the 1970’s. Today, the city has more than 1,000 kebab shops.
05
Traffic, Berlin Style
Berlin was home to one of Europe’s first traffic-light systems, introduced at Potsdamer Platz in 1924. The city was already trying to tame its traffic more than a century ago.
06
The Rabbit Republic
Thousands of rabbits once lived in the no-man’s-land around the Berlin Wall. They stumbled upon a strange little haven along one of the world’s most heavily guarded borders.
07
Mind the Ghost Stations
During the Cold War, trains travelling through East Berlin sometimes passed stations where they were not allowed to stop. These creepy places became known as ‘ghost stations’.
08
Berlin: Go Big
In 1920, Berlin suddenly became 13 times bigger by merging cities, towns and villages into one giant metropolis. Talk about scaling up!
09
Bring Your Own Thermos
The modern Thermos flask has its roots in Berlin, here inventor Reinhold Burger developed his vacuum flask in the early 1900s. So your morning coffee may owe a little something to Berlin.
10
SOS from Berlin
The international SOS distress signal was adopted at a radio conference in Berlin in 1906. Berlin was already a major hub for technology and communications more than 100 years ago.