Berlino è la maggiore città e anche un Bundesland della Germania, quindi una “città-stato”. Capitale federale della Repubblica Federale di Germania e sede del suo governo, è uno dei più importanti centri politici, culturali, scientifici, fieristici e mediatici d’Europa e, dopo Londra, il secondo comune più popoloso dell’Unione europea, con 3 711 930 abitanti.

In passato è stata la capitale della Marca di Brandeburgo (1417-1801), del Regno di Prussia (1701-1918), dell’Impero tedesco (1871-1918), della Repubblica di Weimar (1919-1933) e del Terzo Reich (1933-1945).

L’area metropolitana ha una superficie complessiva di 2 851 km² ed una popolazione di 5 103 778 abitanti, mentre la regione metropolitana di Berlino e Brandeburgo ha una superficie di 30 370 km² ed una popolazione[3] di 7 220 120 abitanti.

Attorno alla storica Berlino si erano sviluppati nuovi centri. Nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento si erano formati, oltre ai grandi insediamenti industriali – quartieri di casermoni d’affitto (Mietskaserne) per la crescente popolazione; in alcune zone la densità abitativa superava 100 000 persone al km². La maggior parte di questi quartieri all’inizio del Novecento – per quanto ben collegate alla città – non facevano parte della municipalità berlinese. Anche altre città e villaggi nei dintorni – alcuni dei quali fondati prima della stessa Berlino – erano cresciuti, partecipando al boom economico della capitale, come Spandau, Köpenick, Wilmersdorf. Infine vennero fondati, attorno alla fine del secolo, diversi quartieri residenziali, in particolare a sud-ovest di Berlino – come Nikolassee, Wannsee sull’omonimo lago e Lichterfelde, nota anche per il grande Giardino Botanico aperto nel 1904, ma anche in altre zone attorno alla grande città, come Frohnau a nord; la maggior parte di queste nuove fondazioni erano fin dall’inizio ben collegate con la città – emblematico il caso di Nikolassee, la cui prima “villa” era la stazione ferroviaria, in seguito diventata stazione della S-Bahn (Schnellbahn, cioè ferrovia veloce) berlinese.

Il movimento a favore di una riforma territoriale dell’area metropolitana dovette lottare contro vari interessi di parte, come quelli delle piccole ma ricche zone a sud di Berlino, che temevano di perdere, con la riforma, i contribuenti benestanti. I due grandi meriti di questo movimento sono condizioni essenziali della vita di Berlino.

Al fine di assicurare l’approvvigionamento di acqua per la metropoli e di conservare spazi naturali per la popolazione, l’associazione a favore della Grande Berlino nel 1915 aveva acquistato oltre 10 000 ettari di foreste nei dintorni della città. Con altri successivi acquisti e grazie alla legislazione sostanzialmente invariata dall’epoca, Berlino dispone di oltre 200 km² di foreste sul territorio comunale, delle quali la più grande e nel contempo più centrale è il Grunewald (it.: Bosco verde, che trae il suo nome dal Jagdschloss Grunewald, castello di caccia del 1543), e di altri 95 km² fuori dai confini comunali, più di ogni altra metropoli europea.

L’altro – e più noto – risultato di questo movimento era la legge entrata in vigore il 1º ottobre del 1920. Il numero degli abitanti risultò raddoppiato, da 1,9 milioni ad oltre 3,8 milioni; la superficie della città passò da 66 km² a 883 km² e corrispondeva, a parte alcune piccole modifiche, a quella odierna.

Sette furono le città che contribuirono alla formazione della Grande Berlino.

La maggiore era Charlottenburg, a cavallo tra Seicento e Settecento, villaggio attorno al Castello di Charlottenburg, nel 1920 ricca città con 322 717 abitanti, che costituiva il Nuovo Ovest della metropoli, con l’elegante viale Kurfürstendamm, su cui ancor oggi affacciano teatri e negozi.

Il contributo di Neukölln era di 262 414 abitanti, prevalentemente operai.

Tra la vecchia Berlino e Charlottenburg si trova Schöneberg, nel 1920 città piuttosto borghese con 178 207 abitanti; il municipio della città, poi del distretto, farà, durante gli anni della divisione, la funzione di municipio di Berlino Ovest. Vi si trova il KaDeWe, fondato nel 1907, è tuttora il più grande e lussuoso grande magazzino di Berlino.

Lichtenberg, città industriale ad est di Berlino, consegnava 144 986 nuovi berlinesi.

Wilmersdorf ha mantenuto fino ad oggi il suo carattere di tranquilla località; nel 1920 aveva 139 468 abitanti.

Il centro storico di Spandau è più antico di Berlino; sita a 13 kilometri a ovest del centro storico di Berlino ha dato 95 373 abitanti e uno degli edifici più antichi della Grande Berlino, la fortezza Zitadelle Spandau.

La più piccola tra le città era Köpenick con 32 589 abitanti, anch’essa fondata prima di Berlino. Con Köpenick entrarono nel nuovo territorio berlinese anche le ampie zone verde nel sud-est, il grande lago Müggelsee con le sue foreste e i parchi – più centrali – Treptower Park e Plänterwald.

Tra le numerose altre località integrate – alle quali Berlino deve il soprannome “Città dei cento villaggi” – risulta anche la maggior parte dei quartieri residenziali eleganti, quelli più periferici e anche quelli più vicini come Grunewald ai margini dell’omonima foresta, o Westend, dove dal 1926 si trova la Funkturm (Torre della radio), e dal 1936 l’Olympiastadion (Stadio olimpico).

Il 1º ottobre 1920 Berlino era la seconda città del mondo per superficie – dopo Los Angeles – e la terza per numero di abitanti, dopo Londra e New York. I vecchi ed ormai stretti confini della città – come il ponte Oberbaumbrücke non esistevano più.

The complete history of German bond yields, from Napoleon to Angela Merkel

Matt Phillips

Any given day in the global bond market can be fairly snooze-worthy. Bond yields tick up by a few basis points, and down by a few basis points. Ho-hum. That’s the case today in the market for German government bonds (known as bunds). Yields on the 10-year bund declined by about four basis points, or 0.04 percentage points, to 1.12%. In other words, low.

But in my experience, the best way to make sense of the the bond markets is by looking at a long time series. That’s usually when the noise of a meandering market gives way to a clear signal. You can see that the recent run lower in bund yields—prompted by an easier-sounding European Central Bank, disinflation, and scary developments in Ukraine—has pushed yields down to their lowest level in recent history.

But there’s more. We grabbed estimates of long-term bund yields from data provider Global Financial Data. With the best numbers we have going back to 1815, these are the lowest German bond yields on record. Pretty remarkable.

Now, it’s best to think of these numbers as a broad estimate of interest rates. The benchmark 10-year bund that hit a low today didn’t exist 200 years ago, not least because Germany as we know it today didn’t exist 200 years ago.

Back in 1815, the dominant power in the confederation of German-speaking states, formed that year after the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, was the province of Prussia. So the numbers that start in 1815 in the chart above are estimates based on the yield of Prussian government bonds. German Imperial government bonds were used from the 1870s. Government-backed mortgage bonds began in the 1920s. Bonds issued by Hitler’s Third Reich are the benchmarks for the 1930s and immediately after the war. Through the 1950s and 1960s, a mix of West German government bonds were used. Starting in 1980 the Bundesbank’s constant maturity 10-year bond is used, which is comparable with today’s bond yields.

At any rate, if you’re going to have long-term data series like this in the world of fixed income, a certain amount of stitching and pasting is required.

Also, cutting. You may have noticed the odd gap in the graph around 1920. That’s because I axed the yield data around the hyperinflation of 1922-23, which rendered Germany’s bonds worthless. And it’s not just me. The irreplaceable survey of interest-rate history, the appropriately titled A History of Interest Rates, also leaves those years out. “Unfortunately, no bond yields at all were computed by the sources quoted for the inflation years of 1922 and 1923, no doubt because of the chaotic state of the market and the currency,” the authors wrote. Rates stabilized a bit in 1924, where the series picks up.

The government held yields steady throughout the war years. After the war, yields on West German bonds rose, along with those of most advanced economies (although apples-to-apples comparisons are impossible because of various changes to how the bonds were taxed).

German yields most recently spiked in the 1990s around the time of the reunification. But since then, it’s been pretty much a one-way ride to the record low levels we see today.

OTHER GERMAN GOLD BOND

1. German External Loan 7% 1924 (Dawes)

2. German Reich 5% External Loan of 1930 (Kreuger Loan) Fifty Year Gold Bonds

3 German Government International 5 1/2% Loan of 1930 (Young)

4. Free State of Prussia 6 1/2% Sinking Fund Gold Bonds-External Loan of 1926

5. Free State of Prussia 6% Sinking Fund Gold Bonds-External Loan of 1927

6. General Electric Company 7% Twenty-Year Sinking Fund Gold Debentures 1925

7. General Electric Company 6 1/2% Fifteen-Year Sinking Fund Gold Debentures 1925

8. General Electric Company 6% Twenty-Year Sinking Fund Gold Debentures 1928

9. Bavarian Palatinate Consolidated Cities 7% External Serial Gold Bonds 1926

10. Free State of Bavaria 6 1/2% Serial Gold Bonds 1925

11. Free State of Bavaria 6 1/2% External Twenty Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1925

12. City of Berlin 6 1/2% Twenty-Five year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1925

13. City of Berlin 6 % Thirty year External Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1928

14. Consolidated Hydro-Electric Works of Upper Wurttemberg 7% First Mortgage Thirty-Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

15. Brown Coal Industrial Corporation 6 1/2% Sinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds Series A 1928

16 State of Bremen 7% Ten Year External Loan Gold Bonds 1925

17 Protestant Church in Germany Welfare Institutions Loan 7% Twenty Year Secured Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

18 German Atlantic Cable Company 7% First Mortgage Twenty-Year Sinking Fund Gold Dollar Bonds 1925

19 Central Bank of German State & Provincial Banks, Inc. 6% First Mortgage Secured Gold Sinking Fund Bonds Series A 1927

20 Central Bank of German State & Provincial Banks, Inc. 6% Mortgage Secured Gold Sinking Fund Bonds Series B 1927

21 German Provincial and Communal Banks Consolidated Agricultural Loan 6 1/2% Secured Sinking Fund Gold Bonds Series A 1928

22 German Central Bank for Agriculture 7% First Lien Gold Farm Loan Sinking Fund Bonds 1925

23 German Central Bank for Agriculture 6% Farm Loan Secured Gold Sinking Fund Bonds 1927

24 German Central Bank for Agriculture 6% Farm Loan Secured Gold Sinking Fund Bonds Second Series of 1927

25 German Central Bank for Agriculture 6% Farm Loan Secured Gold Sinking Fund Bonds Series A of 1928

26 German Consolidated Municipal Loan 7% Sinking Fund Secured Gold Bonds 1926

27 German Consolidated Municipal Loan 6% Sinking Fund Secured Gold Bonds 1927

28 Dortmund Municipal Utilities 6 1/2% Twenty Year Dinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds 1928

29 City of Duesseldorf 7% External Series Gold Bonds 1925

30 City of Duisburg 7% Serial Gold Bonds 1925

31 Unterelbe Power & Light Company 6% Twenty Five Year Sinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds Series A 1928

32 Electric Power Corporation 6 1/2% First Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1925

33 Electric Power Corporation 6 1/2% First Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1928

34 City of Frankfort-on-Main 7% Serial Gold Bonds External Loan of 1925

35 City of Frankfort-on-Main 6 1/2% Twenty-Five Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds Municipal External Loan of 1928

36 Municipal Gas & Electric Corporation of Recklinghausen 7% First Mortgage Twenty-Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1927

37 Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria 6 1/2% Twenty-Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds Series A 1926

38 Berlin Electric Elevated and Underground Railways Company 6 1/2% Thirty YEar First Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

39 Gesfurel 6% Sinking Fund Gold Debentures 1927

40 Mannheim and Palatinate Electric Companies 7% Fifteen Year Sinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds 1926

41 Good Hope Steel and Iron 7% Twenty Year Sinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds 1925

42 Hamburg Elevated Underground and Street Railways 5 1/2% Ten Year Gold Loan 1928

43 State of Hamburg 6% Twenty Year Gold Bonds 1926

44 City of Hanover 7% Ten Year External Convertible Gold Bonds 1929

45 City of Hanover 7% External Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1929

46 Harpen Mining Corporation 6% Gold Mortgage Bonds of 1929

47 Province of Hanover Harz Water Works 6% Sinking Fund Gold Bonds First Series 1927

48 Province of Hanover Harz Water Works 6 1/2% Sinking Fund Gold Bonds Second Series 1929

49 Ilseder Steel Corporation 6% Gold Mortgage Bonds 1928

50 City of Cologne 6 1/2% Twenty-Five Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds of 1925

51 Koholyt Corporation 6 1/2% First (Closed) Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1928

52 Municipal Bank of the State of Hessen 7% Serial Gold Bonds 1925

53 Luneburg Power, Light and Waterworks, Ltd. 7% First Mortgage Twenty Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1928

54 Mansfeld Mining and Smelting Company 7% Fifteen-Year (closed) Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

55 Miag Mill Machinery Company 7% Closed First Mortgage Thirty Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

56 City of Munich 7% Serial Gold Bonds 1925

57 North German Lloyd Bremen 6% Twenty Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1927

58 City of Nuremberg 6% External Twenty-Five Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1927

59 Oberpfalz Electric Power Corp 7% First Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

60 Free State of Oldenburg 7% External Serial Gold Bonds

61 Prussian Electric Company 6% Sinking Fund Gold Debentures 1929

62 Rheinelbe Union 7% Twenty-Year Sinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds 1926

63 Rhine Westphalia Electric Power Corp 7% Direct Mortgage Gold Bonds 1925

64 Rhine Westphalia Electric Power Corp 6% Consolidated Mortgage Gold Bonds 1928

65 Rhine Westphalia Electric Power Corp 6% Consolidated Mortgage Gold Bonds 1930

66 Rhine Main-Danube Corp 7% Sinking Fund Gold Debentures Series A 1925

67 Roman Catholic Church Welfare Institutions in Germany 7% Twenty-Year Secured Sinking Fund Gold Bonds Series A 1926

68 Ruhr Chemical Corporation 6% Sinking Fund Mortgage Bonds 1928

69 Ruhr Gas Corporation 6 1/2% Secured Sinking Fund Bonds Series A 1928

70 Ruhr Housing Corporation 6 1/2% First Mortgage Sinking Fund Bonds 1928

71 Leonhard Tietz, Inc. 7 1/2% Twenty-Year Mortgage Gold Bonds 1926

72 Consolidated Municipalities of Baden 7% External Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

73 Westphalia United Electric Power Corporation 6% First Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds Series A 1928

74 United Industrial Corporation 6% Hydro-Electric (closed) Mortgage Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1925

75 United Industrial Corporation 6 1/2% Sinking Fund Gold Debentures 1926

76 United Steel Works Corporation 6 1/2% 25 Year Sinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds Series A 1926

77 United Steel Works Corporation 6 1/2% 25 Year Sinking Fund Mortgage Gold Bonds Series C 1926

78 United Steel Works Corporation 6 1/2% 20 Year Sinking Fund Debentures Series A 1927

79 Vesten Electric Railways Company 7% First Mortgage Twenty Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1927

80 Rhine-Ruhr Water Service Union 6% Twenty-Five Year Sinking Fund External Gold Debentures 1928

81 Housing and Realty Improvement Company 7% First (Closed) Mortgage Twenty Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1926

82 State of Wurttemberg Consolidated Municipal External Loan 7% Serial Gold Bonds 1925

83 City of Heidelberg 7 1/2% External Twenty-Five Year Sinking Fund Gold Bonds 1925

84 Siemens & Halske Stock Corp. 6 1/2% Twenty Five Year Sinking Fund Gold Debenture 1926

85 Siemens & Halske Stock Corp. 6% Participating Debenture Series A 1930