Business Location Berlin

Berlin’s Creative Industries (CI)

Over 22,900 mostly small- and medium-sized companies in the creative industries earn revenue of over € 17.5 bn, accounting for around 13 percent of Berlin's gross domestic product. With around 160,500 individuals working in the creative industries, this sector plays an important role in Berlin's employment landscape. Over 10 percent of those working in Berlin are employed in the various CI sectors.

In almost all European countries, the key CI sectors are concentrated in regions surrounding the capital cities. As a metropolitan area, Berlin also benefits from the high population density and economic processes that favour the emergence of creative environments and clusters. These clusters then encourage more CI companies to move there, which facilitates the setting up of new innovative networks.

More than 1,500 cultural events take place in Berlin every day. Even by comparison with other European cities, Berlin offers a very broad range of popular and high culture across all cultural categories. Performances at opera houses, orchestras, theatres, and large parts of the experimental art scene are publicly funded by the German government, the state and the districts.

Berlin offers many educational opportunities in the creative industries and has an enormous appeal for young people from all over the world. With about 14,600 students enrolled in more than 40 media, communications and creativity-related degree programmes as well as a large number of public and private universities and other educational institutions, Berlin is a capital for talent.

When it comes to digital media technologies, Berlin is regarded as a centre of excellence both in Germany and abroad. This reputation stems in part from its expertise in the area of digital transmission technologies in the television sector from the work done at the Heinrich Hertz and the Fraunhofer Institutes, and the collaborations between these research institutions and several companies. The enormous increase in the need for user-oriented, affordable and attractive content for the internet, digital television, and mobile phones has created a void that has yet to be filled. The institutions in Berlin responsible for the preservation of cultural heritage, such as the museums, libraries and archives that house a broad range of material, could serve as interesting sources of such content. It is now up to them to digitize this content and use it to develop new products and sources of income.

Berlin benefits from the coexistence of creative industries and its tradition of high culture, creating an interplay of cultural heritage, art, media, new technologies and multicultural influences. This unique mix is the reason that Berlin holds such a special appeal by comparison with other cities in Germany and that it is Germany’s main parallel to other international metropoles.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) made in Berlin

Berlin is among the leading locations for information technology (IT) in Germany. The software industry alone is made up of around 3,600 companies with approximately 27,000 employees. The city's young creative scene, its top-notch research setting and its lively culture are the most important stimuli for the Berlin IT economy; prolific entrepreneurial activity has given rise to new branches of the IT sector, including multimedia, internet, web 2.0, call center and the entire content industry. 12 technology parks and 29 start-up centres support technology-oriented enterprises. Venture capitalists, an attractive public financing programme and a dense, higher-educational landscape that includes four universities and over 100 more research institutions, all contribute to these ideal conditions.

In the field of telecommunications, Berlin has distinguished itself both as a reference market and future market for mobile, terrestrial and satellite-based broadband applications. Berlin is the headquarter of over 100 companies specialising in this field.

In terms of innovation strategy, the Senate, Investitionsbank (Investment Bank Berlin), Berlin Partner, IHK Berlin and Technologiestiftung (Technology Foundation Berlin) have arranged to work together to fund and develop Berlin's areas of expertise. These areas of expertise are those fields in which Berlin possesses particular scientific capabilities and promising entrepreneurial potential.

Back in 2005, an initial master plan for IT Location Berlin was developed that stipulated concrete goals and measures (IT Location Strategy). These fields of operation include:

• Security with IT
• Broadband/Convergent services
• RFID/NFC
• E-Government
• Open Source/Open Software
• Business services (stabilisation of the IT industry, safeguarding of financing in relevant fields of activity,  establishment and coordination of networks, strengthening cooperation between science and commerce)