"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy"

"Berlin is rather a part of the world than a city" (Jean Paul, writer, 1800)

"Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin." (Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, August 24, 1963, speech in Yugoslavia)

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987)

"Berlin is the newest city I have come across. Even Chicago would appear old and gray in comparison." (Mark Twain, US Writer, Chicago Daily Tribune, 1892)

The Neue Nationalgalerie is the last major construction completed by Mies van der Rohe.

"Berlin is a pulsing, exciting city with so many varied and distinctive neighborhoods, iconic history all around, great food at all levels and from every corner of the world...an excellent place to set up camp and make a great record." (R.E.M. who recorded their album in Berlin, 2010)

 

"The greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine." (David Bowie, singer, on 1970's Berlin)

Several months before his death in 2004, Helmut Newton put up a foundation, which now owns two floors of the old Landwehrkasino next to Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten.

Newton spent his first 18 years in Berlin before he left in 1938 to go to Australia.

The most impressive photos are in the entrance hall: large format photos of the first naked women Newton took pictures of.

Sammlung Boros - or Boros Bunker -  is one of Berlin’s most treasured private art collections.

When Christian Boros acquired this Nazi-era bunker in 2003, he gained not only a 3,000-square-meter space for his modern art collection but also a piece of Berlin’s colorful history. The Bunker was built in 1942 to protect passengers of nearby Friedrichstraße Station from aerial bombardment.

"Prost!" (3,5 million Berliners)

"Paris is always Paris and Berlin is never Berlin!" (Jack Lang, French former culture minister, talking about how fast Berlin is changing, 2001)

"Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin" (Song by Marlene Dietrich, actress and singer born in 1901 in Berlin-Schöneberg)

"Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach Berlin!" (A chant during the World Cup in 2006)

Classic Remise Berlin - Für alle, die Benzin im Blut haben

"Berlin combines the culture of New York, the traffic system of Tokyo, the nature of Seattle, and the historical treasures of...well, Berlin" (Hiroshi Motomura, US Law professor, 2004)