Global Recession, But Berlin's Got Nowhere to Fall

"For most in the German capital, the financial crisis and the ensuing economic downturn seem unreal, a distant problem affecting other cities far away. The reason? The city wasn't doing terribly well even in the good times. It has become used to a dour economy and didn't have very far to fall."

"'Because Berlin has done relatively so poorly for the last 40 years, it can't do much worse,' Michael Burda, an economist at the city's Humboldt University, told SPIEGEL ONLINE."

"If anything, the economic difficulties facing other European capitals will lead to Berlin fears that it may lose its coveted place at the bottom of the heap. The city thrives on its grungy, unkempt image, one that Mayor Klaus Wowereit immortalized in his 2003 comment that Berlin is "poor but sexy." Municipal services are kept at a bare minimum, with garbage often blowing down Berlin's wide boulevards and sidewalks left covered with ice and snow until the weather changes."