Mitte | |
|---|---|
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
Location of Mitte in Berlin
| |
 Location of Mitte | |
  Mitte  Mitte | |
| Coordinates:52°31′N13°22′E / 52.517°N 13.367°E /52.517; 13.367 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Berlin |
| City | Berlin |
| Subdivisions | 6 localities |
| Government | |
| • Borough Mayor | Stefanie Remlinger (Greens) |
| Area | |
• Total | 39.47 km2 (15.24 sq mi) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[1] | |
• Total | 397,134 |
| • Density | 10,060/km2 (26,060/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Vehicle registration | B |
| Website | Official homepage |
Mitte (German:[ˈmɪtə]ⓘ) is the first and most centralborough ofBerlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities:Mitte proper,Gesundbrunnen,Hansaviertel,Moabit,Tiergarten andWedding.
It is one of the two boroughs (the other beingFriedrichshain-Kreuzberg) which were formerly divided betweenEast Berlin andWest Berlin. Mitte encompasses Berlin's historic core and includes some of the most important tourist sites of Berlin like theReichstag andBerlin Hauptbahnhof,Checkpoint Charlie,Museum Island, theTV tower,Brandenburg Gate,Unter den Linden,Potsdamer Platz,Alexanderplatz andFotografiska Berlin. The latter seven of which were in former East Berlin.
Mitte (German for "middle", "centre") is located in the central part of Berlin along theSpree River. It borders onCharlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in the west,Reinickendorf in the north,Pankow in the east,Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in the southeast, andTempelhof-Schöneberg in the southwest.
In the middle of the Spree liesMuseum Island (Museumsinsel) with its museums,Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) andBerlin Palace (Berliner Schloss). A central square in Mitte isAlexanderplatz with the prominentFernsehturm (TV tower), Germany's highest building, and the large railway station with connections to many subway (U-Bahn), tramway (Berlin trambahn), city trains (S-Bahn) and buses.
There are some important streets which connect Mitte with the other boroughs, e.g. the boulevardUnter den Linden which connects Berlin Palace with Brandenburg Gate and runs further asStraße des 17. Juni to theVictory Column and the centre of former West Berlin inCharlottenburg, orKarl-Marx-Allee fromAlexanderplatz toFriedrichshain and the eastern suburbs.
The former Mitte district had been established by the 1920Greater Berlin Act and comprised large parts of the historic city aroundAlt-Berlin andCölln. Brandenburg Gate was the western exit at the Berlin city boundary until 1861.
Between 1961 and 1990, the area's East Berlin portion was surrounded by theBerlin Wall on the north, south and west. There were some border control points, the most notable of which wasCheckpoint Charlie betweenKreuzberg and Mitte, which was operated by theUnited States Army and was open to foreigners and diplomats.
Two other checkpoints were at Heinrich-Heine-Straße/Prinzenstraße east of Checkpoint Charlie, open to citizens of West Germany and West Berlin and onInvalidenstraße in the north on the border with the West Berlin Tiergarten district (the present-dayMoabit locality).
The government district is located in the locality ofTiergarten around theReichstag Building. Most institutions of the German government have their seat at the Regierungsviertel
The historic center is located in the locality ofMitte proper around the Berlin Palace.
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Many embassies and theFederal Ministry of Defence in the historic embassy quarter in the south of theTiergarten Park.
Großer Tiergarten is the name of the biggest urban park in Mitte, located in thesame-named locality. Tiergarten Park was established as a hunting ground in the 16th century by the Prussian kings. Today it is enclosed by densely built-up areas byHansaviertel andMoabit in the north, the Government District in the east and theCity West and the Embassy Quarter in the southwest.
Many cultural monuments and memorials are located in the Tiergarten Park, like theSiegessäule, theSoviet War Memorial and a historic rose garden. TheMemorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the biggest victim group of the Nazi dictatorship, is located on the east side of the park, near theBrandenburg Gate and near the place whereHitler's New Reich Chancellery once was.
The Kulturforum was built in the 1950s and 1960s at the edge ofWest Berlin, after most of the once unified city's cultural assets had been lost behind theBerlin Wall. The Kulturforum is characterized by its innovative modernist architecture; several buildings are distinguished by the organic designs ofHans Scharoun, and theNeue Nationalgalerie was designed byMies van der Rohe, albeit originally as a private house.
Among the cultural institutions housed in and around the Kulturforum are:
The present-day borough of Mitte consists of six localities:
(the former Mitte borough) | (the former Tiergarten borough) | (the former Wedding borough) |
As of 2010[update], the borough had a population of 322,919, of whom 144.000 (44.5%) had amigration background. In the former West Berlin areas of Wedding, Gesundbrunnen and Moabit, foreigners and Germans of foreign origin compose nearly 70% of the population, while in Mitte proper the share of migrants is relatively low. The immigrant community is quite diverse, however,Turks,Africans[who?],Eastern Europeans[who?] andEast Asians[who?] form the largest groups.[2]
| Percentage of people withmigration background[3] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Germans without migration background/non-migrants | 55.5 % (184.000) | |
| Germans with migration background, or Foreigners/Ausländer | 44.5 % (144.000) | |
| Muslim/Middle Eastern origin (Turkey,Arab League,Iran etc.) | 18.0% (60.000) | |
| non-German European origin (UK,Netherlands, United States, Russia,Poland, Spain, France etc.) | 10.7% (35.400) | |
| Others (East Asians,Vietnamese,Afro-Germans,Sub-Saharan Africans etc.) | 14.5% (48.000) |
The governing body of Mitte is the borough assembly (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung). It has responsibility for passing laws and electing the borough administration, including the mayor. The most recent borough assembly election was held on 26 September 2021, and led to a coalition between the Greens and the social democrats.[4]
| Legislative period | Borough Mayor | Coalition (Zählgemeinschaft) | Borough assembly seats of the coalition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-2026[5] | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed |
| 2021-2023[5] | Stefanie Remlinger (Greens, 2022-2023) Stephan von Dassel (Greens, 2021-2022)[6] | Greens and SPD[7] | 30/55 |
| 2016-2021 | Stephan von Dassel | Greens and SPD[8] | 28/55 |
| 2011-2016 | Christian Hanke (SPD) | SPD and CDU[9] | 28/55 |
| 2006-2011 | Christian Hanke (SPD) | -[10] | - |
| 2001-2006 | Joachim Zeller (CDU)[11] | CDU,PDS, Greens[12] | 32/55[13] |
The 2021 results were as follows:
| Party | Lead candidate | Votes | % | +/- | Seats | +/- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | Laura Neugebauer | 44,653 | 28.5 |  4.6 | 18 | 4 | |
| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | Ephraim Gothe | 28,997 | 18.5 |  5.3 | 12 | 2 | |
| The Left (LINKE) | Christoph Keller | 26,256 | 16.8 | 1.1 | 10 | ±0 | |
| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | Carsten Spallek | 20,088 | 12.8 | 0.7 | 8 | 1 | |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | Bastian Roet | 10,419 | 6.7 | 0.6 | 4 | 1 | |
| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | Sabine Schüler | 7,565 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 3 | 2 | |
| Volt Germany | 3,668 | 2.3 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Tierschutzpartei | 3,410 | 2.2 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Die PARTEI | 3,358 | 2.1 | New | 0 | New | ||
| dieBasis | 2,193 | 1.4 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Klimaliste | 1,927 | 1.2 | New | 0 | New | ||
| The Greys | 1,112 | 0.7 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Pirate Party Germany | 919 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 0 | 2 | ||
| Free Voters | 903 | 0.6 | New | 0 | New | ||
| The Humanists | 602 | 0.4 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Ecological Democratic Party | 287 | 0.2 | New | 0 | New | ||
| The Eligible | 99 | 0.1 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Valid votes | 156,456 | 99.1 | |||||
| Invalid votes | 1,384 | 0.9 | |||||
| Total | 157,840 | 100.0 | 55 | ±0 | |||
| Electorate/voter turnout | 247,338 | 63.8 | 10.0 | ||||
| Source:Elections Berlin | |||||||
The borough mayor (Bezirksbürgermeister) is elected by the borough assembly, and positions in the borough administration (Bezirksamt) are apportioned based on party strength.Stefanie Remlinger of the Greens was elected mayor on 20 October 2022. Since the 2021 municipal elections, the composition of the borough administration is as follows:
| Councillor | Party | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stefanie Remlinger | GRÜNE | Borough Mayor Staff and Finance | |
| Ephraim Gothe | SPD | Deputy Mayor Urban Development and Logistics | |
| Stefanie Remlinger | GRÜNE | Education, Sport and Culture | |
| Carsten Spallek | CDU | Social Affairs and Civil Service | |
| Almut Neumann | GRÜNE | Order, Environment, Streets and Green Spaces | |
| Christoph Keller | LINKE | Youth and Health | |
| Source:Berlin.de | |||
Beyoğlu (Istanbul), Turkey (2008)
Bottrop, Germany (1983)
Central AO (Moscow), Russia (2006)
Chaoyang (Beijing), China (2004)
Chiyoda (Tokyo), Japan (1994)
Drøbak, Norway (1990)Higashiōsaka, Japan (1959)
Holon, Israel (1970)Kassel, Germany (1979)Petrogradsky (Saint Petersburg), Russia (1994)Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Germany (1992)Shinjuku (Tokyo), Japan (1994)
Tourcoing, France (1995)Tsuwano,Shimane, Japan (1995)
 Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (4) | |
|---|---|
 Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (2) | |
 Lichtenberg (11) | |
 Marzahn-Hellersdorf (10) | |
 Mitte (1) | |
 Neukölln (8) | |
 Pankow (3) | |
 Reinickendorf (12) | |
 Spandau (5) | |
 Steglitz-Zehlendorf (6) | |
 Tempelhof-Schöneberg (7) | |
 Treptow-Köpenick (9) | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
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