Economist.com Cities Guide: Berlin Briefing - June 2005

News this month

Welcoming guests

Berlin may be economically depressed, but tourism is on the rise. Germany's capital has edged out Rome to become the third most-visited city in Europe, with 13m visitors per year, according to the city's official tourist office. London, with its 60m visitors, is the top tourist destination, followed by Paris with 30m visitors. But third place does not seem good enough for the city-state's government, which is pushing a raft of measures to make the city more tourist-friendly.

Moves include creating more parking places at the new main rail station and near popular attractions. The city also plans to take better advantage of Berlin's numerous waterways, though there must first be more boat-refuelling stations. Local officials are encouraging owners of hotels and restaurants to train their staff in foreign languages and city history. From August, the government will offer a three-year course to teach young people how to deal with tourist groups and to work at tourist attractions.

Tightening up

Berlin's elegant Schloss Bellevue, the official workplace and home of Germany's figurehead federal president, is getting a makeover. But aesthetics is not the motivation: the castle, first built in 1785, will soon have bullet-proof glass, 24-hour video surveillance and automated blinds. Such measures may be commonplace for most world leaders, but Germany has long had a relaxed approach to security. Some see the changes as belated recognition that no official (even a largely ceremonial one) is free from the risk of terrorism.

Safety aside, the €19m ($23m) renovation, due to be completed in December, is much needed. Like much of the city, Schloss Bellevue was in tatters at the end of the second world war. Despite moderate renovations in the 1950s and 1980s, and a gorgeous exterior, it was a laughing-stock in official circles, thanks to the frequency of burst pipes, power blackouts and stuck lifts during state visits. Few presidents have deigned to live there. Horst Köhler, the outspoken incumbent, is no exception—he recently had the living quarters transformed into office space for his wife and her staff.

On schedule

Berlin's new main railway station is nearly finished. The modernist and completely transparent terminus, which sits on the Spree alongside Berlin's new government quarter, will officially open next May, but already trains are zipping through its glass terminals. City leaders hope the five-level station, designed by Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkin Marg, two Hamburg-based architects, will be fully operational in time for the World Cup football tournament, which Germany is hosting in June and July 2006. It is destined to become Europe's biggest-ever rail hub, with 300,000 travellers and 1,600 trains passing through daily. By 2010, planners expect 50m long-distance- and 85m regional passengers a year.

Most Berliners welcome the new development, but its name has become somewhat controversial. The new station sits atop the old “Lehrter Bahnhof”, which worked from 1871 to 1952 before it was left to rot alongside Berlin's cold-war dividing line. Nostalgic types want to keep the old name, but Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, prefers a more simple handle: “Berlin Hauptbahnhof” (main railway station). Anything else would simply be confusing, he insists.

Flying high

Air wars have begun in Berlin. On June 5th Germanwings, a discount airline, baptised its new fleet of “Berlin Bearbus” planes—four Airbus A319 painted yellow with a smiley bear face and a long red tongue—at Schönefeld airport. The planes not only travel to major German cities, but also offer cheap flights to Oslo, Stockholm, Moscow, Zagreb, Split, Istanbul and Ankara. More destinations are planned for winter.

Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, has praised the company for helping open Berlin to a Europe-wide audience. Naturally, Germanwings’ competitors, such as easyJet, based in Britain, and Air Berlin, are not sitting still. EasyJet has announced plans to add inter-Germany flights to its schedule in early 2006 and John Kohlsaat, who runs the company’s German division, said the company intends to up its German fleet by eight planes. Air Berlin will also increase its flights to and from the German capital.

A time to score

At least 40,000 prostitutes are expected to descend on Germany when it hosts the 2006 World Cup football matches, scheduled for June and July. As the capital, Berlin will be one of the biggest draws for sex traders, and city health officials are already planning a slew of safe-sex campaigns, including the free distribution of 100,000 condoms. Intriguingly, the city also plans to have a woman dressed as a condom stand outside Olympic Stadium, where the matches will take place, and pass out leaflets offering ten “rules of conduct” with a prostitute. They include: be polite and respectful; maintain a high standard of hygiene; always use a condom; and clearly state your desires.

Other German cities, notably Cologne and Dusseldorf, are planning to set up special wooden street-cabins—dubbed “bird houses” or “sex sheds”—to make it easier for men to find prostitutes and to prevent the women from turning their tricks too publicly. “The World Cup naturally offers fantastic opportunities to earn money,” explained Katharina Cetin, of Berlin's prostitution lobby group, Hyrdra. But there are limits to such entrepreneurialism: individual prostitution is legal in Germany, but organised rings are prohibited.

Catch if you can

July 2005

“Die Brücke” and Berlin: 100 years of Expressionism

Until August 28th 2005

On June 7th 1905, four architecture students—Fritz Bleyl, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff—met in Dresden to form the “Brücke” (bridge) artistic movement, later hailed as the true beginning of Expressionism. The movement, which was short-lived but hugely influential, has long been associated with Berlin, where most of the artists lived. This 450-piece display draws heavily on the Brücke Museum's permanent collection, as well as on the Neue Nationalgalerie's vaults and other museums' collections.

“Die Strasse” (The Street) by Kirchner (pictured), from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is a particular highlight. The popularity of the Brücke artists was underlined at an auction in Berlin in early June, when oil paintings by Kirchner and Emil Nolde were sold for record prices in Germany.

Neue Nationalgalerie, Kulturforum, Potsdamer Strasse 50, Berlin-Tiergarten. Tel: +49 (30) 266 29 87. See the exhibition's website.

More from the Berlin cultural calendar