The link with the US is important here. Britain prides herself on the 'special relationship' but Germany's handshake across the Atlantic is every bit as firm and has been so ever since the late forties when America decided that free market Germany was better able than socialist Britain to lead the economic revival of Europe. Also, of course, Berlin has a symbolic significance for Americans as a beacon of democracy in the dark days of the Cold War. Such collective memories, let it not be forgotten, are the stuff of practical diplomacy. Berlin is a new city built on old foundations.
First impressions are of glass and concrete, generously landscaped.
Starting with a pile of rubble in 1945, Berliners acquired a passion for building and rebuilding. They are still at it today, their vigour renewed by the need to wipe clean the Communist desecration of much of the east side and to make ready for the imminent restoration of the city as host to the government of a united Germany. And that is the excitement of Berlin. It is taking shape before your eyes. Reconstruction has opened the way to new ideas, maybe even a return to the glory days of the 1920s when Berlin was synonymous with modernism.