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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.
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.
To get visitor information for Berlin, you might want to contact the headquarters
of the German National Tourist Board at Beethovenstrasse 69, 60325 Frankfurt
am Main (tel. 069/21-23-8800 ).
You'll also find a German National Tourist Office in New York at 122 E. 42nd
St., 52nd Floor, New York, NY 10168-0072 (tel. 212/661-7200 ); in Toronto at
175 Bloor St. E., North Tower, 6th Floor, Toronto, ON M4W 3R8 (tel. 877/315-6237
); in London at P.O. Box 2695, London W1A 3TN (tel. 020/7317-0908 ); and in
Australia at P.O. Box A980 Sydney, NSW 12 35 (tel. 02/9267-8148 ). There are
also tourist offices in about 20 other international cities, including Hong
Kong, Johannesburg, Milan, and Paris.
Berlin Tourism Marketing GmbH, Am Karlsbad 11, 10785 Berlin, concentrates
specifically on visitor information for Berlin. The organization has no overseas
office, but does maintain an excellent website (in English as well as German)
at www.berlintourism.de.
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