Berlin is back - back as the capital of a reunified Germany and back as one of Europe's greatest - and most vibrant - cities. After WWII, Berlin was a crippled pawn, sandwiched between East and West, with a literal and metaphorical 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 , 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. In the biggest construction project in Europe since WWII, a new Berlin has emerged from the forest of cranes dotting the no-man's land that was the divided city's dead heart.
Potsdamer Platz is the most voluminous project but the most symbolic recent construction is at the Reichstag. British architect Norman Foster has rejuvenated the German parliament with an impressive glass dome that symbolises the new transparency in German politics - that of a nation with nothing to hide, which is attempting to distance itself from the ghosts of its past.
Coupled with this wave of recent 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 and key industries such as electronics, manufacturing and information technology reflect the dynamism of the German economy.
