Every year, the streets of Berlin burst into colour and music (making it sound a little like a production of the Wizard of Oz – it’s really nothing like that) as the locals party their little hearts out.  It’s not going to be quite the all-embracing spectacle such as that of Rio – there’s a reason that Rio’s carnival is the most famous in the world – but with people dressing up as witches, jesters and clowns and dancing around in the streets, it should certainly be fun.

Winding its way through the German captial, the Carnival Parade starts at Ernst-Reuter-Platz, a U-Bhan station in the Charlottenburg District.  From there it will move down Hardenbergstrasse, which is a main thoroughfare through the centre of Western Berlin, and upon which you’ll see the Art and Tech Universities and the Renaissance Theatre.  It finally finishes, handily enough, on Ku’Damm, one of the city’s biggest shopping streets.  Just in case you’re frowning over a map thinking “Ku’Damm?  Where in heaven’s name is that??”, it’s short for Kurfürstendamm, and it’s basically Berlin’s answer to the Champs-Elysees.  It’s very wide, long and leafy, and it’s just the place to finish a parade, because most likely you’ll want to collapse in a cafe somewhere and get a drink.  Well, the Ku’Damm has plenty of restaurants and bars to help you out with that.

There have been carnival traditions in Germany for many hundreds of years, it would seem, but that pesky division of the city caused no end of strife for those who just wanted to celebrate together and enjoy themselves.  However, at that time, each side of the city managed to get some carnival time, too – just separately.  Two different carnivals happened in the city during these years, and I think most people could make a reasonable guess at which was the more popular.  When the Wall came down and the city was reunited once more, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to know that there was partying galore – and Berlin was able to celebrate their carnivals together once more.  

Since 1990 there have been different types of parade through the city: ones full of cars, ones involving marching to the Brandenburg Gate.  But it took a while for the government to be able to financially support the city in its party-planning, and the 1995 Rose Monday parade was cancelled due to lack of financial backing.  Since then, there has been a concerted effort to pick up the celebrations.  2001 saw the biggest parade through the city up until that point, with quarter of a million spectators lining the streets.  
The amount of spectators has grown since then: 2008 saw about a million people turn out onto the streets and cheer on those parading.  The current statistics are that the Berlin Carnival Parade is the fourth biggest in the city, and is constantly growing.  All this shows, I suppose, more than anything else that Berliners do love a party, and if you find yourself in the city at the end of February be sure to bring a clowns wig and don some face paint, and get ready to join the madness.