Berlin [antikvár]

Impressions of Berlin The young wild one - glorious Renaissance of a fabulous capital city There is a reoson for pref erring Berlin to other cities: because it is continually changing.' Bertolt Brecht Berlin is a city with that certain some-thing, a city of contrasts: you'll find elegant boulevards and counterculture scene sections, royal palaces and the di-lapidated fa^ades of housing in Prenzlauer Berg, hot nightlife in the inner city and idyllic lakeside scenery at Wannsee, elegant villas in Grunewald and street-walkers in Oranienburger Straße, village life in Lübars and life in satellite Settlements such as the Märkisches Viertel. Berlin is a city of tempo, temperament and turbulence. And Berliners are like their city. The Berlin lip ís proverbial and modulation is virtually unknown here. 'Nobody's got anything on us' is what the locals say. And how could they, in this city he rampages, where he romps. Berlin has always been quite impossible! 'Berlin is a continent rather than a city/ pronounced the poet Jean Paul. He should know. After all, he lived in Berlin in 1800/01. Even in his day Berlin was unlike other German cities. A metropolis of European stature. A city to which Schiller attested 'informality in bourgeois life' but a spot where you needed elbows even two centuries ago if you wanted to get anywhere. You had to be as tough as nails and had to be rude on occasion just to keep your head above water in Berlin ^ that was Goethe's experience and he was anything but squeamish. In Berlin every-one can be happy after their own fashion - Frederick the Great knew that and act-ed accordingly. And the famous 'Berlin air, air, air' is great anyway! Only a few pieces of the Berlin Wall and four border watchtowers recali forty that is as strong as a bear? Yes, the bear is to Berliners what the little monk is to the people of Munich and the Hammaburg to natives of Hamburg - coat of arms and hallmark alike. But the bear stands for more than just that in Berlin. This is where Top: A view ofMt Olympus - The rotunda of the Altes Museum with statues ofthe gods Top right: Flower-like dancers - a Korean dance group at the Carnival ofCultures Right: Architects'heaven - the tent-shoped Philharmonie and Sony-Center top the Kulturforum roofs to overlook all of Potsdamer Platz