the entrance
Berlin Zoo
bar of cafe Chagall
Pergamon Museum,Berlin,Germany.City name and Symbol: Berlin = the Little Bear
Historians have tried in vain to find out why the bear is the symbol of Berlin. But it is a fact that the bear has continuously been Berlin’s coat of arms since 1280. As they missed to take notes about it at the time it could never been clarified why the bear has become the symbol of the city, and even more: Why Berlin was named after the/a bear. Berlin means nothing else than “little bear”. Ber = Bär which can also be spelled Baer if you have no Umlaut key ;-) And the ending –lin is the diminutive in Middle High German. Now it would be spelled –lein, and Berlin would be spelled “Bärlein” nowadays.
If you have ever learnt German you might have heard about this ending –lein in the song “Sah ein Knab ein Röslein steh’n”, Röslein meaning: little rose. (I mention this song because every educated Korean I met in South Korea could sing this song!) The ending –lein is identical with the diminutive –chen in “Mädchen”.
It could never be verified that the name Berlin derives from Albrecht der Bär, the founder of Brandenburg, because this guy was only named “the bear” after his death. Other historians say that the area where Berlin was founded once was a deer pass, with lots of wild animals including bears running around. At the time it was common to name places after animals. And others more suggest the “ber” has indogermanic or eurogermanic roots, meaning swampy ground – which could also be the case, as the ground-water levels in Berlin are rather high, and from Museumsinsel we know that it has long been wasteland for exactly this reason.
The first verified seal with a bear dates back to 22 March 1280. It was found in the letter-head of Berlin’s pelt-mongers guild. But until the 19th century the bear appeared in co-existence with Brandenburg’s eagle. Then the seal and coat of arms showed a tamed bear with a collar, and finally (from 1879) a wild bear with long fur and without collar. But it took until 1935 for the bear to become the city’s only symbol. -
Since then Berlin has always had famous live bears in parks and the zoo. The first one was a bear named Urs (this name even means bear) who was lucky enough to have three wives. Unfortunately Urs and two of his wives died during World War II.
Every year on 22 March Berlin celebrates the Day of the Bear, remembering the first seal from 1280.
The bear is everywhere and – as the holder of Kimi the bear – I love it. Be it the armadas of cuddly toy bears, the huge and the small Buddy Bears they have since the early 2000’s. Germany’s most famous condensed milk brand is called Bärenmarke and has a nice bear drawing on the label, and in the city of Ulm where I lived more than 20 years we had a bear-pit I used to visit frequently.
You can learn more about the bear on this website of Berliner Bärenfreunde. Most pages are also in English, just navigate to the English looking titles ;-)
http://www.berliner-baer.de/
