Around 1200 two towns were founded on the banks of the river Spree: Cölln and Berlin. In 1307 the two trading cities decided to unite on political and security matters thus forming modern Berlin. From 1417 until 1918 members of the Hohenzollern family ruled Berlin, successively as Margraves of Brandenburg, Kings of Prussia, and Emperors of Germany. In 1943, Allied bombardment of Berlin started (on March 18, 1945 alone, 1,250 American bombers attacked the city). On May 2 1945, the city capitulated to the Soviet army. The destruction of buildings was nearly 100% in parts of the inner city business and residential sectors. The outlying sections suffered relatively little damage.

After the Second World War, Germany, and Berlin, was divided into four sectors, each controlled by one of the Allied powers, Great Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1948, the eastern sector, controlled by the Soviets, became the capital of the newly established German Democratic Republic, while West Berlin remained under Allied rule, but for most practical purposes a part of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

On August 13, 1961 the communist East German government started to build the Berlin Wall, consolidating the division. On November 9, 1989, after a press conference of Günter Schabowski the people of East Berlin crossed the frontier at the Boesebruecke. They believed that the government had decided to open the wall, actually, it was a misunderstanding. People of West Berlin stood on the wall at the Brandenburg Gate. After the collapse of Communism in Europe the city, like Germany, was re-united in 1990 and became capital of the country again.