Economy of Berlin

"Poor but attractive", as the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit once described the city of 3.4 million people that he governs, dominated by bars with artistic themes and galleries at the corner of the street. Now that the financial crisis is hitting all over the world, this doesn't seem a bad omen.

As restaurants go bankrupt in Paris, and London property prices suffered the most significant decreases in the last 16 years, Berliners do not have too much to lose. Unemployment is twice higher than the national average, in the place where the labor market is dominated by the government and the real estate market has not experienced any boom. For Berlin, the loans crisis has no meaning.

Berlin offers another look to its difficult past. During the 1920s, cabaret artist Marlene Dietrich and Professor of Physics Albert Einstein lived in this city, but they both fled after the violent attacks of Adolf Hitler's Nazism.

In 1949, four years after Germany's defeat in the Second World War, Berlin started to wear the robe for the Cold War, as a counterfort between the capitalist West and the communist East, until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Destruction of the city during the war and its subsequent division has evaporated the industrial base of Berlin, which was never rebuilt. Today, none of the 30 companies that comprise the German DAX index have their headquarters in the capital.

Nowadays, tourists are eager to visit the 170 museums in Berlin that host works of art like the Babylonian goddess, Ishtar's Gate, or the iconic bust of Egyptian queen Nefertiti, while the international papers praise the street where the most famous fashion house stores, dozens of clubs and underground culture can be found.

New York Times said in 2006 that Berlin was like New York in the'80s, and "creativity in the air is specific only for a city in transition". Actors such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are fans of Berlin, known for their visits in bars and restaurants chosen from the recommendations of Bild, the best selling newspaper in Germany, which has moved its headquarters from Berlin to Hamburg at the beginning of 2009.

It is good to know that Berlin has some of the cheapest rents in Europe. Rent for a two room apartment in Mitte costs only 600 Euro per month, amount which also includes utilities, compared to about 1200 pounds (1,483 Euros), the rent value in London.

Some of Berlin's fast-growing sectors are life sciences, communication technologies, advertising, media, medical engineering and transportation. The decision to increase tax revenues and growth rates had the effect of increasing budget surplus in the last two years.