For more than 13 years, Mayor Klaus Wowereit has been the face of party-hearty, poor-but-sexy Berlin.
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There are mayors who are more than just heads of a city government.
Some seem to merge with a time and a place, coming to embody a particular period in their city's history.
From the 1920s to the late 1930s, the city was a cauldron of debauchery and creativity, giving rise to the first institute devoted to the study of sex. With the destruction of the old political order, Berlin entered an era of chaos and hedonism. The country's bohemian writers, architects and political agitators gravitated towards Berlin's freewheeling culture. A legion of lesbians cultivated their own society as the city encouraged its denizens to play out their every whim.
Berlin is becoming ever more popular with tourists and young professionals. No wonder DW reporter Anne-Sophie Brändlin's account of her passionate love story with the German capital was our most-read article this year.
No expense was spared in making Blub, a huge swimming pool complex, one of West Berlin’s most popular public amenities. But the latest investment will ensure it’s a strictly private affair. Abandoned to rats and graffiti since its closure in 2005, the atmospherically derelict Blub is to be torn down this year for 450 luxury apartments by the imaginatively named H-Group, a consortium of Munich-based investors. The new buildings will apparently feature “modern, inviting architecture for a wide variety of housing and living models” and spacious green areas to ensure “unique and premium open spaces for the future residents”.