Evening in Berlin

A September evening in Berlin. I´m here on business in the capital of Germany. I was last here fourteen years ago, attending a friend´s wedding in the British Zone. I remember (as David Bowie sang) standing by the Wall. The guards, however, did not "...shoot over our heads..." But they were there - I saw them. I was drunk outside the Reichstag at 4am and it was possible to look through the security across the River Spree to see the watch towers and the shadows bearing guns...

The whole Cold War was an act of collective madness that led to great sorrow (Prague, Korea, Vietnam) and great wonder (landing on the Moon, nuclear testing and wonderful spy novels...) The East was strange, scary and slightly alien, the West was benign but misguided. If it was anything, the Cold War was romantic.

Coming back to Berlin after all this time I am struck by how little has changed. True, the Wall has gone and Checkpoint Charlie reduced to a museum exhibit, but the only thing that´s different to my eyes is the gentrification of East Berlin. West Berlin hasn´t changed - it´s simply spread to the East.

I walked back to my hotel at 1am last night. Two observations: the first is that it was still possible at that hour to get a drink (and more) at any number of bars, all over the place. It´s a Tuesday night in September for goodness sake - don´t these people ever sleep? The second is that there was no-one on the streets. In London, at any hour of the morning, the bars are closed but there are always cars and pedestrians working their way through the night. In Berlin, the bars are open but the streets are empty. Maybe it´s just that Berliners are going to sleep early, and only the tourists are awake - an example of Germany's much vaunted industry, perhaps. Or maybe there is a place that Berliners go at night - but they don´t tell foreigners about it...

It´s not that I´m paranoid, you understand...

But in many ways I miss the Cold War. We might all have been going to die in a nuclear holocaust, but at least we knew where we stood. And it had glamour, and excitement, and uncertainty.

But now? Berlin is no longer split, is no longer exotic, is no longer fascinating. It is safer - and much more boring.

The Cold War has gone; in its place is something tepid...

- Drib