Berlin:The Rough Guide

Appearing a year after the first edition, the revision of this book takes into account the momentous changes that the city, and the New Germany, have seen in the last year. While the eastern part of Berlin is today more accessible than at any time since the 1930s, it is still a very different entity to the west, the remnants of a failed social experiment - one the new powers are urgently trying to erase from memory. As well as portraits of the city's east and west faces, the new guide offers eating and drinking listings (with comments on over 130 cafes and bars), alongside new chapters on shopping, music, nightlife, children's Berlin and sport. The unofficial squatting cafes of the east are explored in detail and the guide has a varied selection of maps on the city - including plans of pre-war Berlin and a map of the eastern suburbs. A 50-page chapter explores the area around Berlin, which, apart from the splendours of Potsdam, is unknown to most visitors. Further background sections include a blow-by-blow account of the demise of the German Democratic Republic - the old East Germany - and one family's description of their confrontation with the moribund regime.