World Images

Kaiser Wilhelm Church was built at the end of the 19th century and destroyed by British bombs in November 1943. Part of the ruins have been preserved as a memorial. A new modern church and a tower have been built beside it.
Cosmopolitan and village-like, historic and gentrified, urban and filled with parks, vastly spread out and navigable entirely by bicycle: Berlin offers a balance of lifestyles, not to mention a thriving youthful atmosphere, that makes it easy for a foreigner to sink in temporary roots.

Each neighborhood—from gallery-filled Mitte and the immigrant and counterculture base in Kreuzberg, to funky Friedrichschein and Parisian- styled Prenzlauerberg—has a distinct flavor. Like in New York, folks in Berlin stick mainly to their own “Kietz,” with an endless stream of exhibits, concerts, films, theater and other cultural venues that draw them out into the city. You’re free to work or not to work, nobody bothers you here, and it’s this laid- back, do-what-you-want atmosphere—combined with one of the hippest arts scenes in the West—that continues to cause the rush of expats into the city.