ABSTRACT
More than any other city considered in this book, Berlin is the prisoner of its past. A city divided between two mutually antagonistic regimes, Berlin’s development was restricted by the artificiality of the political and economic conditions which it inherited, and which in turn perpetuated it as the site of great power conflict. Berlin was the flash point in the tensions between East and West, while West Berlin showcased free enterprise and the Western way of life. Following reunification, Berlin achieved a degree of economic integration with its hinterland. It gained, too, an opening to market forces which produced an initial real-estate boom followed by near collapse. With the euphoria of reunification long since dissipated, Berlin is coming to terms with the more limited aspirations of its age of new realism. Today, less is heard of the rhetoric of Berlin the world city and, while land values soared, the boom in development faltered. Berlin, it is said, has become a victim of its own high expectations.
