Germany and Berlin holiday tour guide

East German leader Erich Honecker boasted in 1989 that the Berlin Wall would last another 100 years. It barely survived another 12 months.

Many tens of thousands of Germans took a trip to Berlin in 1989, using hammers and ladders to breach the wall as defiant citizens on both sides sparked the collapse of East Germany's communist regime.

Both Germans and foreign travellers chiseled their piece of history from the wall as Germany began its rocky road to reunification.

Democracy had begun its march into Eastern Europe. People on both sides of the wall have needed time to accept each other but Germany is increasingly united.

The main section of the Berlin Wall was 107 kilometres long and graffiti artwork on the western face brightened an otherwise bland, grey barrier.

Travel to Berlin and you'll find about two kilometres of the wall have been preserved, although the years are taking their toll and big areas are crumbling while authorities try to raise funds for restoration.

The most authentic remaining section of the Berlin Wall is on Bernauerstrasse between Ackerstrasse and Bergstrasse. Perhaps the most famous and certainly the most artistic section of surviving wall is the East Side Gallery, a 1.3km stretch of wall between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain that was covered with graffiti by international artists in 1990.

Tourists still gather at the notorious Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin during their German holidays to remember when it was an American sector and a crossing point if you wished to travel between east and west.

The larger western half of Berlin was an oasis of capitalist democracy surrounded on all sides by communist East Germany.

A museum at Checkpoint Charlie chronicles the building of the wall and the many attempts by East Germans to breach it. These attempts included hot air balloons, a one-man submarine, underground tunnels, home-made gliders and smuggling efforts in hidden compartments of cars, specially built suitcases or hollowed-out furniture.

A total of 160 people were shot trying to escape East Berlin.

Berlin Today

Berlin reverberated to the sound of jackhammers throughout the 1990s and was the world's biggest construction site as it began a transformation to regain its title as the capital city of Germany.

At one stage, cranes speared into the air from about 2000 different building sites, most in the former East Berlin, and many years of work remain to restore eastern public infrastructure which was neglected during Germany's days of communism.

At an astronomical cost, Berlin has been transformed over the past 20 years with coffee shops, bookshops, restaurants and hotels appearing amidst the neo-classical and Gothic facades of the old Berlin, both east and west.

Towering glass buildings now surround the River Spree as Berlin continues the makeover it has experienced since Germany's reunification began.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on the reconstruction and numerous historic buildings previously neglected in East Berlin are being restored.

Re-established as Germany's capital in 1990, Berlin has an area of 890 square kilometres (343 square miles) and a population of approximately 3.5 million.

The city centre of Potsdamer Platz was a no-man's land during the Cold War but now boasts some of the most stunning architecture in Europe. Other must-see squares in the east of Berlin include Berlin Cathedral on Museum Island, Alexander Platz and the Gendarmenmarkt, regarded by many as the most attractive square in Europe.

Berlin's showpiece avenue, Unter den Linden, has been beautifully restored and Friedrichstrasse (home to the famous Kit Kat Club) has become an upmarket thoroughfare with shopping arcades and department stores such as Galeries Lafayette.

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Berlin has a workforce of about 1.4 million people and over the past decade has experienced growth in the service, science and research sectors.

Tourism has also been increasing and Berlin is now the most popular travel destination in Germany. More than a third of employees work in the service sector, an increase of about 50% since 1989.

Unemployment problems largely caused by Germany's reunification have begun to level off since 2000. However, an estimated one in five people in the east of Germany were on unemployment benefits in 2004 - about twice the national average.

The signs of reconstruction are evident throughout the east of Germany with new airports and railway stations, thousands of kilometres of new roads and cities such as Dresden and Leipzig lovingly restored.

However, about a million mostly young people have moved west since the Berlin Wall came down, the east's gross domestic product is about a quarter of the west's, and all wage earners must pay a 5.5% solidarity tax till 2019 to fund reconstruction of the east.

If you travel to Germany you need to know that Berlin is served by three major international airports - Tegel, Tempelhof and Schonefeld - which cater for more than 12 million passengers a year.

Construction of the new Berlin Brandenburg International airport is due to be completed in 2007. Work is also underway on the new Lehrter Railway Station, which is expected to handle nearly a quarter of a million travellers a day from 2005.

The motorway ring that surrounds Berlin has connections to five further motorways, simplifying travel and making the city easily accessible from all parts of Germany.

Only about 50 percent of households in Berlin have a car, thanks to the efficiency and comfort of the city's public transport system.

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Berlin has a maze of new Metro, bus and overhead rail systems providing cheap travel to wherever you want.

Berlin has a disproportionately large number of comparatively young citizens due to the forward-thinking culture of the capital, and their education levels are above the already high national standard throughout Germany.

There are about 175 museums, approximately 150 theatres, three opera houses and eight symphonic orchestras in Berlin, as well as numerous bars, beer halls, cafes and nightclubs dotted throughout the city to add some spice to your vacation travel.

Well worth visiting is Museum Island in the Spree River, which is home to enormous buildings with a treasure trove of artefacts - including the 14th century bust of Queen Nefertiti.

All German shops close on Sundays, public holidays and after 8pm on weekdays, and the only way you can do some out-of-hours shopping is at service stations which have evolved into mini-markets.

Shopping is generally expensive in Berlin. Regardless, the seven-storey KaDaWe department store is worth visiting simply to admire its enormous variety.

Almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, the east of Germany still suffers from antiquated services and facilities, lower living standards and high unemployment, despite a massive investment in infrastructure by the west.

Many of the talented young from the east of Germany have moved west to enjoy its greater prosperity.

However, the lower standards in the east mean holiday reservations also cost less for tourists enjoying the eastern Germany travel experience.

It's interesting to note a 2005 poll which found nearly a quarter of West Germans and 12 per cent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back, reflecting die-hard animosities over high reunification costs, reduced western standards of living and economic turmoil in the east.

If you want to experience some of East Germany's communist past, the tiny village of Tutow has transformed itself into a communist-era theme park, complete with a Berlin Wall replica and Kalashnikov-toting border guards. Tutow is near the Baltic Coast about 90 kilometres north-west of Stetlin and 140 kilometres due north of Berlin.

An interesting destination is the Teufelsberg on the outskirts of Berlin, an 80 metre hill made from more than 10 million cubic metres of World War II rubble carted out of the city when the Allies' bombing campaign finally ended. This tree-lined hill in the Grunwald forest is the highest on the Brandenburg plain and provides stunning views over Berlin.

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