Berlin for beginners

When in Berlin, do as the Berliners do: hang out in the West, but hang your hat in the East, advises Gamal Nkrumah
When it comes to celebrations, the Germans know a thing or two, and nowhere more so than in their ever-changing capital city. Berlin is constantly re- inventing its schizophrenic identity -- or shall I say identities.
Dance in the West and dine in the East. Party all over the place. Do serious shopping in the commercial West, but look around for souvenirs and memorials in the leisurely East. And do it soon, before the differences are irredeemably blurred. For in the West, too, you find stalls selling mulled wine and pretzels, and braziers for roasting chestnuts in winter.
Germans love nothing better than to throw big and boisterous street parties with heaps of the finest food and gallons of select drinks to boot. The old clichés about Germany and the Germans are broadly accurate. Trains run on time, and Berlin's extraordinarily efficient S and U bahn network (its overground and underground rapid transit system) offers a refreshing contrast to the tired and untrustworthy London underground. Officially one in 10 trains runs "late" in Germany. But late in German literally means five minutes overdue.
Even the unhurried but cheery canary yellow trams of East Berlin are a joy to ride -- especially when hopping from one street party to the next. Germans are simultaneously a fun-loving and a practical people. They waste precious little time on private and anti-social occasions, and much prefer the Karneval or Fasching, celebrated around this time of the year. Anywhere between mid-January and mid-February, Germans don masks and fanciful garments and take to the streets in an ancient pagan ritual designed to ward off the evil spirits of winter. They dance, sing special songs and play seasonal music. The big day is the pre-lent Rosenmontag when they celebrate the unpronounceable Rosenmontagsumzuege in a wild frenzy of musical gigs, parades and street theatre.
This year the Rosenmontag fell on 11 February. Germany is a federal state where regional variations are clearly marked and provincial loyalties are strong. Cologne is famous for the biggest and best Karneval, but the event is celebrated elsewhere, often under different names. The Bavarians in the south prefer to call it the mid-winter festival, the Fasching. In Rhineland-Palatinate to the west of the country it is referred to as the Fastnacht. In Berlin and Brandenburg (the state, or l�nder, that surrounds Berlin) in eastern Germany, it is simply the Karneval.
But if Cologne boasts the biggest winter Karneval, Berlin undisputedly has the world's greatest open air party. This has been celebrated at the Brandenburg Gate each New Year's Eve since 1995, and the fireworks display at Grosser Stern is unrivalled. But the festivities do not end with the onset of the New Year. On 2 February, Berlin's museums present the "Long Night," flinging their doors open to welcome visitors until midnight. This is the perfect time for sampling the very best in theater and music that Berlin has to offer. The Pergamon Museum, currently undergoing massive renovation, is an absolute must. Berlin is electric and its thrill is infectious. You feel the excitement in equal measure in elegant squares like Savigny Platz in West Berlin, and in the quaint and exquisite beauty of squares like Hackesche Hofe in the heart of East Berlin. The banks of the River Spree, that meandering leaden waterway running alongside the government quarter, Lehrter Bahnhofthat, makes a most pleasant promenade. But then the city is full of unexpected surprises, some best encountered on foot.
The pulsating heart of Berlin, though, is in the West, where trendy retail designer boutiques and giant department stores rub shoulders with world- famed chocolate shops, which solicit incandescent joy even in mere window-shoppers who can only stare at the displays wide-eyed. The old showcase of decadent Western capitalism is Kufuerstendam, or Ku'damm for short. This is the area to shop till you drop. Everything is on sale, and the pavements are clogged with shoppers from Eastern Europe who travel to the city for serious shopping sprees. Frenzied shopping aside, Berlin is a greener and gentler-paced capital city than either London or Paris. It is by far Germany's largest city, but with all its outlying districts included it still has less than half the population of either London or Paris, and is without their sprawling suburbs.
Berlin's boulevards are far broader than London's, and its streets no less cosmopolitan than those of Paris. Small wonder, then, that Berlin's Kreuzberg district, with its distinctive Middle Eastern flavour, home to the bulk of the city's Turkish and Arab residents, plays host to the colourful Carnival of World Culture. Kreuzberg is a trendy part of the city where a confusing potpourri of non- Germanic cultures intermingles agitatedly with their German hosts enveloped by the overpowering whiff coming from Turkish cafés.
All great cities have their very special parks, invariably the largest, most central or the prettiest, and Berlin is no exception. For Berlin it is unquestionably the Tiergarten Park.
Famed for the profusion of deciduous trees and flowering shrubs, it was once the hunting ground of Prussian prince-electors. It was designated a park in the 18th century, its present features taking shape in the 1830s. The Tiergarten -- not to be confused with the Tierpark of the East with its sprawling lawns and abundant deer -- in the heart of Berlin is a favourite picnicking venue for Berliners, especially in summer when it is transformed into an attractive haunt for families preparing outdoor barbeques. The aroma of roast meats and sausages fills the air, children run about and sail in glassy ponds, the elderly read, gossip and play chess under awnings.
From the Tiergarten we took the uptown bus which dropped us off at Berlin's zoo -- Europe's largest and most richly stocked -- in the busy heart of West Berlin.
Berlin offers a relatively cheap and cheerful night life. The popular music scene might not be Europe's most original, but the music is never over in Berlin. Discos with weird names like Bastard offer a wide range of sounds from wild Trance, Techno, House, Dark Ambient, and Industrial to the more melodious Dancefloor Jazz, Funk Soul and Reggae. The African and African American presence in Berlin has faintly left its mark.
EGYPTIAN ENTICEMENT: German fascination with ancient Egypt is profound and deep- rooted. Germany's association with ancient Egypt dates back to the 19th century, when the German archaeologist Richard Lepsius won favour with a succession of Prussian kings and was granted generous funding to embark on archaeological expeditions and research in Egypt and Nubia. There are 15 departments of Egyptology in Germany, which makes it the country with the highest concentration of Egyptology centres per capita.
Charlottenburg Palace, purposely built, like India's Taj Mahal, for a beautiful queen by her impassioned king and located in the heart of an obviously affluent residential area of the former West Berlin, ranks among the finest historical buildings in Europe. Its landscaped gardens, lawns and sculptures are also among the most beautiful. And directly opposite the Charlottenburg Palace is the Egyptian Museum. which holds the famous bust of Nefertiti -- yet another beloved queen.
Berlin's Egyptian Museum was divided in two in the aftermath of World War II, with part in the East and the rest in the West. While the Egyptian relics in the East were placed in the Bode Museum on Museum Island, the West's were put firmly on the tourist map in 1967, when the museum was officially inaugurated.
The largest collection of ancient Egyptian relics and artefacts in Germany are found in Berlin. The Egyptian Museum, housing the bust of Nefertiti, has a fine collection of ancient Egyptian relics.
Both the prestigious Humboldt University and the Free Berlin University have some of the world's finest Egyptology study centres, and German pioneering work in deciphering the Merotic language of ancient Nubia has received international acclaim.
For those not academically inclined, there are other less erudite and more mundane facets of Egyptian culture in Berlin. If you are searching for a good belly-dancer and a homely Egyptian meal, head for Scarabeo, on Ludwigkirchstrasse next door to West Berlin's main shopping centre of Kurfuerstendamm. Belly-dancing is de rigeur on Saturdays.
For other Arab and Levantine haunts, there is Mesa -- yes, you've guessed it: mezza, the hugely popular Lebanese aperitifs. Then there is the provocatively named L'Oriental, with its Orientalist interior decorations. Both Mesa and L'Oriental are located in Wilmersdorf, southwestern Berlin. Salamat, in a very trendy and thoroughly revamped part of East Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, is more welcoming.
THE OLD MITTE: If you cannot get enough of markets, Berlin is the place for you. I was especially attracted to the blaze of lights at the stalls in the Mitte, the historical heart of Berlin, which formed the core of East Berlin and is now fashionably gentrified, and poses today as the city's answer to London's Covent Garden. The sidewalks are crammed with shoppers and street vendors touting their wares. The pungent aroma of hot sausage mingles with smoky roast chestnuts and sweet gingerbread.
Welcome to the urban village. The industrial buildings which were crumbling a decade ago are today trendily-refurbished and converted into exorbitantly-priced flats. The district is well stocked with cafés, bars and restaurants.
The best way to discover the Mitte's many charms is on foot. Take your best walking shoes, or boots in winter, and hit the streets. Finally, worn out by the antiques, porcelain and silver shops, I spent a lazy afternoon wandering through the markets in a maze of cobbled streets and quaint squares with a fairy-tale atmosphere. It was wet and very cold, a couple of degrees below zero, but Berliners do not allow the vagaries of the weather to get in the way of having fun. I braced myself and braved the rain to soak up some of the local spirit.
One treat I could not pass up was a sip of steaming hot mug of glühwein (hot spiced wine), best enjoyed while lazily strolling down Sophienstrasse in the heart of the East's Mitte -- and you can keep the mug as a souvenir. Berliner Weisse, introduced by the Hugenots who migrated in large numbers to Berlin from France at the invitation of the first Prussian monarch, Frederick the Great, in the late 17th century, is another distinctive Berlin concoction. The local brew was deemed a tad bitter at the time, so they added syrup to sweeten things up. Today the sweetened brew comes in two flavours: Himbeer, or raspberry (red), and Waldmeister, or woodruff (green).
I ambled back to my hotel past endless lines of stalls selling everything from traditional German confectionery to Indian silks and silverware and African sculptures and handicrafts. Sophienstrasse is still more a stomping ground for the locals rather than for tourists.
The Mitte, the central part of the former East Berlin, includes Oranienburger Strasse, which features a vast array of gastronomic delights from Turkish to Thai, Jewish, Russian, Indian and Italian restaurants, and inviting boutiques and galleries.
Prenzlauer Berg, with its upmarket, tree-lined avenues, cobbled streets and countless sidewalk cafés, typifies the triumph of the East after the fall of the Wall.
Further east, away from the old Mitte, are dreary Soviet-style apartment blocks, districts peopled by neo-Nazi gangsters inhabiting cold and listless urban wastelands. This part of Berlin, to be avoided at all costs by visitors of colour, is the stuff of horror films, with narrow, gloomy and oppressive alleyways, drab thoroughfares, graffiti boldly scribbled on grey concrete blocks and redbrick walls and nondescript, look-alike apartment buildings. This is the darker side of Berlin.
PAINFUL PAST: At times Berliners appear to exert excruciating effort to come to terms with their painful past, and no more so than when dealing with Jewish matters and memorabilia. The golden dome of the Tacheles, the main Jewish Synagogue, in what was the most fashionable shopping arcade at the turn of the 20th century Berlin, is a defiant symbol of a bygone era. The Jewish Museum houses a fine collection of arts and artefacts and is a treasure-trove of information on the history of the Jews in Berlin.
Jews had a long and checkered presence in Berlin long before the advent of the Third Reich. Their precarious existence in the city was tentative until Prussian Emperor Friederick Wilhelm issued an edict which granted 50 Jewish families safety in 1671. Never since 1812, when the Jews were first granted Prussian nationality, and again in 1815 when they were given political equality, has the life of the Jews of Berlin been more vibrant. The new exuberance is physically encapsulated in the Centrum Judaicum, Oranienburger Strasse, in the old Mitte core of its ancient Jewish Quarter.
Today, Jews are flocking to Berlin in ever- increasing numbers from all over the world. Indeed, Germany's Jewish population has more than doubled over the past decade and the numbers of Jews in Germany now exceeds 85,000. In Berlin there are now an estimated 12,000, and the Old Jewish Quarter is being brought to life, with new Jewish restaurants and delicatessens opening up shop.
NO-MAN'S-LAND: Ingeniously, the Germans' knack of turning the unpleasant past into today's heritage attraction is most creatively exercised in the stretch of land that once stood between the eastern and western halves of the city. The end of the Cold War breathed new life into Wall Park and Death Strip -- the once dead, now resurrected, geographical centre of the city.
The entire area is steeped in history. Here, the Berlin Spartacists Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg were murdered in cold blood and their socialist dream buried with them. "Red Berlin" was raging until Hitler harshly throttled its ardour. Those who survived the slaughter plotted underground, paving the way for the Communist take- over, which took place with Soviet succour after the devastating war. The Communists were temporarily to revive the Spartacists' dream, only -- in retrospect -- for the experiment to end abruptly with a spontaneous popular uprising.
At once an eerie and exciting corner of Berlin, this area houses many of the city's most famous historical landmarks. Buried deep underneath the Holocaust Memorial, the city's notorious Wall and Death Strip, are the bunkers, a network of underground tunnels installed by the Nazis to link key ministries and government departments. The Holocaust Memorial, designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman, contains 2,700 monolithic steles. Goebbels' Bunker, directly beneath the Holocaust Memorial, has since been put under heritage listing and is now preserved as a historical site. Then there is Pariser Platz, facing the Brandenburg Gate in no-man's-land. And, of course, Checkpoint Charlie. This is also the area of Berlin where you can drop in for coffee and cake at the historic Hotel Aldon -- a delectable gem in itself -- watch artists at work in and around the Academy of Art and inspect the new American and French embassies.
To say that the Reichstag, or German parliament, is a remarkable building is an understatement. It stands in what used to be no- man's-land almost on the notorious wall. British architect Lord Norman Foster designed and worked on its impressive futuristic dome between 1994 and 1999. The original frame stands in striking contrast to the older features of the building. It is precisely the tantalising mix of old and new which makes the structure so unique.
When we stopped off at the Reichstag's old- new dome in the late afternoon, the sights that greeted us were truly memorable. As the sun started to set we slowly ascended the dome, circling round and round the strange structure until we reached the very top. Panoramic vistas of the city spread out below us as the famous landmarks were pointed out to us in the twilight. It was an indescribable experience.
The inscription on the façade -- Dem Deutschen Volke, "For the German People" -- brazenly encapsulates the jingoistic image many of Germany's neighbours fear most. Several parliamentary sessions were spent on querying whether the word "Volke," people, might be misinterpreted to refer strictly to those of ethnic German blood, as opposed to the multi-cultural nation encompassing ethnic Turks, Slavic peoples from Eastern Europe, Arabs and Africans. Suggestions offered involved replacing "Volke" with the word "Bevölkerung," or population, but that did not go down well with the vast majority of Germany's members of parliament.
A few steps away from the Reichstag and you are back in the East. The Brandenburg Gate, built in 1791, stands as a symbol of Berlin -- no less than Paris's Eiffel Tower or London's Big Ben. It divides East from West. From the gate you can walk down the Unter den Linden into the new, spruced-up showpiece centre of the old East Berlin, past the impregnable fortress-like Russian embassy and towards the celebrated Humboldt University and Island of Museums. Walter Ulbricht, the first Soviet-installed ruler of East Germany, demolished the proud Hohenzollern Schloss, or City Palace, of Prussian royalty and the German Kaisers in 1950. On its rubble Eric Honecker, last of the former German Democratic Republic's Communist rulers, built the Palast der Republik, arguably Berlin's ugliest building with its ashen panelling and burnished, reflective glass façade. Today, only its hideous shell remains while poisonous asbestos is removed in a painfully slow process. The Palast der Republik is an eyesore, especially so as it is set at one end of the enchanting Unter den Linden, one of the most beautiful boulevards in all Europe. There is currently a heated debate about whether the Hohenzollern Schloss should be built in all its former splendour on the sad and rancorous remains of its Communist scion.
The most stereotypically Communist-era landscape is the area around Frankfurter Alee, a huge boulevard used by the Communists as a parade ground. You can close your eyes and imagine the troops goose-stepping up and down the Frankfurter Alee. This area, still regarded as the poor relation of West Berlin, strikes one immediately as more recognisably austere, somewhat more ramshackle than the high-rise metropolis to the west. But fast- changing East Berlin is also home to many of the older and more distinguished architectural landmarks of the city.
For Berliners, Potsdammer Strasse is replete with nostalgia. In pre-war days it had the busiest urban traffic in Germany and probably the world. The world's first traffic lights were installed at Potsdammer Strasse junction, and they are still to be seen. After the war the traffic ground to an abrupt halt and the area became one of the city's saddest wastelands. This was no-man's-land -- an area neither East nor West. However, construction sites now sprout everywhere in the Potsdammer, and the old heart of Berlin is starting to beat fast once again.
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