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My thanks to Yoav Sapir for allowing me to this information from his website. I highly recommend a visit to the most impressive BerlinJewish.com Abbreviated History of Berlin (and its Jews) in the 20th century Zeitgeschichte Berlin/ Berlins History ► Imperial Germany 1900 Berlin is home for about 1.9 million people. This is the impact of the industrial revolution reaching Berlin. Just a generation ago, when Berlin became the capital of the German Reich, only about 800.000 people lived in Berlin. 100 years ago, in 1802, those were mere 172.000.   1902 The first subway line in Berlin opens.   1914 WW1 begins, and the Jewish population is eager to show its loyalty to the emperor, William II.   1918, November 9th Germany surrenders, WW1 ends, the emperor flees. A civil war begins in Berlin between the communists, and, basically, everybody else. ► The Weimar Republic 1919 Berlin is pretty much under communist rule, and the national assembly flees to a town called Weimar, where Germany is given a new, democratic constitution. The "Weimar Republic" begins. Then, the communists are defeated, after their leaders (including the Jewish woman Rosa Luxemburg) are assassinated. The national assembly returns to Berlin.   1920 Berlin is expanded, and the many cities around it become part of "Greater Berlin". Now 3.8 million people are residents of Berlin.   1922, November 9th Einstein, in Berlin since 1914, is announced as the Nobel prize laureate for physics. His residence in Berlin's Bavarian Quarter, a. k. a. "Jewish Switzerland", attracts many scientists, authors, artists and intellectuals from all around the globe.   1924-25 Inflation and despair. At the peak, you can buy for the same amount of money a house in the morning but just a loaf of bread in the evening.   1929 The economic crisis strikes Germany, again. Communists and Nazis become stronger, democratic parties gradually lose their majority.   1932 Without anybody knowing that, the last democratic elections take place in Germany.   ► The Third Reich 1933, January 30th Hitler is appointed chancellor. About 170,000 Jews live in Berlin, making up approx. 4% of the city's general population and about a third of Germany's Jewish population. 1933 - Filmaufnahme vom Tag der Machtergreifung am 30. Januar - weitere Videos siehe Beschreibung  ....... February 27th The Reichstag, Germany's parliament, is burned. No historian can be sure who did it, but the Nazis use it as an excuse to open the first concentration camps in Germany.    ....... May 10th The infamous book burnings take place, most importantly next to the main university library in Berlin, as a ceremony, or actually a "rite of passage", led by Joseph Goebbels.   Deutsches Historisches Museum Dokumentation Bücherverbrennung Book Burning 1933 1935 The Nuremberg Laws are published. Jews are no longer citizens, but are still considered subjects of the German Reich.   1938, November 9th The Nazis carry out their organized pogrom, a.k.a. Crystal Night. Some Berlin synagogues are attacked, looted and devastated. Others, particularly those surrounded by residential buildings, are left untouched.   1939, September 1st WW2 begins. Most Berlin Jews have escaped by now. About 60,000 still remain in the city. Officially, Jews can still leave, if they manage to find a country that would accept them. Very few manage to do that.   1941 Jews are not allowed to leave Germany at all. The deportations eastwards begin. The first to be deported are usually those who can't be use for manual labor in the German war industry.   1942, January 20th The "Wannsee Conference" takes place, coordinating the planned murder of about 11 million Jews still alive at this point throughout the continent Berlin reaches its population peak record (till today): about 4.5 millions. The city is a major industrial center and many of these people are actually forced laborers. This industrial infrastructure is about to be heavily destroyed by upcoming air raids, and Berlin will never obtain such an economic importance and such a population level ever again.   1943, February 27 About 10.000 Jews that showed up for another day of labor for the German war industry, are arrested on that single day, in what became known as the "Factories Operation". Berlin should now become "judenfrei", or in English: free of Jews. For many people, the only way to survive now is to become a "submarine", a Jew hiding underground. About 7000 try to do that.   1945, April 16th The Red Army encircles Berlin, the Battle of Berlin begins ....... April 30th Hitler commits suicide in his bunker ....... May 8th Germany surrenders, the war ends. About 55,000 Berlin Jews have been deported by now, just about 1700 Jewish submarines managed to survive. Many of those who did not survive, were caught by Jewish informers collaborating with the Gestapo.   ► The divided city: West and East Berlin   1945, July 17th - August 2nd The Potsdam Conference takes place. Berlin is divided between the US, the UK and the USSR. France is not yet a part of the game but will join later. West-Berlin becomes an enclave within the Soviet zone. At this point, the idea is to divide Germany only for administrative purpose, but still manage it together as one country.   1948, June 20th After many disagreements on how to run Germany between the US and the USSR, the Western allies, led by the US, break the rules and introduce their own monetary system in their occupation zones. The Cold War reaches Berlin. Some say: The Cold War begins here. ....... June 24th The Soviets retaliate and try to make the Western allies leave their enclave by blocking all roads and railways that were used to bring food to West-Berlin. The "Berlin Blockade" begins, and with it the (mostly American) "Air Lift", to keep West-Berlin alive. During the rationing, the famous Berlin "Curry sausage" is born.   1949, May 12th The Soviets give up the Berlin Blockade. ....... May 23rd West-Germany is created as a separate state by the Western allies, officially called the "Federal Republic of Germany". Its capital is Bonn and its parliament is now called the Bundestag, literally the "Federal Parliament". The enclave of West-Berlin is not a part of West-Germany. ....... October 7th East-Germany is created by the Soviet Union, officially called the "German Democratic Republic". Its capital is East-Berlin and its parliament is called the Volkskammer - literally the "People's Chamber". A long border is created between the two states, but not in Berlin. It is therefore possible to escape East-Germany by crossing a street to West-Berlin.    1961 Over the last 12 years since 1949, about 2.8 million East-Germans, or about a sixth of the state, have left the country via West-Berlin, the last loophole in the communist system. ....... August 13th The Berlin wall is up, at first just as a barbed wire, then as a brick wall. During the 28 years of its existence, 136 will be shot for trying to cross the Berlin Wall, many others will die under other circumstances of the division. 1963, June 26th John F. Kennedy speaks in Schöneberg, a central borough of West-Berlin, proclaiming his solidarity with its people: "Ich bin ein Berliner!"   Close June 26, 1963 - John F. Kennedy in Berlin 1975 Because people still escape, the Berlin wall has been turned by now into a very sophisticated border line with a concrete wall, a death strip before it, snipers' towers etc.     1987, June 12th Ronald Reagan speaks across Brandenburg Gate, very close to the Berlin Wall, challenging the Soviet Union: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Ronald Reagan: 'Tear down this wall!' ► Reunification 1989, November 9th After weeks of very intensive civil protests, the gates of the wall are opened - the Berlin Wall "comes down". The Germans are very happy about it, but will become a bit disturbed later, when they realize that coincidentally, this took place on exactly the same night as the Nazis' Crystal Night in 1938.   1990, March 18th The first democratic election for the East-German "Volkskammer" take place. Actually, these are the first truly democratic election in this territory since 1932. There will also be the last election for the "Volkskammer", because the parties that seek integration into West-Germany get the absolute majority. ....... October 3rd  To avoid celebrating on Nov. 9th, Germany is officially reunified on this date, which ever since serves as its national holiday. Berlin becomes one of the 16 federal states that now make the Federal Republic of Germany. 1991, June 20th The Bundestag, by now the parliament of the reunified nation but still in Bonn, decides that the capital of the reunified nation will be (again) Berlin. 1999 The Bundestag and the Federal Government move to Berlin, where about 3.3 million people live. General facts and Figures about Jewish Berlin 2 official Jewish communities exist in Berlin. One of them is simply called the "Jewish Community", originally established in 1671. The other one is "Adass Yisroel", originally established in 1869. 
 4 rabbinical seminaries are active in Berlin today: One by Chabad-Lubawitsch (orthodox-chassidic), another by the Lauder foundation (litvak-orthodox), the reform Abraham Geiger College and the conservative Zacharias Frankel College (the latter two cooperate with the university of Potsdam but are actually located in Berlin). 5 kosher restaurants and cafés are active in Berlin (when counting generously).
 13 synagogues are active in Berlin. All of them are protected 24/7 by state policemen. Only 4 of them were active synagogues before the war. Back then, there were more than 80 synagogues in Berlin, not including unofficial "shtiblach".
 85% (approx.) of the members of the Jewish Community in Berlin are Russian speaking Jews that immigrated after the fall of the Soviet Union. This is considered a rather low percentage of Russian speaking people in Jewish communities in Germany.
 180 different museums in Berlin attract 15 million visitors each year, about 750,000 of them visit the Jewish Museum.
 400 pupils (approx.) visit the Jewish high school in Berlin, which is open for all religions/denominations. About 60% of them are actually Jewish.
 10,800 Jews (approx.) are members of the Jewish Community in Berlin. There's also an unknown number of Jews living in Berlin without any official affiliation to the community (possibly even 30,000 or so), most of them don't want to become members because of the afore mentioned "religion tax". Among these are many Israelis like myself, but nobody really knows how many, some say even 15,000. Before the Nazis came to power, there were about 170,000 Jews in Berlin...
    This page has been extracted from BerlinJewish.com. My thanks to Yoav Sapir. http://www.berlinjewish.com/homehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmPnmyAPL80https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jktB9aGA80https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXuaZKSbSSEhttp://www.berlinjewish.com/advanced-jewish-berlin-tourshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZItzF0ldAUohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5xuDi6PJ_shttp://www.jg-berlin.org/en.htmlhttp://www.adassjisroel.de/en/http://www.adassjisroel.de/en/http://www.chabadberlin.de/http://www.lauderyeshurun.de/http://abraham-geiger-kolleg.de/welcome.html?L=2http://www.zacharias-frankel-college.de/http://www.berlinjewish.com/kosher-berlinhttp://www.berlinjewish.com/synagogues-in-berlinhttp://www.josberlin.de/http://www.jg-berlin.org/en.htmlhttp://www.berlinjewish.com/20th-centuryhttp://www.berlinjewish.com/homehttp://livepage.apple.com/shapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1shapeimage_3_link_2shapeimage_3_link_3shapeimage_3_link_4shapeimage_3_link_5shapeimage_3_link_6shapeimage_3_link_7shapeimage_3_link_8shapeimage_3_link_9shapeimage_3_link_10shapeimage_3_link_11shapeimage_3_link_12shapeimage_3_link_13shapeimage_3_link_14shapeimage_3_link_15shapeimage_3_link_16shapeimage_3_link_17shapeimage_3_link_18shapeimage_3_link_19