Berlin regained its old centre yesterday when a massive new development of shops, homes, offices, and places of entertainment opened in Potsdamer Platz - once the busiest square in Europe, writes Denis Staunton.
The bustling centre of the German capital during its heydey in the 1920s, Potsdamer Platz was flattened during the second World War and became a heavily fortified wasteland between east and west for half a century.
The new complex of 10 streets and 19 buildings clustered around the Marlene Dietrich Plaza was financed by Daimler-Benz and built in just four years. The 120 shops in the newly opened shopping arcade will stay open until midnight to cater daily for an expected 100,000 visitors.
Some 4,000 invited guests attended the official opening but ordinary Berliners started to pour into the square at lunchtime for the start of a two-day festival of music, dance and multi-media shows.
The development on Potsdamer Platz is the largest and most prestigious of Berlin's numerous construction projects but yesterday saw the opening of only part of it. The Japanese company Sony is building a vast media complex next to the Daimler-Benz area.
By the time Potsdamer Platz is completed, it will house dozens of cinemas, a number of theatres, a film academy and a museum devoted to the Marlene Dietrich collection acquired by the city of Berlin four years ago.