place

Congress of Berlin

1878 conferences1878 in Germany1878 in international relations19th-century diplomatic conferences19th century in Berlin
AC with 0 elementsDiplomatic conferences in GermanyHistory of the BalkansJuly 1878 eventsJune 1878 eventsLate modern Europe
Berliner kongress
Berliner kongress

The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at the meeting were Europe's then six great powers: Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany; the Ottomans; and four Balkan states: Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro. The congress concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Berlin, replacing the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano that had been signed three months earlier. The leader of the congress, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, sought to stabilise the Balkans, reduce the role of the defeated Ottoman Empire in the region, and balance the distinct interests of Britain, Russia and Austria-Hungary. He also wanted to avoid domination of the Balkans by Russia or the formation of a Greater Bulgaria, and to keep Constantinople in Ottoman hands. Finally Bismarck wanted to encourage the development of civil rights for Jews in the region. Under Bismarck's influence, the congress stripped the Ottomans of many of their European possessions, but refused to grant them to Russia and massively reduced the gains of Bulgaria (compared to the Principality of Bulgaria envisaged by the preliminary San Stefano treaty). The affected territories were instead granted varying degrees of independence. Romania became fully independent, though was forced to give part of Bessarabia to Russia, and gained Northern Dobruja. Serbia and Montenegro were also granted full independence but lost territory, with Austria-Hungary occupying the Sandžak region along with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Britain took possession of Cyprus. Of the territory that remained within the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria was made a semi-independent principality, Eastern Rumelia became a special administration, and the region of Macedonia was returned to the Ottomans on condition of reforms to its governance. The results were initially hailed as a success for peace in the region, but most of the participants were not satisfied with the outcome. The Ottomans were humiliated and had their weakness confirmed as the "sick man of Europe". Russia resented the lack of rewards, despite having won the war that the conference was supposed to resolve, and humiliated by the other great powers in their rejection of the San Stefano settlement. Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece all received far less than they thought they deserved, especially Bulgaria which was left with less than half of the territory envisioned by the Treaty of San Stefano. Bismarck became hated by Russian nationalists and Pan-Slavists, and later found that he had tied Germany too closely to Austria-Hungary in the Balkans. Although Austria-Hungary gained substantial territory, this angered the South Slavs and led to decades of tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, culminating in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In the long term, the settlement led to rising tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary, and disputes over nationalism in the Balkans. Grievances with the results of the congress festered until they exploded in the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912 and 1913 respectively). Continuing nationalism in the Balkans was one of the causes of the First World War in 1914.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Congress of Berlin (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Congress of Berlin
An der Kolonnade, Berlin Mitte

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Congress of BerlinContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.511666666667 ° E 13.381944444444 °
placeShow on map

Address

Kita Kinderwelt

An der Kolonnade 3-5
10117 Berlin, Mitte
Germany
mapOpen on Google Maps

Berliner kongress
Berliner kongress
Share experience

Nearby Places

Reich Ministry of Transport
Reich Ministry of Transport

The Reich Ministry of Transport (German: Reichsverkehrsministerium or RVM) was a cabinet-level agency of the German government from 1919 until 1945, operating during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Formed from the Prussian Ministry of Public Works after the end of World War I, the RVM was in charge of regulating German railways, roadways, waterways, and the construction industry - a kind of infrastructure agency in today's understanding. In the 1920s, the Ministry's involvement in the rail sector was limited to administrative and technical supervisory functions. The National Railway (Deutsche Reichsbahn) was initially organized as an independent state-owned company to guarantee that Germany paid war reparations according to the provisions of the 1924 Dawes Plan. Under Nazi control, the Transport Ministry expanded exponentially. The Reichsbahn, which had become Germany's largest public asset and also the largest such enterprise in the capitalist world at the time, was taken over by the RVM in 1937. Railroads in the German states, transportation associations, and even private transport companies also came under the Nazi government's direct control through the Ministry. During World War II the RVM took over agencies in conquered nations and provided military rail transport. It also became responsible for the deportation of European Jews to extermination camps. The particular unit involved, "No. 21. Bulk Transport", functioned in close cooperation with the SS. The RVM therefore came to play a pivotal role in The Holocaust. The Ministry lived on for a time after the war in the Flensburg Government and was dissolved de facto at the end of May, 1945. The Ministry's headquarters were located in central Berlin on the Wilhelmplatz. Over time it came to occupy a complex of buildings, including underground air-raid shelters built in 1940. Heavily damaged by Allied bombing, the site wound up in East Berlin in 1949. Portions of it served as the East German Railway headquarters until German Reunification in 1990. Most of the site was left derelict and was demolished in 2012. A large shopping mall was built in its place in 2014, with two small wings historically preserved.

Ordenspalais
Ordenspalais

The Ordenspalais ("Palace of the Order [of Saint John]") was a building on the northern corner of Wilhelmplatz with Wilhelmstraße in Berlin (now in Berlin-Mitte). Erection of the building at Wilhelmplatz No. 7/8 began in 1737 as the residence of the Prussian Major General Karl Ludwig, Count of Waldburg-Capustigall, who died the next year. By command of King Frederick William I of Prussia, the palace was finished by the Order of Saint John (the Johanniterorden) according to plans by Carl Friedrich Richter, who also designed the neighbouring Palais Schulenburg (later the German Reich Chancellery). From 1738, the palace was the principal residence of the Herrenmeister ("Master of the Knights"), chief of the Order, and housed the Berlin legation of the Order. The palace later was renamed for Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, who was Herrenmeister from 1763 to 1811. The Kingdom of Prussia took over the building in 1811, upon the dissolution of the Order by a government desperate for funds in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, and the building thereafter housed several governmental agencies before Prince Charles of Prussia made it his residence in 1829. He had the palace remodeled in a Neoclassical style according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, with an annex built by Friedrich August Stüler. In 1853, the building, now numbered Wilhelmplatz No. 8/9, saw the solemn restoration of the Johanniterorden and Prince Charles's installation as the new Herrenmeister. After his death in 1883, the palace remained the residence of Prince Charles's descendants Princes Frederick Charles and Friedrich Leopold of Prussia. After World War I and the fall of the Prussian monarchy, the palace became the subject of a lengthy lawsuit between the House of Hohenzollern and the Free State of Prussia. The palace remained empty until the German government made it the offices of the united press department of the Reichsregierung and the Foreign Office, which held daily press conferences here. In March 1933, the building became the headquarters of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda led by Joseph Goebbels. During his tenure, the building was again enlarged, with Stüler's annex extended and rebuilt until 1940. The Ordenspalais itself was destroyed in the last months of World War II. The annex, renumbered Wilhelmstraße No. 49, survived and from 1947 was the seat of the East German National Front organization. Since 1999, the building has held the main offices of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.