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"Berlin is the _least_ German Germany city, by far." Isn't that a common complaint in the lot of countries - people complain about London in the UK in a very s
by arethuza 2mo ago
"Berlin is the _least_ German Germany city, by far."
Isn't that a common complaint in the lot of countries - people complain about London in the UK in a very similar fashion?
- throw-the-towel 2mo agoYeah, "Moscow ain't Russia" is an idiom.
- rsynnott 2mo agoIt's a very common complaint in countries where one city is disproportionately dominant (London for the UK or Dublin for Ireland, say). It's arguably a bit more surprising for Berlin, because Berlin isn't so disproportionately huge (Berlin's metro area is 6 million out of 80 million, versus London's 15 million out of 70 million or Dublin's 2 million out of 5 million), and because Germany has other comparably sized cities (Hamburg's metro area population is about 5 million). You'd expect it to be a bit less of its own place just on that basis.
- rglullis 2mo agoNah, there is a very strong reason to support the "Berlin ist eine Insel" saying. Are you forgetting the fact that Berlin was literally isolated from the rest of Western Germany and controlled by 4 other countries until some decades ago?
- District5524 2mo agoLet's not forget East Berlin with its 1.2 million population and as the capital of the DDR that was very nicely integrated into the DDR. While both parts of Berlin were obviously isolated from the BDR, West Berlin was supervised by 3 countries. Just to avoid any misunderstanding by people who were not able to visit both parts during those historical times.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2mo agoIDK if it's a complaint about London per se, but it's definitely not typical of much of England. And yes, you can say the same about e.g. Amsterdam vs. The Netherlands. And others. But also, neither of them were literally isolated like West Berlin.