A Berlin saying dating back to the Roaring Twenties, when Berlin was riding high, boasts that this is a city that never simply exists, but eternally remains in the making. After 16 years of the German (and Berlin) reunification buzz, the winds of change may have slowed down a little, but Berlin is still evolving at a staggering pace.

This evolution is not economic or financial, however. The city is close to bankruptcy, due to the fact that federal subsidies once sweeping into West Berlin in order to pamper the Capitalist showpiece island deep inside the former East Bloc have been virtually cut off. The generally grim economic situation currently facing Germany does the rest.

But what Berlin lacks in money, it makes up for with creative potential, international hype and a "now less than ever" approach to life and its miseries characteristic of a city that has survived two World Wars, a bloody 40-year-long separation by the Berlin Wall and social hardships after the demise of the East German regime. The wall may be gone, but "Ossis" and "Wessis," as the brothers and sisters from both halves of the country teasingly call each other, and the eastern and western downtown areas still feel different.

Berlin is also the proud federal capital of a reunited Germany and an impressive center of attraction for creative companies such as MTV, Universal Records, Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Europe, as well as biotech and IT companies—and Hollywood is filming blockbuster movies at the revived Babelsberg studios in the suburbs of Berlin, where Marlene Dietrich started her career some 75 years ago.

Getting around

The city is laid out on an epic scale, as modern Berlin was comprised from more than 20 independent cities in 1920—a historic founding that has blessed the city with various charming neighborhoods and subcenters. Getting to western or eastern downtown from Tegel Airport or the central railway station Zoologischer Garten is pretty easy: A cab ride costs 15–45 euros, and the public airport buses (X09 or 109) are much cheaper at only 2 euros. Once in the city, the best way to move around is by cab (2.50 euros base fare, 1.02 euros for each kilometer after seven kilometers) or the public transport system—one of the biggest and most refined in all of Europe.

Hotels

The "Grand Old Lady" of Berlin is the rebuilt Hotel Adlon (Unter den Linden 77, tel. 030 2261 0, from 220 euros), centrally located just steps away from the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's prime landmark. The Kempinski resort is an authentic replica of the historic Adlon, destroyed in World War II, where the rich and beautiful of the times once resided. Just around the corner is another exceptional but modern hotel: The posh The Regent Berlin (Charlottenstrasse 49, tel. 030 20 33 8, from 220 euros), the preferred digs for celebrities like Tom Cruise and Jennifer Lopez. Less expensive but nonetheless fine business hotels are a few steps away on the historic Gendarmenmarkt, one of Europe's most beautiful piazzas. The best is the modern boutique hotel Dorint Sofitel (Charlottenstrasse 50–52, tel. 030 20 37 50, from 235 euros), with a great view of the square. In the western downtown area, the best choices are the colossal yet first-rate InterContinental (Budapester Strasse 2, tel. 030 2602 0, from 165 euros), favored by many business travelers for its spacious, revamped rooms with great views of the lush Tiergarten; or the ultramodern, minimalist Grand Hyatt (Marlene-Dietrich Platz 2, tel. 030 2553 1234, from 240 euros) on newly developed Potsdamer Platz—definitely one of the Continent's best hotels.

Dining

In a city with people from 183 countries, you can make a gourmet trip around the world in just 24 hours. Cuisine is one of the few areas where Berlin is on par with the other European capitals—yet it's much cheaper here to enjoy refined international or ethnic dining.

Two of the best restaurants in town, both inviting for business lunches or dinners, are the Michelin-starred eateries Facil (Potsdamer Strasse 3, tel. 030 59 005 12 34) and Hugo's (Budapester Strasse 2, tel. 030 26 02 12 63). Facil, set in an impressive, Italian marble–clad dining hall with an open roof and an adjacent Japanese garden, serves French and Nouvelle German cuisine. Hugo's (at the InterContinental) offers a magnificent view of the skyline, and you can even enjoy dinner in your private dining room and savor the fine German and Berlin cuisine: The regional kitchen, once disparaged for its heavy and rather unimaginative cooking, has experienced a revival in recent years. Young chefs like Hugo's Thomas Kammeier know how to prepare the best local dishes—freshwater fish like pan-fried trout or pike-perch, wild boar, veal or pork liver with fried onions, apples and mashed potatoes, oven-roasted duck with an apple-raisin filling—true to their original recipes, but refined with lighter nuances and choice vegetables.

Other top restaurants in the eastern downtown area, hip and blessed with a high celebrity factor, but perfect for business meetings, are Bocca di Bacco (Friedrich Strasse 167–168, tel. 030 20 67 28 28), one of the city's prime Italian places serving delicious Tuscan cooking; buzzing Borchardt (Französische Strasse 47, tel. 030 203 87 110), set in a breathtaking historic dining hall and serving traditional French Brasserie cuisine; and the Käfer im Reichstag (Platz der Republik, tel. 030 22 62 99 33), next to the cupola on the historic parliament building, where the traditional German food is just fine and the view is fabulous.

The hipper dining scene hovers around the nightlife quarters of Scheunenviertel and Hackescher Markt in the Mitte district, where many ethnic budget restaurants—from the Spanish tapas bar Yosoy to the Jewish Café Oren and the Turkish Hasir—attract a mixed crowd of locals and tourists alike.

In the western downtown, private upscale restaurants like Lubitsch, Bovril, Café Einstein and others can be found in the side streets of the Kurfürstendamm Boulevard.

Leisure

Berlin is one of the world's great cultural centers, a showcase of traditional German art life and the young European avant-garde. In classical music, Berlin offers one of the world's finest orchestras (although Berliners are sure to claim it as the very best), the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, with its chief conductor, Sir Simon Rattle. Three world-class opera houses, with the historical State Opera on Unter den Linden run by Maestro Daniel Barenboim being the most magnificent, compete with the various state (drama) theaters and musical stages for their audiences.

Another essential stop in Berlin is the famous Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with several museums housing some of the world's most precious antique Roman, Greek and Oriental art, as well as life-size original structures, such as the Pergamon altar and the legendary procession road from ancient Babylon. Equally impressive is the palace complex of Sanssouci (modeled after Versailles), the great rococo vision of Prussian king Fredrick the Great, located in Potsdam, just 20 minutes southwest of Berlin.

Once you have absorbed all that culture, you deserve a drink. Thankfully, Berlin is Europe's only city without a legal closing time: The best nightspots, primarily around Hackescher Markt in the Mitte district, around Kollwitzplatz in Prenzlauer Berg, and (more upscale) around Savignyplatz and the Kurfürstendamm's side streets in Charlottenburg, include elegant bars, German beer pubs and beer gardens, variety theaters and dancing clubs—all open until the wee hours of the morning.

Juergen G. Scheunemann is a writer based in Berlin.

Getting there

Germany's international gateway is the Frankfurt am Main Airport, with an increasing number of international flights also arriving at Düsseldorf and Munich. All of these hubs have almost hourly connecting flights to Berlin run by the national carrier Lufthansa. As an alternative, there are several high-speed train connections between Berlin and all major West German cities.

Berlin has three airports, Tegel, Schönefeld and Tempelhof, but hardly any direct flights beyond European destinations. The only two direct flights from Berlin to the U.S., for example, have just been resumed by Continental (to Newark) and Delta Air Lines (to New York's JFK). Most domestic flights arrive and depart at Tegel.