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Exploring Germany's Capital City
About Berlin
City (pop., 1996 est.: 3.39 million)
Of strategic importance since it first straddled the Spree River in the 13th century, Berlin went on to hog centre stage in the turbulent twentieth. Today the city, restored as the nation's capital, is the focus of a mammoth project of reunification and the barometer of Germany's moods.
This is the heart of Germany, with a stoic beat that echoes through grand public buildings, glorious museums and theatres, urbane restaurants, bustling pubs and raucous nightclubs. The Wall is gone but Berlin is still divided: there's a distinct segue from the glitz of the west to shabby East Berlin.
This area was quickly colonized by the trendy cafe-bar set in the early 1990s and swift rebuilding has erased nearly all trace of the Wall. It's the suburbs of East Berlin with their grey and decaying apartment blocks, cardboard cars and paucity of telephones that make it apparent that the Wall was up to protect a utilitarian East from a decadent West.
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