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.

Berlin, Explained
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Mr. Beat
October 17, 2020 at 4:15 pm
Hey you cut my really creepy laugh short! 🙂
petelo
October 25, 2020 at 8:33 am
Berlin looks ugly with all that graffitti everywhere
Hans Hartfiel
October 25, 2020 at 8:44 am
Quite a lot in this video is crap
eco
October 26, 2020 at 1:27 am
Bruder muss los meine eigene stadt anschauen
Robert Maher
October 26, 2020 at 1:44 am
Hands up for those that have gotten lost at the Hbf the first time they went there?
Lol
Not to mention trying to transit between the S-Bahn and U-Bahn at Potsdamer Platz! Lol
Mäander
October 26, 2020 at 3:43 am
Ok but you can buy all the tickets on your cell phone too.
Kacper Seltenreich
October 26, 2020 at 7:14 am
It is a city beaten up by history…
Wait weren't the Germans the aggressors of every single WW? like they exterminated 1/3 of the Polish population and literally attacked everyone they could in every direction.
And at the end we finally see the end of this yet you say that the berlin is the city that suffered… Woah
Otherwise really great in depth video.
Jordan Moreno
October 26, 2020 at 9:06 am
2:00 d i c k l a k e
Jay in the USA – Mein Leben in den USA
October 26, 2020 at 8:53 pm
"Poor, but sexy" describes it pretty well 😂
I love the diversity of Berlin!
fancy wrong
October 27, 2020 at 9:48 am
Props for using the star trek font
BsBsBock
October 28, 2020 at 10:22 am
Berlin is a shitty capital for Germany
Some Random Edgy Guy
October 28, 2020 at 11:14 am
Yeah, not happening. You can't make a video on anything Germany just for foreigners. The hordes of Germans to watch it will come inevitably. Also, kudos for actually wearing that khanubis hat in public
apple’s lover
October 28, 2020 at 1:13 pm
Visit Berlin before Berlin visits you
MoViesDProductions
October 29, 2020 at 10:35 am
I lived in Berlin (in Lichtenberg, 10 minutes from the Tierpark) as part of a foreign exchange program this year. Or well, COVID cut it short and I ended up spending about 1.5 months there instead of the full 6-month Sommersemester, but it was long enough for me to miss it every day. It's truly a unique place.
Fries are nice
October 29, 2020 at 10:49 am
I'm not the biggest fan of Berlin but I liked this video 👍