Berlin is something of a weather-vane of modern European history, yet its rise to national prominence was a long and slow process. Founded in the thirteenth century, it is little more than a third of the age of Cologne or Augsburg. It did not achieve the early growth and economic development of other medieval foundations, such as Hamburg, Lübeck, Frankfurt or Nürnberg; it was not even the capital of a substantial feudal duchy, as Munich and Stuttgart were. Instead, it belatedly became the capital of Brandenburg , a marshland territory at the very eastern extremity of the Holy Roman Empire. This province was founded as a Margravate, or frontier district, by Albert the Bear (Albrecht der Bär) in 1157 from land bequeathed to him by Pribislav-Heinrich, a Slav king who had converted to Christianity.
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