Much of what may seem scrappy or unfinished around modern-day Berlin makes better sense as you come to appreciate the city's tortured 20th century history and the determination of the present administration to reunite a once-divided city, often by winding back the legacies of the East German regime. For example, much of Unter den Linden, originally a grand processional avenue, remains a grungy construction site while work continues to restore missing links in the U-Bahn (underground train) network. Read more in my blog.

The movie 'Bridge of Spies', released November 2015, features (or re-creates) many of these locations.