Though Berlin’s recent history, from the rise of Hitler to the fall of the wall, is more fascinating than most modern capitals, Berlin’s medieval history and its founding is just as interesting and quite peculiar.
Location
Most European capitals rise to power because their location is important with access to natural resources, natural fortifications and along major waterways for trade.
But Berlin has none of the three. As Alexandra Richie wrote in “Faust’s Metropolis” a history of Berlin, “Berlin seems to come from nowhere, wrenched from the sandy soil by some hidden force.”
The Spree, which runs through Berlin, is a small waterway and is dwarfed by Germany’s other major rivers. Berlin is actually located on swamp lands and surrounded by flat plains. This has left Berlin extremely exposed to wars and migrations throughout medieval history. But it is this location that shaped the timing and the way Berlin came to be.
Berlin and the Roman Empire
One of the most important things that shaped Berlin’s history was the fact that it was not part of the Roman Empire. The Romans did not attempt to conquer the region, because they regarded the Germans as violent barbarians who lived in forests with deadly beasts and magical animals, such as unicorns.
Julius Caesar had brought the Rhineland area of Germany into Rome’s control in 31 B.C.E., but refused to go further east into present-day Germany. Caesar’s adopted son Augustus decided to try to conquer this territory in 3 B.C.E., but his troops were violently ambushed.
Afterward, only a handful of traders dared to venture into these territories, and they continued to spread stories of tough, barbaric Germans who possessed command of evil spirits.
Berlin’s Slavic Peoples
In A.C.E. 180, the Germans living in Berlin moved southwest settling by the Main River in central Germany. The next group of people to come to Berlin was the Slavs from Eastern Europe in the seventh century.
Upon arrival, the Slavs found a vastly empty land with only a handful of scattered German settlements. These settlements were assimilated into the new Slavic towns.
Berlin was at first a handful of Slavic fortresses that today make up various districts in Berlin, such as Spandau and Köpenick. Eventually this handful became two major settlements, Cölln and Berlin. Despite arguments that Berlin means little bear in German, the city’s name actually originates from the Slavic meaning swamp town.
Berlin’s Founding Under Christianity
The spread of Christianity was one of the major events that defined Europe, and Berlin was one of the last places to adopt it. Until the late twelfth century, Berlin was a pagan Slavic city stuck between two huge Christian empires in the west and the east.
In 768 Charlemagne became king in the Frankish realm of the Holy Roman Empire. He spread Christianity throughout Germany and was the first to lead troops to the River Elbe since Augustus. Charlemagne pushed as far east as to the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe, about a hundred miles west of Berlin.
Western European rulers’ idea to spread Christianity east was complicated in the late tenth century when the Polish ruler Mieszko I aligned himself with Christian Bohemia in Eastern Europe. This put the eastern Christian Bohemians at odds with the western German Christians, both of which were trying to extend their empires and conquer Berlin. It was the German Albert the Bear’s army that overtook Berlin and founded the German Christian city of Berlin in the twelfth century.
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