| Sign | Map |
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| Area: | 39.47 km² |
| Inhabitants: | 327,494 (2007) |
| Population density: | 8,297 inhabitants per km² |
| Website: | official homepage (German) |
| Politics | |
| Mayor of Borough: | Christian Hanke (SPD) |
| Parliament of Borough (BVV): | SPD 19, CDU 11, Alliance '90/The Greens 11, The Left Party.PDS 7, FDP 3, The Greys 2, WASG 2 (last election 2006) |
Mitte (in German Bezirk Mitte) is the first and most central borough of Berlin (Mitte is German for middle). Mitte encompasses Berlin's historic core and includes some of the most important tourist sites of Berlin (like the Museum Island, Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden and the Reichstag among others), most of which were in former East Berlin. The Brandenburg Gate was the western exit of the historical Berlin until 1861.
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History
Between 1961 and 1990, Mitte was a part of East Berlin and was surrounded by the Berlin Wall at its north, south and west. There were some border control points, the most famous of which was Checkpoint Charlie between Kreuzberg and Mitte, which was operated by the U.S. Army and its allies and was open to foreigners and diplomats. Then there was also a checkpoint at the Heinrich - Heine - Straße east of Checkpoint Charlie which was open to citizens of West Germany and West Berlin. In 2001, Berlin's boroughs were reorganized. The former borough of Mitte, located entirely within the former East Berlin, was combined with the boroughs of Wedding and Tiergarten (both of which belonged to West Berlin) to form the new Mitte borough.
Subdivision
The present-day borough of Mitte consists of six localities:
(the former Mitte borough)
(the former Tiergarten borough)
(the former Wedding borough)
Geography
Mitte is located in the center of Berlin and divided by the river Spree into a part south of the river and north of the river. In the middle of the Spree lies the "Museumsinsel" (museum island) with a lot of museums and the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom). The neighbor boroughs are Kreuzberg - Friedrichshain in the south and east and Prenzlauer Berg in the north. The central square in Mitte is the Alexanderplatz with the TV tower, the highest building of Germany and the railway station with connections to the subway (U-Bahn), tramway (Straßenbahn), city trains (S-Bahn) and buses. There are some important streets which connect Mitte with the other boroughs, e.g. the boulevard Unter den Linden which connects Alexanderplatz to the west with the Brandenburg Gate and to the center of former West Berlin and the Karl-Marx-Allee from the same square to the eastern suburbs.
Twin towns
Higashiōsaka, Japan since 1959
Holon, Israel since 1970
Bottrop, Germany since 1983- Schwalm-Eder-Kreis since 1992
- Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan since 1994
- Tsuwano, Japan since 1995
Tourcoing, France since 1995
VI. kerület (Terézváros), Budapest, Hungary since 2005
Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia since 2006
See also
External links
Media related to Mitte at Wikimedia Commons- Official homepage (German)
- Official homepage of Berlin (English)
- Travel Video about Mitte
Coordinates: 52°31′N 13°22′E / 52.517°N 13.367°E
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