Berlin: The Trail of Two Cities

Berlin is a city suffused with history, a lot of it sad. So it's gratifying to find a part of the metropolis that, though ruined by war and its aftermath, is now flourishing. In the last few years, Berlin's Mitte district, for three decades the cold war frontier between east and west, has been reborn as one of the city's trendiest shopping and dining areas. It's also where the politically powerful in Germany can be found conducting the country's business over a milchkaffee or a Wiener schnitzel.

A tour of Mitte begins at the stately parliament building known as the...