Berlin’s city partnership with London was founded in a joint declaration by both cities on 10 October 2000, after the reestablishment of the Greater London Authority.
Prior to that, London was only a loose conglomeration of individual boroughs on the administrative and political level, which meant that no official city partnership was possible. As the capital of an ally and German partner country, however, London was one of the new German capital’s most important partners.
Along with traditional administrative cooperation, the London-Berlin partnership concentrates on exchange in the area of youth, sports, internal security, environmental protection, design and fashion, and transportation.
One example of exchange is the regular participation of young designers from Berlin in the London Design Festival and London Fashion Week, as well as the involvement of London designers in Berlin Fashion Week.
Berlin’s publishing houses are regularly represented at the London Book Fair with a joint stand, where they showcase Berlin’s young literary scene.
A significant part of our cooperation is exchange in the area of juvenile crime and the rehabilitation of young female offenders, issues that are of equal importance to London and Berlin. Many different seminars for specialists have already been held; these focus on the shared search for ideas and solutions for prevention and rehabilitation.
In addition, Berlin and London are very active partners in the C40 climate alliance and are working together in this international city organization to find sustainable solutions to global warming.
In 2022, the largest exchange of apprentices took place between London and Berlin, thanks to Erasmus+. Almost a thousand young people had the opportunity to gain work experience in the two partner cities. The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, however, led to cuts in the Erasmus budget, starting in June 2023. Mobility activities to London will still be possible, but not on the same scale as before.