Berlin [antikvár]

Berlin, a City of Contrasts An Introduction A grand capital with round-the-clock action, world-class museums, traces of an imperial past, a "Little Istanbul," elegant boulevards, galleries, a lively "alternative" scene-Berlin today is perhaps Europe's most exciting city. But not all grandeur and glamour, Berlin is alsó a wound just beginning to heal on the bordér of East and West, a vibrant metropolis marked like no other by recent world history. Perhaps this explains why it is the most liberal and cosmopolitan city in Germany, as well as the country's largest. The Berliner is a special breed: tolerant and openminded but sporting a gruff exteriőr, he is famous for his caustic wit and quick good humor. From the end of World War II until quite recently a traveller who wanted to visit Berlin had a choice of destinations: there were two cities that bore the name. In the aftermath of the war the Germán capital, residence of Prussian rulers since the fifteenth century and later capital of the Germán Empire as well as of Hitler's Third Reich, was divided down the center and kept separate by a fiercely guarded concrete barrier complete with death strip. The Berlin Wall (map on p.26), built in 1961, was the most horrifying manifestation of the "iron curtain," a symbol familiar to millions throughout the world. The city lay deep in the Soviet sector of conquered Germany, and its eastern half became the capital of the Germán Democratic Republic, the state founded in that sector. The western half became an island in Communist-ruled Eastern Europe. When