As a young woman I was two years medical student at the Free University in Berlin. Now 30 years later, I come back to this city. Not as a doctor, but as a journalist. In thirty years a lot has happened. Germany is no longer divided into two States since 1990, between West and East Berlin, there is no more wall. And Berlin is again the capital of Germany.
I ride the bus to the Place de la République. The Reichstag building I know still good, but the large glass dome I see for the first time. Here in the Reichstag, the German parliament is now working, the Bundestag. Not far away are the new government building with the Federal Chancellery.
At the Brandenburg Gate was once the wall between West and East Berlin; Today I can go through the gate and then I went down the street "Unter den Linden". In this street you will find famous buildings of old Berlin: Humboldt University, the German State Library, German State Opera and many others. Most of the buildings here look almost the same as back then.
I go through the Friedrichstraβe and Leipziger Strasse to Potsdamer Platz. This place was completely destroyed after the war. Now there everything is brand new, large and modern: The Daimler City and Sony Center. In the cafes, in front of the cinemas and shopping malls around the new Marlene-Dietrich-Platz you can see young people in addition to pensioners, German besides foreigners, artists alongside citizens and businessmen.
In a cafe I meet a colleague of the German news channel n-tv. He used to live in East Berlin. He says: "Of course, we now have our freedom, can travel freely and speak our minds, and the shops are full of goods. And that is true. But not all can pay for the travel and merchandise. Many people are unemployed or do not earn enough. That brings social problems and conflicts. Here at Potsdamer Platz, the atmosphere is optimistic, but that's not the whole picture.
"Later, I meet a student. He, too, sees the problem: "We in Berlin are actually very tolerant: Everyone can do what he wants. But of course there are different groups, and all have different interests. And more and more people come into the city, there is no more space. "A woman at the next table has listened to us. She says, "No, that's not true yet. Houses there are enough. But the crime is rising. Here, just it's in the paper.
"I think of the past, to my studies in Berlin. Some still looks like back then, but still, the atmosphere has become more open. Now live the Berlin in the western part of the city is no longer trapped in a foreign country, such as on an island. You can make excursions in the beautiful surroundings of Berlin. And they do well: Every weekend thousands go out into the country and to the Brandenburg Brandenburg Lakes.
Übersetzt wird, bitte warten..
