Berlin: The Trail of Two Cities

By CHARLES P. WALLACE Tuesday, Apr. 02, 2002

Berlin is a city suffused with history, a lot of it sad. So it's gratifying to find a part of the metropolis that, though ruined by war and its aftermath, is now flourishing. In the last few years, Berlin's Mitte district, for three decades the cold war frontier between east and west, has been reborn as one of the city's trendiest shopping and dining areas. It's also where the politically powerful in Germany can be found conducting the country's business over a milchkaffee or a Wiener schnitzel.

A tour of Mitte begins at the stately parliament building known as the Reichstag. A suspicious fire gutted the building in 1933, prompting Hitler to take dictatorial powers. The Reichstag has been rebuilt entirely, topped by British architect Norman Foster's breathtaking dome. The parliament is off limits to visitors, but it's possible to climb to the top of the dome for fantastic views of the city. A short walk from the Reichstag is the Brandenburg Gate. Built in 1791 to look like the Propylaea of the Acropolis, the gate became a symbol of the Berlin Wall, which was first cracked open here in 1989.

The gate is the terminus for Unter den Linden,

STREETWISE

Best Jogging:

Berlin has a lot of green areas, but for travelers to central Berlin, the best bet is the Tiergarten, a park with woodland, lakes and many running trails.

Best Gym:
Elixia, Behrenstrasse 48, Tel. 20 63 53 00. This well-equipped health club accepts short-term visitors for €25 a day (guests from surrounding hotels get a €10 discount).

Best Bar:
Newton Bar, Charlotten-strasse 57, Tel. 20 61 29 99. Named after photographer Helmut Newton, whose oversize photos fill the walls. A nice mix of the young and upscale.

Best Restaurant:
Maxwell, Bergstrasse 22, Tel. 28 07 12 1. The best of modern German cooking served up in a historic landmark that used to house a brewery.

Best Cappuccino:
Café Einstein, Friedrich-strasse 185 and other loca-tions. Large and frothy like a real Italian coffee. Also decaf espresso, latte and snacks.

Best Sightseeing:
An outfit called Berlin Walks has a series of fascinating walking tours of Berlin. Daily, there's a Discover Berlin tour that includes the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. Also a tour of Infamous Third Reich Sites. All in English. €10. Tel. 30 19 19 4.

the broad boulevard planted with linden trees that runs east to Alexanderplatz. As in the old days, Unter den Linden is once again lined with cafés. Down the street near Friedrichstrasse is the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, one of the city's newest museums and a showplace for the avant garde. (Tel. 20 20 93 0; Open daily 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.) Friedrichstrasse is a window shopper's paradise, with stores clustered around a three-building complex called the Fried-richstadt Passagen. At one end is the striking Galeries Lafayette, with an immense glass cone through its heart and a superb food center in the basement, where you can catch a reasonably-priced lunch of oysters or entrecote.

A block from Galeries Lafayette is the Gendarmenmarkt, perhaps the most beautiful square in Berlin. Heavily damaged in the war, it was rebuilt by the East German authorities. The square is ringed by fine restaurants, such as Lutter & Wegner and Restaurant Borchardt, where government ministers dine with their aides. Further down Friedrichstrasse is Checkpoint Charlie, the main cold war crossing point from east to west. A guard house marks the entrance to the old American sector in Berlin.

A 10-minute walk south to neighboring Kreuzberg is the Jewish Museum Berlin, the lightning bolt-shaped landmark of Jewish culture in Germany. (Tel. 87 85 68 1; Open every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.) The Holocaust is movingly dealt with, but the museum also encompasses nearly 2,000 years of Jewish culture in Germany. Most of the displays are interactive, so that each chapter of history seems fresh and distinct from the last. For example, Jewish life 1,000 years ago is captured on a brief film (with English subtitles, like other exhibits) showing what houses and synagogues looked like in cities such as Worms at the turn of the first millennium. In a section on medieval life, visitors open drawers to discover anti-Jewish stereotypes of the time. For a display on the 18th century, you don headphones to hear what philosopher Moses Mendelssohn had to say on the immortality of the soul. If only Berlin's new look can be so long-lasting.