Berlin was actually founded by Western Slavic fishing tribes. They built a reasonable size city until Eastward expanding Germans launched a series of offensives against them. Slavic tribes were able to retake the city, but were more peaceful fishermen and tradesmen and were no match for the professional German armies that lay siege to Berlin. The city Berlin has a Slavic not a German name. Think about Berlin how it is similar to the city of Lublin. It does not have a 'burg' or other Germanic endings. I think it comes from an old Slavic word meaning bog or marsh. The slavic languages have words that sound like 'berl' or 'brlog'. Meaning fishing village or bog or swamp/meadow. The etymology of Brandenburg comes from Slavic 'brenna' also meaning swamp. It is 100% Slavic not German, ironically. Slavic names in Berlin names In fact today in section of the city there are street names with Slavic sounds and names as a legacy to their founders the Slavic people.

Berlin became the centre of one of the most infamous regimes in history, and remained so until 1945 when it was liberated by the Red Army. Unfortunately liberation was a painful process. The Russians, who has lost close to 30 million people in the conflict, exacted a heavy revenge on the citizens of Berlin. Men were killed or transported to slave labour camps, and women were systematically raped. Eventually in 1949 the Russians ceded several districts in Berlin to the Allies and the famous division between West and East Berlin - a microcosm of the division of the entirity of Germany - was formed. This division was made physical when the GDR (The German Democratic Republic, which was the Soviet run East German government) put up the famous Berlin Wall, allegedly to protect its citizens from 'the fascists', but in fact to prevent them from escaping into the more liberal and prosperous West.

There is no known date of foundation of Berlin. In its early history, there existed a twin-town situation - Berlin lay on the East bank of the Spree and C�lln lay on the west bank. These towns are first mentioned in historical documents in the 1200s, and there is no evidence of the Slav fishing village that is often mentioned in some sources ( By virtue of the destruction wrought in the Second World War, archaeological research in these areas has been fairly extensive ).

This is in contrast to both Spandau and K�penick, which were important towns during the Slav period. Additionally both these towns have documents to prove when they were first founded as towns in the German Mark Brandenburg - Spandau in 1232.

There are no documents of this type for either Berlin or C�lln, and no documents relating to the founding of the towns. The oldest historical reference to Berlin is in a document of 1244, whereas C�lln was first mentioned in 1237.

The favorite theory about the name of Berlin is that it is of Slavic origin, possibly relating to marshy, damp land. Another possibility you might find mentioned is of a Flemish origin, brought by Flemish settlers of that time.