Today, it's glamorous and gentrified and the techno clubs are long gone, replaced with cafes filled with yummy mummies, sipping lattes and blocking doors with their buggies... it's also home to an old synagogue (and Jewish cemetery) and some funky restaurants and is a wonderful place to spend a few hours (or, in the summer, a long day). 

The result, predictably, was that the square became a showcase for “socialist architecture.”  A number of ugly, soulless buildings went up, along with the 'Fernsehtum’ or, as it’s better known, the Television Tower.  Designed with the help of the Swedes, it stands at 365 metres high and at its top is a revolving restaurant...

I spent my days shuttling between ritzy upmarket suburbs like Charlottenburg and once- thriving but by the early 90's almost-defunct factories in Treptow.  I dressed like a Berliner (all in black), partied like a Berliner (went out at midnight and came home at 6am), made a wealth of friends and spent Sundays taking long, aimless walks across the old East...