Erfurt (German pronunciation: [ˈɛʁfʊʁt]) is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin within the wide valley of Gera River, a tributary of the Unstrut. To the south, the city is surrounded by the Steigerwald forest.

In 2010, Erfurt had a population of over 200,000 and is part of the Erfurt-Weimar-Jena metropolitan area with a population of about 500,000.

Erfurt is an old Germanic settlement. The oldest evidence of human settlement dates from the prehistoric era; archeological finds from the north of Erfurt revealed human traces from the paleolithic period, ca. 100,000 BCE. The Erfurt-Melchendorf dig showed a settlement from the neolithic period. The Thuringii inhabited the Erfurt area ca. 480 and gave their name to Thuringia ca. 500.

The town is first mentioned in 742 under the name of "Erphesfurt": in that year, Saint Boniface writes Pope Zachary to tell him that he had established three dioceses in Thuringia, one of which "in a place called Erphesfurt, which for a long time has been inhabited by pagan natives." All three dioceses (the other two were Würzburg and Buraburg) were confirmed by Zachary the next year, though later Erfurt was brought into the diocese of Mainz. That the place was populous already is borne out by archeological evidence, which includes 23 graves and six horse burials from the sixth and seventh centuries.

Andrea Berg (born 28 January 1966) is a German singer in the schlager genre. According to record certifications, she has sold at least 7,535,000 records.

Berg was born in Krefeld. As a child she would experiment with performing short sketches at carnivals and other celebrations. She later played with a band, and also worked backstage on stage set-up and drove the band's van. During this time she supported herself working as a nurse in the intensive care and oncology departments of a hospital.

Berg's musical career began in 1992 when the producer Eugen Römer obtained a cassette of her performing. He was enthused by her voice, and within a week the first tracks had been recorded for her debut album Du bist frei ("You Are Free"), which contained the singles "Kilimandscharo" and "Schau mir noch mal ins Gesicht". Römer also produced her second album, Gefühle ("Feelings"), which proved her commercial breakthrough. The singles from the album, "Wenn du mich willst, dann küß mich doch" and "Einmal nur mit dir alleine sein", were hits. The album also featured one of her most popular songs, "Die Gefühle haben Schweigepflicht".