If we're to exclude the offshore isles and their town London, Berlin was no.2 in population terms (the administrative city and the suburbs before the 1920 extension) from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. But having successively overtaken Naples, Vienna and St Petersburg it never surpassed Paris or caught up with post-1940s Moscow.

But Berlin certainly punched above its weight culturally, at least under the 1920s republic when its leftist traditions and permissive national laws contributed to a vibrant artistic and literary scene, challenging even Paris. The might of its national government aside, ts international height came paradoxically as Germany was reduced from the first rank in European affairs.