In the city of Berlin, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is one of 12 districts. Berlin is one of the 16 federal states of Germany.
Districts in Berlin can perform local governance tasks for themselves, just like cities. They also have their own district parliament. Under the control of the district parliament, the administration tasks of the district are carried out by the district office, which is currently headed by the district mayor Monika Herrmann from the party “Bündnis 90/Die Grünen”. The deputy mayor is Knut Mildner-Spindler from the party “Die Linke”.
The district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg was formed in 2001 by a merger of the former West Berlin district of Kreuzberg with the East Berlin district of Friedrichshain. The border between the two parts of the district is the river Spree. Together with an impassable border wall, the river was part of the strictly guarded border between East and West Berlin in 1961-1990.
The only direct connection between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg is the Oberbaum Bridge over the Spree. The symbol of our association is a combination of this bridge and the old bridge over the Tigris at Ain Diwar. It is meant to remind us not to give up hope that bridges can be built between political systems, religions, ethnic groups and states and that borders will not remain impassable forever.
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg had nearly 286,000 inhabitants in 2018. Of these, 123,000 or 43 per cent came from other countries, including 2,153 inhabitants from Syria. The average age of the population is 38. It is the lowest average age of all Berlin districts and even within Germany the district is one of the areas with the youngest average inhabitants.