Berlin Berlin is Germany's capital and largest city.
It has a population of about 3.5 million and is one of Europe's great cultural, political, and economic centers. Berlin developed as a trading village about A.D. 1200. In the 1600's, Berlin became the capital of Prussia, an emerging German state. Two centuries later, in 1871, Berlin became the capital of the new nation of Germany. Berlin's darkest period began with the rise to power in Germany of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1933.