Ever tried to impress your friends with fun facts about Berlin? We do it all the time. Especially the rich history, extreme techno-clubs and tasty food are topics people love to hear about. This post should be a source of inspiration for conversations: We listed 15 fun facts about Berlin which you probably did not know yet.
As the list with fun facts is quite long, we separated them into the following categories:
Facts about Food & Drinks
#1. Sixty Million Currywurst per year
Berliners love fastfood. This is probably related to the fact that there are so many places to eat fastfood in Berlin. One of the things every tourist in Berlin wants to eat at least once is the famous Currywurst. Every year more about 63 million pieces of Currywurst are eaten in Berlin. We personally prefer a nice homemade burgers by the way.
#2: There are more than 500 ice cream shops in Berlin
The summer in Berlin can be hot. It’s good to know that you can buy an ice in Berlin on every corner. There are about 550 different ice cream parlours. Especially the homemade icecream and vegan ice are very popular nowadays.
#3: Berliner eat 400.000 Döner Kebabs every day
People in Berlin love currywurst but Döner Kebab is also very popular. On average 400.000 kebabs are eatinhg every single day. That makes up for about 146 Million each year so even more than the currywurst.
#4: More than 100 different vegan restaurants
Berlin is very vegan-friendly. There are a whole range of different vegan restaurants (check these Berliner burger-places). Our favourite places are 1990 Vegan Living and Li.Ke which are both in Friedrichshain.
Want to get inspired with more facts? Read some of the books about Berlin written by insiders.
Animal Fun Facts
#5: Berlin owns the largest Zoo in Europe
The Tierpark Berlin in the east of Berlin is the largest Zoo in Europe. In total it has 160 hectare of animals and other entertainment to offer. The large playground makes it a great places to visit when you in Berlin with kids.
#6: 10.000 kilo of Pigeon-Shit per day
Venice might be famous for its pigeons, Berlin also has a lot of these grey birds. Daily, all the pigeons in Berlin shit about 10.000 kilogram of excrements on the streets of Berlin. How is that for a fun fact about Berlin! You might want to look up before you sit down.
#7: More than 200.000 dogs in Berlin
Some love them, some hate them. Fact is: There are a lot of dogs in Berlin. The 110.000 above are actually registered and when we also count the unregistered dogs, the estimations go above 200.000 dogs. This means that every twentieth person in Berlin owns a dog. Why do people not register their dogs? Mostly to avoid taxes.
Facts about The city, buildings and streets
#8: Berlin has more than 1000 bridges
Some famous bridges are the Warschauer Brücke and the Oberbaum Brücke. There are about 1000 bridges altogether. Obviously this is related to the fact that Berlin has a lot of water.
#9: Berlin is nine times bigger than Paris
But what’s mainly interesting is the fact that Paris has way more people than Berlin. In Paris 21.000 people live on a square km and in Berlin only 4.000. So I guess it’s good to live in Berlin if you like space.
#10: Berlin has more canals than Venice
When people talk about cities with a lot of water they usually talk about Venice. But Berlin has more canals than Venice. In Germany it is the city with the most water altogether. If you ever visit Berlin, make sure to do a trip on a raft on the Spree.
#11: The longest street in Berlin is 11,9 km long
One cool fact about Berlin is that in total, the city owns 5.413 km of public streets. If all these streets are combined, you could travel from Berlin to Pakistan or Cameroon. The longest street in Berlin is called Adlergestell and is 11,9 km long. The street is located in Treptow.
#12: The shortest street is only 16m short
The shortest street in Berlin is located near the Nikolaiviertel. The street is called Eiergasse and is only 16 meters long. This means that only a few people can say they live in the Eiergasse in Berlin.
#13: TV-Tower is the highest building in Berlin
The TV-Tower is still the largest building in Berlin. With it’s 368 meter, the tower which is located at Alexanderplatz, is about 10 meters higher than the Sendemast in Berlin-Frohnau (358,6 meter). The third position on the list of high buildings is taken by another Sendemast, but this one does not come very close to the two leaders: The Sendemast Scholzplatz is not more than 230 meter high, but still owns the third position on the list of highest buildings in Berlin.
#14: Around 900 km² city surface
As mentioned above, Berlin has more residents than many other capital in Europe. But how many surface do these residents have to live on? The city surface of Berlin is a little bit more than 892 km². This means that there is plenty of space for the 3,5 Million habitants.
#15: Highest mountain is 115 meter
With an average of 73 meter above the sea level, Berlin is located quite high. The highest natural point in the city is the Großer Muggelberg: The highest point of this mountain lays 114,7 meter above sea level. If we go more to the west of the city there we will find another mountain, the Teufelsberg, which has the same height as the Muggelberg. But because the Teufelsberg has been made by human hands it is only fair to give the first position to the Muggelberg.
#16: The U7 is the longest underground-track in Germany
The U7 has 40 stations and a total of almost 32km of underground train track. It is longest track which is totally underground in Germany. Some cool stations to get out are Yorckstraße, Hermannplatz and Mehringdamm.
#17: 1,2 million m² shopping pleasure
A fact about Berlin for people who love to go shopping. If you take all the shopping malls together, Berlin owns a total amount of 1.190.000 square meter of shopping pleasure. The largest shopping center is called Gropius Passagen, located in the south of Neukölln and owns 85.000 m² shopping pleasure. If you are up for some shopping you can check out our article with the best shopping-locations in Berlin.
The People in Berlin
#18: Only a quarter of the people in Berlin are actually born in Berlin
This is one of the Berlin-facts which is interesting but also a bit sad in a way. More and more who were born in the capital of Germany leave the city. So even we do not take all the tourists into account every fourth person you will see on the streets of Berlin is not born here. A crazy fact if you ask us.
#19: Second most residents of all European cities
Berlin has a total of 3,5 million (3.460.700) registered residents. If we compare this number to other capitals in Europe, it seems that Berlin is on the second position. On the first position we find London which has more than double the amount of people (7,5 Million).
#20: Berlin had more habitants in 1942 than now
You might expect that the amount of people on Berlin has gradually increased over the years. But it was the year 1942 in which the most people lived in Berlin. Back then there were almost 4,5 Million people and right now the city officially has 3,8 Million. This fact is caused by the war by the way.
Other fun facts about Berlin
#21: About 1000 Spätkauf-Shops in Berlin
A funny fact about Berlin is that there are more than 1000 Spätkauf-Shops throughout the city. Most of these small shops are open 24 hours a day and are mainly used for getting drinks and snacks when all supermarkets are closed. This is great when you are partying in Berlin. Another interesting fact: Latest estimations state that 70% of them are owned by Turkish people.
#22: Longest sneakerwall of Europe
The longest sneaker-wall in Europe is located in the center of Berlin. In the Munzstrasse in Berlin-Mitte to be precise. The shop is called KICKZ and altogether it offers 370 different types of Sneakers. So if you are looking for a new pair of shoes, this might be a great place to have a look.
#23: Graffiti causes 35 million damage per year
We all love the occasional street-art in Berlin but graffiti is causing a lot of damages year of year. A not so fun fact about Berlin is that the damages of graffiti have been estimated on 35 Million Euro per year. That’s a lot of money!
#24: Almost half of Berlin is “nature”
In an analysis to compare how green cities are, they found out that 49% of Berlin is green space. Per person this means that there is a green space of about 111 square meters. It does not come as a surprise with all the parks and quite a bit of forest.
#25: Around 50.000 people party in Berlin every week
That Berliner clubs are famous and popular is not a secret. But that 50.000 people party in the capital of Germany every weekend is a tremendous amount. This basically means that a large football-stadium full of people is disappearing into the clubs in Berlin every single weekend.
Obviously we hope that some of these facts about Berlin actually surprised you and enriched your knowledge about the capital of Germany. The next time you have visitors you might be able to impress them with one of the facts above. We will update this article when we read or hear about new facts about Berlin.
