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After reunification in 1990, the incorporation of East Berlin into the West was ruthless but effective. Bus routes, newspapers, postcodes and telephone numbers all expanded east and nothing went in the opposite direction. Western developers saw the potential along Friedrichstrasse and beside the former Wall and seized it. They did not wait for the formal government decision in June 1991 that Berlin would again be the capital of Germany. They had taken this for granted 18 months before. Since reunification the dice have been loaded in favour of one side. The West had enjoyed massive subsidies from Bonn and once these ended, corners had to be cut. Easterners expected an instant transformation to the standards of the West and were not ready for the seamier side of a capitalist economy and particularly not for unemployment. Senior posts in all fields went to "Wessies" rather than to "Ossies" - a political past in the GDR was seen as a danger to the future of the city. Although the PDS, the socialist party based in the east, has sometimes won enough seats to be included in the ruling coalition, it has never had real power. This has always stayed with the parties that grew up in the West. Today it pays to be young and to have had no career in former East Berlin. Another problem continuing to plague Berlin is that business has been slow to take it more seriously. The arrival of the government from Bonn in 1999 turned out to be more of a damp squib than a panacea. Business stayed rooted in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich and, incredibly, the city still needs to persuade the national airline, Lufthansa, to provide a direct flight to America. But things may be looking up. The announcement in autumn 2002 that Coca Cola's European headquarters would move to Berlin may encourage other large corporations to do the same and though Frankfurt is now home for the European Central Bank, the Deutsche Bank has at least shown its commitment to Berlin by rebuilding its headquarters on their old site beside the Brandenburg Gate. The beginning of EU expansion in 2004 will also see Berlin once more at the crossroads of eastern and western Europe, and perhaps allow the grand Deutsche dame to take her place centre stage. Architects appear to have had more faith in the German capital and in the past decade architecture has finally been separated from politics. Sometimes, as with the Reichstag, there is a frame to work with, so a 19th-century surround gets a 21st-century cupola from Sir Norman Foster. When the addition IM Pei (famous for the Louvre pyramid) designed for the 18th century German History Museum is completed, this will complement one of Berlin's earliest buildings. Elsewhere, as in the Potsdamer Platz, there was nothing to rebuild, so planners could start from scratch with the vaguest of briefs - to stress unity and activity in an area that had been bleak and divided for 30 years. They have, as a result, built a variety of skyscrapers interspersed with wide pedestrian precincts and plenty of fountains. Despite the progress, however, Berlin is less than optimistic about the future. Indeed, Berlin-bashing has become all the rage in the media. The words pleite (bankrupt) and schmuddelig (messy) constantly appear in the local papers, which report at length on the 900 cafés that closed in the previous year, while ignoring the 800 that opened. Part of the reason, of course, is that Berlin as the country's capital is now more closely associated with national government. When Gerhard Schröder's government scraped in by a whisker in September 2002 and then faced immediate unpopularity, Berlin felt sure it would suffer likewise. The German press feels nervous about its capital city yet indifferent to similar problems in Frankfurt, Hamburg or Munich. But visitors to the city will be surprised to learn of its low self-esteem. Most will only see the affluent areas around the centre and in the western suburbs en route to Potsdam. Even if they venture east to the grim tower blocks of Marzhan they will see far less poverty than at home.
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