The nuclear cluster of the Milky Way: Our primary testbed for the
  interaction of a dense star cluster with a massive black hole
  This article intends to provide a concise overview, from an observational
point-of-view, of the current state of our knowledge of the most relevant
properties of the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (MWNSC). The MWNSC appears
to be a typical specimen of nuclear star clusters, which are found at the
centers of the majority of all types of galaxies. Nuclear clusters represent
the densest and most massive stellar systems in the present-day Universe and
frequently coexist with central massive black holes. They are therefore of
prime interest for studying stellar dynamics and the MWNSC is the only one that
allows us to obtain data on milli-parsec scales. After discussing the main
observational constraints, we start with a description of the overall structure
and kinematics of the MWNSC, then focus on a comparison to extragalactic
systems, summarize the properties of the young, massive stars in the immediate
environment of the Milky Way's central black hole, Sagittarius\,A*, and finally
focus on the dynamics of stars orbiting the black hole at distances of a few to
a few tens of milli parsecs.
