Angela Merkel - who grew up in East Germany's north Berlin has become the world's most famous Berliner. Probably the most powerful woman on the world stage, she went into politics after the fall of the Berlin wall and is a leading exponent of the European Union. Known as 'Angie' or 'Mutti' to millions of Germans, she has spearheaded the economic miracle that is modern Germany. So we went in search of the Berlin spirit to find out what the rest of Europe is missing ...
Arriving at the Adlon Hotel near the Brandenburg Gate, we did a search on-line for the top sights to take in during a long weekend in Berlin. The first thing we noticed was the austere facades of the buildings laid out in a grid in central Berlin, all glass and polished stone, due to the reconstruction of the city which was 90% destroyed by allied bombing during the war. Those buildings which do remain from the days of the Weimar Republic and the German Empire, tend to be neo-classical in style with statuary and rows of corinthian columns as can be seen in the beautifully restored edifices on Museum Island and the Gendarmenmarkt square.
We weren't aware that we were staying in the hotel made famous by Michael Jackson for hanging his baby out of the window until later, but Berlin is a place of strange contrasts. As our multi-lingual tour guide, Lazlo, on our open-topped yellow bus told us, Berlin is a very, very, free place - you can wander naked in the park of the Tiergarten, go skinny dipping or make love in the open, smoke a joint and nobody will bother you - and yet, this claim of absolute freedom doesn't really convince as there's a tension in the city which is hard to explain in the light of the German capital's new prosperity. Perhaps we need to look to the recent past...
Freedom to burn
For this is the city where 20,000 books were burnt in 1933 by students, where the nazis held a conference to discuss and plan the Final Solution, and where people were routinely shot for trying to cross from one part of the city to the other.
In the poignant holocaust memorial of grey stone slabs near to the Brandenburg Gate, where you wander as if in a labyrinth, then descend to the bunker-like museum, you lose your orientation and get transported back in time to a world of unspeakable cruelty and racism. This memory of the past is the minotaur that lurks beneath the uber-cool glass and steel towers which rise up in praise of commerce in modern Berlin.
As writer Heinrich Heine warned prophetically in 1821: "Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people."
The fall of the wall
Checkpoint-Charlie marks the crossroads of the most recent conflict, with museums devoted to the communist experiment after the war when Germany was divided by the Allies. There you can see photographs of the dozens of individuals detained, disappeared or shot right up until the wall came down in November 1989, trying to escape from an oppressive soviet-style society that relentlessly spied on its citizens, controlled their freedom, travel and opportunities and walled them in to stop them fleeing. It reminds you of the treatment of the Palestinians trapped in Gaza by another wall - but of course the Germans are unable to criticize the Israelis - for fear of being labelled fascists. That is the unspeakable monster lurking beneath the streets of Berlin - communal guilt and self-loathing.
Not for laughs
We went to a comedy show about 'How to become a Berliner in an hour' - the gist of which was that Berliners are grumpy, like to dress in black - or maybe grey; they're downtrodden by their women (who like 'Angie' Merkel have all the power and money), they can't really be bothered to serve anyone in a cafe or a shop (all too true), and can't afford to buy or even rent an appartment in the city (because the Russians are buying them all up).
We asked one taxi driver what a typical Berliner was like and he replied "nasty." This 'nastiness' was definitely borne out by the taxi driver who drove us to the airport - he knew we were running late but deliberately drove slowly, well below the speed limit, pretending not to understand the word 'Schnell!'
- so that we were totally stressed out by the end of the journey and racing through the airport in an effort to reach the flight before it closed.
- so that we were totally stressed out by the end of the journey and racing through the airport in an effort to reach the flight before it closed.
A big bear is the symbol of Berlin - not so cuddly, still sharp in tooth and claw.
