Berlin Reunited

Visiting family in Berlin turned out to be a welcome practical history course. Since the reunification of Germany in 1989, neighborhoods in the eastern side have undergone severe overhauls. When the Russians pulled out, the stripped buildings of everything, electrical boxes, window frames, doorknobs, etc. and hauled it back with them.

On a driving tour of Berlin and Potsdam, one sees the distinct building styles of the last few hundred years. Palaces built by the Kings of the 18th and 19th centuries, their ubiquitous redbrick troops barracks, Nazi housing from the 1930's, communist-era block housing.