The end is near for one of the most controversial icons of cold-war Berlin. The demolition of the Palast der Republik, the concrete and steel 1970s building which once housed the East German parliament and was a cultural centre for the communist state, is due to start in January. The Palast has been the subject of vociferous debate since it was closed for asbestos removal in 1990. Judged as too expensive, and too ugly, to warrant renovation, Germany's parliament voted to destroy the building in 2003. But supporters of the Palast hold that it should be preserved as an important relic of the city's one-time ideological division. In late November, 1,400 leftists, architects and artists demonstrated in support of the building in the city centre, which they want to continue using as a venue for cultural events. More protest rallies are planned in the run-up to the demolition date.
Still, it seems plenty of Berliners have no love for the Palast. After years of standing empty, the rusting steel structure, with its graffiti-scrawled walls and broken windows, is seen by many as simply an eyesore, and one poll in a local newspaper found that 67% of the respondents wanted it torn down. The question now is what will replace it. The only official proposal so far is a contentious scheme to spend €670m ($785m) rebuilding a baroque Prussian palace that once stood on the site, before it was badly damaged in the second world war and then destroyed by East Germany's government in 1953, in what many Berliners regard as a fit of anti-imperial ideological fury.
(Fonte: The Economist city guide, Berlin)
