The new Berlin's unique role in Europe

摘要

Compared with other European capitals, Berlin was a late starter insofar as it did not join the ranks of the world's major cities until well into the twentieth century. Moreover, its status as Germany's capital was lost in 1945 when the city was split into a western and an eastern part, each of which led a separate existence for over forty years. With the scars of this unnatural division now largely healed, re-united Berlin is returning to the international stage at a crucial moment in the European integration process. As the year 2000 approaches, and the German government prepares to move to the capital, the new Berlin's dynamism and its location at the interface between East and West are helping to ensure that it will be one of Europe's preeminent cities in the early twenty-first century.