Berlin Phone Directory

Berlin in the biggest city in Germany, and it is located in Germany north eastern part. The metropolitan area of Berlin is inhabited by 5 million people and the Berlin phone directory has names of 190 countries of origin.




The first writing about a settlement placed where the city of Berlin lies now are date in the 13th century. Between 1618 and 1648 Berlin was caught in the Thirty Years War, which started as a religious war between the Catholics and the Protestants, but evolved in a general war that involved most of the European powers at that time.

This war had terrible effects on the population of the fighting countries because it is financially exhausting to lead a thirty years war, and the common people were forced to suffer of famine and disease, and most of the countries that fought were led to bankruptcy. Berlin was one of the most affected areas since some of the fighting took place exactly in that area, and at the end of the war Berlin’s population was half as it used to be before it started. Wishing to get the city back on the track, the ruler of that period, Frederick William, started a policy that encouraged religious tolerance and immigration.

As a result, more then 15,000 French Huguenots rushed to the area of Berlin, and 6,000 of them settled in the city. This had a very big influence on the culture and civilization of the entire region of Brandenburg, on the local dialect, idioms, and registered quite a few French names in the nowadays Berlin phone directory, the offspring of those immigrants.

After the end of the First World War Berlin’s dimensions grew a lot and it incorporated a lot of little town, villages and settlements around it, so the city’s population reached the number of 4,000,000 people and was promoted as a center of culture. When Hitler and the Nazi party became rulers of Germany, he started to destroy the Jewish community of Berlin which had more than 170,000 people.

They were imprisoned and shipped to death camps in the other regions of the country, such as Auschwitz. Berlin suffered a lot from the effects of the war, and the battle with the British led to many human casualties, out of which more than 125,000 were civilians. The city is still marked by these happenings, and people will not easily forget the rough times that they were put through, even if the population that actually lived in those times is gone now or they are very old.

Berlin is now home of many universities and research centers, and it is famous for its architecture, art promoting and nightlife. It is also believed to be one of the cities with the highest quality of living.