The Berkeley Guides:
Berkeley Guide to Europe:
Germany:
Berlin
Berlin thrives on excitement and friction: Sparks fly between East and West, between old residents and recent immigrants, between stolid Prussian heritage and contemporary counterculture. Today unified Berlin, the largest city in Europe, seeks to forge a common future as the archetypical 21st-century metropolis. The construction cranes are out and the jackhammers at work, as the curtain lifts on yet another incarnation of this dynamic city.
Hopefully, Berlin won't lose its unique flavor in the process. Rising housing costs and gentrification threaten to destroy the vibrant underground, fringe, and artistic communities of districts such as Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg. As buildings are demolished, the housing crisis has led many easterners to seek help from the renamed communist party, the PDS, and many buildings throughout eastern and western Berlin are occupied by squatters unwilling to pay high rents (or, sometimes, any rent at all). Nevertheless, laws encouraging investment in the East have had some positive results: The eastern half of the city now enjoys a lower unemployment rate and a higher rate of economic growth than former West Berlin.
The differences between east and west are beginning to take a backseat to the various personalities of Berlin's districts. Charlottenburg is a cosmopolitan yuppie haven; Schöneberg is a middle ground for aging liberals; Kreuzberg is a polyglot of yupsters, immigrants, and party animals; Mitte is home to Berlin's main boulevard, Unter den Linden, and is a sort of countercultural but touristy doorway to the less developed, more punked-out district of Prenzlauer Berg. Give yourself time to get into the swing of things: Grab coffee on the neon-saturated Kurfürstendamm (a.k.a. Ku'damm), do the all-night dance thing in Charlottenburg, or drink from a paper bag in a Prenzlauer Berg squat. Berlin has museums ad infinitum, but don't get stuck in a high-culture rut. The real Berlin happens on a dirty street corner at 3 am.
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