Berlin is Germany’s capital, largest city, and most visited city (at least when the world isn’t ending), and it also happens to be one of the two cities I bounce between (along with Portland, OR), so allow me to give you a brief overview of how to get around this city. MR. BEAT’S VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xszv8t6jRD8 MUSIC: “National Anthem Germany” by National Anthem Worx “Grenadine” by West & Zander (Both via EpidemicSound) 👕 MERCH! https://crowdmade.com/collections/khanubis 📖 SOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_cities_by_population_within_city_limits#Largest_cities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Berlin Spending more than a year of my life here *Just because I have sources doesn’t mean my research is infallible. Though I aim for as much accuracy as I can manage, there are likely some facts I have gotten wrong. 👥 JOIN THE DISCORD SERVER! https://discord.gg/RFrqp2M 💶 SUPPORT KHANUBIS ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/khanubis Or make one-time payments at paypal.me/khanubis THANK YOU, BRONZE AGE+ PATRONS! Adri Cortesia, Anonymous Freak, Mikkel R P Wilson, Rebanics, Nif Lindsay, Tobi Burch-Rates, Up and Atom http://www.khanubis.tv
This is Berlin, the German capital… Berlin 
is a city in central/western Europe,  
home to about 3.5 million people. The 
capital of the Federal Republic of Germany,  
it is the largest city in what is generally 
considered Central Europe (and therefore Germany),  
fifth largest by city proper in 
Europe, and first largest in the EU  
(again, if you only count the city proper to 
make Paris and Madrid seem artificially smaller).  
Berlin is a city famously full of life and that 
has most certainly seen its fair share of history,  
and it also happens to be where I live (or at 
least one of the two places I bounce between),  
so I thought I’d take the time to 
briefly explain the city I live in.
Berlin resembles cities like New York, 
London, and Paris in that it is divided  
into boroughs (Bezirke), the 12 boroughs are 
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (home to Kurfürstendamm  
and the Zoologischer Garten, where you have the 
normal jungle right in the middle of the concrete  
jungle), Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (basically the 
Brooklyn of Berlin), Lichtenberg (home to the East  
Berlin zoo [Tierpark], and the old Stasi prison), 
Marzahn-Hellersdorf (…), Mitte (the city center  
of Berlin, as hinted to by its name and location 
*in der Mitte* of Berlin), Neukölln (nowadays a  
very diverse part of Berlin), Pankow (which you 
will have heard of if you ride enough public  
transit), Reinickendorf (home to a lake named 
Tegel, and a soon-to-close airport named Tegel),  
Spandau (the borough that was most obviously 
its own city in the past), Steglitz-Zehlendorf  
(featuring Wannsee and the Free University of 
Berlin), Tempelhof-Schöneberg (home to an airport  
that’s now a park), and Treptow-Köpenick, which 
you will probably only really see passing through  
on your way to Schönefeld Airport, or the future 
Brandenburg Airport, but more on that in a bit…  
or actually let’s talk about transport right now.
Getting into Berlin, Berlin has two small active  
airports, one big airport that‘s about to open 
to replace them, one that‘s already closed, and  
a bunch of little airfields no one cares about. 
Being in Germany, Berlin also has great rail  
links with the rest of Europe, with high speed 
trains with direct connections to major cities  
like Zeuthen and Cottbus and Werneuchen, oh and 
also Prague and Warsaw and Amsterdam, but no one  
cares about them. These trains generally stop 
in the futuristic Hauptbahnhof in Moabit (try  
no to get lost in there), though they can also 
stop at several other stations around the city,  
so look at your ticket and plan accordingly. 
Berlin also has great public transit within  
(indeed from a North American perspective it is 
absolutely amazing because it… exists) Berlin,  
like other major German cities, kind of has two 
metro systems interlinked on top of each-other,  
the Untergrund/U-Bahn and the Stadtschnell/S-Bahn. 
The U-Bahn is more of a traditional metro that  
never leaves the city limits, while the S-Bahn 
is a bit more like a commuter rail system that  
also goes outside the city (though don‘t 
confuse it with the regional trains). Berlin  
also of course has buses (including double decker 
buses), as well as trams (but only in the east)  
and all these systems are run by the BVG (except 
the S-Bahn, which is run by Deutsche Bahn).  
Also, you have to buy a paper ticket at the 
station and show it whenever a plain-clothes  
fare inspector says “Fahrkarten, bitte”, oh and 
remember to stamp it if there’s no date on it! 
Berlin is not just a city, but also one of the 
16 states of Germany, entirely surrounded by the  
state of Brandenburg. Berlin has had a ruckus 
history that I could easily make a video about,  
if I travel back in time about a year because 
I already made that video. After World War II  
Berlin was split between East and West Germany, 
with West Berlin enclaved within East Germany,  
meaning that the Berlin Wall actually went 
all around West Berlin, and was actually  
built by the East to keep their own citizens 
in, and therefore out of the little enclave,  
so it was like a fortress but halfway in reverse. 
The wall fell in 1989 however, and now Berlin  
is much more integrated, to the point where at 
times you can‘t even tell what side you‘re on,  
unless you‘re some nerd who‘s looked at enough 
maps to basically have their own subconscious GPS  
in their head [I must transcend geography].
Berlin doesn’t technically have one central  
downtown like most cities (well I 
mean Mitte does mostly do the job),  
but due to the city’s aforementioned split past 
(and possibly also its huge size) it kind of has  
3 centers: West Berlin had Zoologischer 
Garten and the nearby Ku’damm, East Berlin had  
Alexanderplatz, and the former border station of 
Friedrichstraße fits nicely right between the two,  
compounded by its proximity to the government 
quarter, Unter den Linden, and Museum Island,  
as well as several of Berlin’s most famous 
landmarks. Basically if it’s in Berlin and you’ve  
heard of it, it’s very likely near one of these 
places, landmarks including the Brandenburg Gate,  
Reichstag, Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Potsdamer 
Platz, KaDeWe, the Fernsehturm, Berliner Dom,  
Rotes Rathaus, or Checkpoint Charlie, which is 
honestly just this little booth in the middle  
of a busy intersection, seriously if you only 
have a few days here I’d maybe scratch this  
off the list for something more worth your 
time. God, look at these tourists with their  
cameras at Checkpoint Charlie… wait a minute.
I should probably also mention that Berlin has  
over 100 museums, dedicated to everything from 
ancient history to East Germany to natural history  
to German-Russian relations to a now closed one 
on… Currywurst. That actually segues neatly into  
a perhaps important discussion on typical Berlin 
foods. Berlin is a very international city,  
especially with regards to the Turkish community, 
who number about 5% of the city’s population,  
and perhaps that can be seen in the ubiquity of 
the Döner Kebab. Berlin has largely taken its  
own spin on it, and now kebab restaurants are 
absolutely everywhere. Then we have Currywurst,  
basically chopped up sausages drowned 
in ketchup and topped with curry powder,  
simple but delicious. Then for dessert you can 
get the infamous jelly donut known as a Berliner,  
or as it’s known in Eastern Germany “Pfannkuchen”, 
though people here also call it a Berliner. And  
finally you can wash that all down 
with a bottle of Berliner Kindl.  
Perhaps I can also take a little bit to 
introduce some of Berlin’s most famous  
icons that you cannot eat or go inside, like 
the Buddy Bear, the bear from the coat of arms,  
and of course the East German Ampelmännchen, who 
you can also find in parts of the west nowadays. 
In short, Berlin is a city 
in a superposition of old  
and new, grungy and built-up, split and unified, 
compact and spread out, and poor but sexy. It is a  
city beaten up by history nonetheless charging on 
to a better future. But as politically divided as  
Germany was between east and west, it is also 
culturally divided between north and south,  
so how does Berlin compare to Munich? Well I just 
so happen to have a video about that on my channel  
that I happen to be uploading at the exact 
same time you’re uploading this one, and that  
also shouts this video out. Mr. Beat? Wow, it’s 
almost as if we’re doing a collab right now!  
I know, right? And that would probably explain 
why we’re both uploading on a Saturday. Yeah, well  
anyway if you liked learning all about Berlin, 
maybe also come over to my channel where you can  
see how it compares to Munich, the 
capital of the German state of Bavaria.  
And subscribe to learn something new 
every Sunday! No wait that’s my line! 
Thank you as always for watching. Kind of ironic 
I make this video now, considering that I’m  
literally about to go back to Portland tomorrow. 
Anyways, be sure to check out Mr. Beat’s video if  
you haven’t already, but also consider helping out 
this channel by giving this video a like if you  
liked it, share it with your FBI agent, and… yeah, 
subscribe to learn something new every Sunday.