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After
a fifty-year lull, Berlin is back – back as the capital of a reunified Germany
and back as one of Europe's greatest cities. After World War II, Berlin was a
crippled pawn, sandwiched between East and West, with a literal and metaphoric
wall deeply dividing the two halves. The northeastern German city even suffered
the ignominy of losing its capital status, as the West German government fled
to Bonn. Today, the Cold War and the iconic events of November 1989, which saw
the Berlin Wall torn to pieces by those whom it had oppressed for so long, are
starting to seem like a distant memory and all the talk in Berlin is of the
future.
In
the biggest construction project in Europe since World War II, a new Berlin has
emerged from the forest of cranes dotting the no-man's land that was the
divided city's dead heart. Potsdamer Platz is the most voluminous project but
the most symbolic recent construction is at the Reichstag. British architect
Lord Foster has rejuvenated the German parliament with an impressive glass dome
that symbolises the new transparency in German politics – that of a nation with
nothing to hide, which is attempting to distance itself from the ghosts of its
past.
Coupled
with this wave of new construction is a city laden with historical charm – from
the old streets of East Berlin, which are slowly being restored after remaining
unchanged for 50 years, through to the grand architecture of Museumsinsel and
Unter den Linden, and the green lung of the Tiergarten Park. Tourism is on the
rise, as visitors come to savour the intoxicating mix of old and new. Big
business, too, is booming, as government bodies flock back from Bonn and
relocate in the capital, along with investment from many other parts of the
country and from all over Europe. Key industries such as electronics,
manufacturing and information technology reflect the hopes for a brighter
future for Berlin.
Contrary
to the usual clichés about Germany, Berlin is a city with a laid-back attitude
and some of the liveliest nightlife in Europe. In Berlin today, there is
everything from authentic beer halls and old Soviet era haunts right through to
buzzing style bars and Latino nightclubs. Berlin's climate is equally eclectic,
with hot summer days giving way to occasionally freezing temperatures during
the long grey winter. Today's quintessential Berlin experience is to laze
through a summer day in the Tiergarten with the rabble of construction just out
of earshot, sipping on a chilled Pilsner beer, while witnessing a city
reinventing itself as one of Europe's finest capitals.
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