Berlin

With about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany's capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, with its main centres of Dortmund and Essen. The country's other major cities are Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Bremen, Dresden, Hannover, and Nuremberg. Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps in the south to the shores of the North Sea in the northwest and the Baltic Sea  in the northeast. The forested uplands of central Germany and the lowlands of northern Germany are traversed by such major rivers as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe. Germany's alpine glaciers are experiencing deglaciation. When thinking of Germany, beer, lederhosen and Alpine hats quickly come to mind, but these stereotypes mostly relate to Bavarian culture and do not represent Germany as a whole. Germany is a vast and diverse country with 16 culturally unique states that have been politically united since 1871. Even within states there is often considerable cultural diversity.

Germany

With a steadily growing population of approximately 3.7 million, Berlin is the second most populous city in the European Union behind London. The Holocaust Memorial and the remaining parts of the Berlin Wall, on which graffiti have been painted, are witnesses of its tumultuous past. Divided in two separate countries during the Cold War era, Germany adopted the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (built in the eighteenth century) as a symbol of its reunification. The city is also famous for its artistic scene and its modern monuments, such as the Berlin Philharmonie, a building built in 1963 whose roof has a particular geometric shape. Regarded nowadays as one of the trendiest hubs on the continent, Berlin attracts 15 million visitors every year. You will see there all the trends of postmodernity: a lot of plastic art and cinema, architecture, music, theater, dance and street art.

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the successful restoration of order during the early Batavian Revolution.

Brandenburg Gate

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