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We had fun when we visited in 2004.  I'm not sure if I could live there (way too big for me) but it's definitely a fascinating place to visit.

You've been there before, right?

by Plutonium Page (page dot vlinders at gmail dot com) on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 at 03:22:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Actually, the only time I've ever been to Berlin was around Christmas 1990, i.e. just after the reunification. Very weird place.

East Berlin was very much looking more like Moscow than like West Germany, but it was the only place in Germany with ATMs that took foreign cards... Very decrepit, but much nicer looking than the West.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 at 03:25:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
East Berlin was/is nicer looking because it was less heavily bombed by allied forces.
by Loefing on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 at 06:07:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I was in Berlin and Dresden in the summer of 1998. The whole centre of Berlin was a construction site (and I had recently watched the movie Das Leben is eine Baustelle, too) and I could see the Reichstag undergoing refurbishment. Dresden and Leipzig were also enjoying a lot of money for reconstruction at the time. I would expect most of East Germany to look very nice 10 years later.

Oye, vatos, dees English sink todos mi ships, chinga sus madres, so escuche: el fleet es ahora refloated, OK? — The War Nerd
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 at 06:12:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes. East Berlin is not to say East Germany.

East Berlin may have been spared, relatively speaking. But of of the territory that became East Germany, most of its major cities were destroyed.

I'm grateful to see that progress is being made in reconstruction.

This is essential to an eventual European union.

by Loefing on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 at 06:57:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, city centers don't make a country... but yes, much of the Aufbau Ost money went into reconstruction.

I saw Dresden and that center of Berlin (the surroundings of Potsdamer Platz) finished last year. But also plattenbau, abandoned industrial installations, and deserted villages.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 19th, 2007 at 12:18:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Parts, surely. But in West Berlin more was rebuilt and less torn down to make room for concrete monsters.
by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Wed Sep 19th, 2007 at 10:31:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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