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Did you know ...

• the Humboldt Museum in Berlin is home to the largest mounted dinosaur in the world, a Brachiosaurus; and the most exquisitely preserved specimen of the earliest known bird, the Archaeopteryx?
• the Hungarian Gold Train was a 1944 Nazi operated freight train that carried stolen Hungarian valuables to Berlin, but never reached its destination?
• the 1874 Fichte-Bunker, the last surviving gasometer in Berlin, became an air-raid shelter in World War II and later housed refugees from East Germany?
• part of the first line of the Berlin U-Bahn was built as an elevated railway (pictured), because the City of Berlin feared that an underground railway would damage one of its new trunk sewers?
• no football team in Berlin was declared the winner of the Berlin Cup in 1969 because the penalty shootout was not yet introduced and the finalists were unable to schedule a re-match after a draw?
• on March 21, 1943, Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff tried to kill Adolf Hitler in a suicide attack in Berlin, but failed because Hitler left earlier than expected?
• the Isted Lion, an important Danish war monument, was located in Berlin for almost 70 years, but was returned to Denmark on the orders of General Dwight D. Eisenhower?
• the Neo-Renaissance architectural style encompasses such dissimilar structures as the Opera Garnier and Hôtel de Ville in Paris, the National Theatre in Prague, the Reichstag in Berlin, Mentmore Towers near London, Vladimir Palace in Saint Petersburg, and the Public Library in Boston?
• the Wissenschaft des Judentums or "the scientific investigation of Judaism", was a 19th century movement by Jewish philosophers in Berlin premised on using scientific methods to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions?
• the island of Schwanenwerder in Berlin, Germany, houses a column (pictured) from the former Tuileries Palace?
• the Pergamon Museum in Berlin hosts a reconstruction of a 113 meter long sculptural frieze?
• the Pariser Platz in Berlin is named after the French capital in memory of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813?
• the Neues Museum in Berlin, which was almost completely destroyed in World War II, will be reopened in 2009, and exhibit the bust of Nefertiti (pictured)?
• modernization of the Ostkreuz station (pictured) in Berlin, the busiest interchange station of the city's transportation system, has been proposed since 1937 and is due to start next year?
• in spite of hesitations due to the growing influence of Nazism in Germany, the International Federation of Trade Unions moved its headquarters to Berlin in 1931?
• David Bergelson was a Yiddish language writer, who believed that the future of Yiddish literature lay in the Soviet Union and that he moved there from Berlin when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, but was ultimately executed during Josef Stalin's anti-semitic campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans"?
• Ernst Reuter, after having not been approved by the Soviets as the elected mayor of post-war Berlin, became the first mayor of the non-Soviet controlled part of the city, West Berlin?
• Berlinka (pictured) was a partially constructed highway built by Nazi Germany that was intended to span the Polish Corridor from Berlin to Königsberg, Prussia?
• Alexander Buturlin, who was in charge of the Russian army when it took Berlin in 1760, was better known for his tall stature and good looks than for military talents?
• Edvard Munch was invited to Berlin by fellow Norwegian Adelsteen Normann who also painted?
• Ignatz Urban's type collections of Caribbean plants were largely destroyed in the 1943 bombing of the Berlin Herbarium?
• Matthew Robinson, older brother of Baseball Hall of Fame member Jackie Robinson, was a world-class sprinter and won a silver medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin?
• American Judge Herbert Jay Stern, who served on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, presided over a jury trial in the U.S. court for Berlin, Germany, which was the subject of the book and movie Judgment in Berlin?
• in 1919, the discharge of the chief of police of Berlin led to a general strike and accompanying fighting known as the Spartacist uprising, in which over 500,000 workers took part?
• Admiral Naokuni Nomura, WW2 Japanese naval attache to Berlin, returned home on U-511, a submarine that had been presented by Adolf Hitler to Japan in 1943?
• William Thomas Pecora, who headed the United States Geological Survey from 1965 to 1971, was a member of the U.S. fencing team at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin?
• Volkspark Friedrichshain (pictured) is the oldest and second largest urban park in Berlin?
• B-17 Flying Fortress tailgunner "Babe" Broyhill set a record by destroying two Messerschmitt ME-262 jet fighters in a mission over Berlin in March 1945?

More interesting facts on Berlin

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