In the days before the Iron Curtain disintegrated, Berlin was as famous for its counter-culture, as it was for its precarious position as an outpost of democracy in the communist east. This island in a red sea acted as a magnet for the young and radical. Berliners didn't have to do military service, the government paid subsidies to persuade people to live here.
Berlin is once again Germany's capital, and the middle classes are moving in.
It's a stark contrast to the Berlin of 1962 when, just after the wall was built, the police in the west seized an exhibition of works by the painter Georg Baselitz. His grotesque, tortured figures with huge phalluses were deemed obscene. Today, art dealer Michael Fuchs is selling paintings from that exhibition and others by Baselitz for up to a million marks a time. He sees a chance to make money in the new Berlin. Berlin counter-culture has now in fact moved east.