St. Nicholas' Church and the Nikolaiviertel

In front of you rises St. Nicholas' Church, the oldest church in Berlin's historic centre. Today it's a museum, and the quarter around it, the Nikolaiviertel, hides two mysteries: one about the city and one about the quarter itself.

1A city with no birth certificate

Berlin has no founding date. The oldest surviving record is a document from 1237 mentioning Cölln, the twin town on the other bank of the Spree; Berlin appears in writing in 1244. When the city celebrated its 750th anniversary in 1987, it took 1237 as the reference, even though both settlements already existed before that. This church was begun around 1230, so it's probably almost as old as the city itself.

2What about the bear?

It's tempting to think “Berlin” comes from Bär, German for bear, or from the margrave Albert the Bear. Specialists rule it out: the most widely accepted explanation is a Slavic root, berl-, meaning something like “swamp” or “damp place”. The bear on the coat of arms, recorded on seals since the 13th century, is a pun, not an origin.

The bear is folk etymology; the swamp is the linguists' hypothesis, and that isn't certain either.

3An old town from the 1980s

The second mystery is all around you. The quarter was flattened in 1945. For the 1987 anniversary, East Germany rebuilt it with a medieval look, but many of these “old” houses are prefabricated concrete buildings. The church itself lost its towers in the war; the current spires were put in place in 1982.

4What to look for

• The stone base of the façade, the oldest surviving part of the church.
• The two spires, added in the 19th century and rebuilt.
• The statue of St. George and the dragon, by the river, brought here from the palace courtyard.