Fast Facts
-Location: Berlin is situated in the north-east of Germany, in the midst of a network of lakes and marshes. The river Spree follows a valley carved out by ice flows many thousands of years ago, and meets the wide river Havel in the borough of Spandau. Most of the region is flat with a few rolling hills. It is about 70km west from the border of Poland, and is completely surrounded by the region of Brandenburg.
It is the cultural and administrative capital and most populous city in Germany, and is also a centre for commerce with many European companies headquartered there.
-Dialing code: country: +49
: city: 30 followed by a three to nine-digit subscriber number, although the shorter numbers are now slowly being phased out. 015, 016 and 017 are prefixes for mobile phone numbers.
-Emergency numbers:
Police: 110
Fire and Ambulance: 112
Tourist Information Helpdesk: The Berlin Tourism Board: +49-(0)30-26 47 48-0, and specifically for hotel and events related enquiries: +49-(0)30-25 00 25
Car Breakdown Service: 01802 222 222 and 01802 343 536
Highway Patrol: Autobahnpolizei 030 4664
Telephone Directory Services: The Deutsche Telekom number for national enquiries: 11833 international enquiries 11834 and for English service: 11837
Airport Enquiry: 180 5000 186
Railway Enquiry: Deutsche-Bahn (the comprehensive national railway) 11861. S-Bahn (the above ground metro system) 29 74 33 33
-Population:
3.4 million
-Languages:
German (some words and inflections spoken by Berliners are different from elsewhere in Germany), French, Russian, English
-Time zone:
UTC+1, UTC+2 in the summer for daylight saving time.
-Average January temperatures: -2 to 3°C
-Average July temperatures: 14 to 24°C
-Annual rainfall: 571mm
