Berlin’s partnership with Los Angeles dates back to 27 June 1967.
Originally launched by former Berliners who had emigrated to the U.S. and worked in the film industry, our partnership has led to a steady exchange, thanks to many individual activities, projects, and visits to both cities. Culture and the arts have always been a priority, and countless exhibitions and guest performances by theaters or musicians have taken place over the years. Cooperative projects in film and television played a major role from the very beginning. Berlin’s Film Museum (Filmmuseum Berlin) has long-standing, close ties to Hollywood, and our sister city has strong ties to Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Studio Babelsberg as well.
Another mainstay of our partnership is the exchange of experience in areas like urban development, architecture, public administration, judicial practice, and the work of police officers and firefighters, to name just a few. The zoos in Berlin and Los Angeles also work together and carry out staff exchanges.
Los-Angeles-Platz, a square near Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm, and the Berlin Forest in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park are both visible signs of the friendship between our two cities.
Economic ties between the two cities, exchange in the areas of climate action, environmental protection, and renewable energy, and cooperation in the startup sector and vocational education are growing in importance. Cooperation partners in Berlin include the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Families, Berlin Partner for Business and Technology, visitBerlin, the business and technology park Adlershof, the Berliner Energieagentur, and Cleantech Business Park Berlin. The Los Angeles partners include the World Trade Center Association Los Angeles (WTCALA), the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College (LATCC).
On 20 September 2022, Berlin Partner joined forces with the Berlin Business Office USA and other partners in Los Angeles to mark the 55th anniversary of our city partnership with a “Berlin meets Los Angeles” business event, where more than 50 experts focused on intelligent mobility technologies. Due to the mayoral election in Los Angeles held in November 2022, no high-ranking official visits were made in connection with the anniversary.
The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation in Berlin, established by the federal state of Berlin in 1994, was asked to assist with and fund sister city projects not initiated by the Berlin state government, in the interest of involving as many people as possible from both cities. It carries out a number of annual programs under Berlin’s partnership with Los Angeles, including activities organized in cooperation with the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
You can find more information at www.cc-stiftung.de.
