The world is becoming attuned to the emergence once again of Berlin as the capital of a united Germany. A ceremony last week in the city, when Mr Klaus Kinkel, the Foreign Minister, laid the foundation stone for a new building to house his ministry, gave him the opportunity to say the new location signals both a break from the Nazi past and a homecoming. Symbolically this particular piece of building work is peculiarly apposite for Germany's international policy and role. The new ministry building is not to occupy the famous site in the Wilhelmstrasse that came to symbolise the essence of German power until the end of Nazi rule in 1945, but a street some distance away. Nevertheless the return of the foreign ministry to Berlin speaks volumes concerning the future role of Germany in Europe and the world. The extraordinary building programme to complete facilities for transfer of capital city functions from Bonn to Berlin is now well under way and set to be completed in time for next year's deadline. Visitors have marvelled at its scale, complexity and modernity. Berliners are only now beginning to see the overall physical pattern and design and will be relieved at the prospect of an end to the dusty and disruptive building work. Arguments continue about the optimal mix of facilities and accommodation between the eastern and western halves of the city. They remain deeply divided by history, culture and politics, despite the fact that the rebuilding work has itself altered the architectural and social balance between them. Thus the marvellous streetscape and classical architecture along and off Unter den Linden, in Friedrichstrasse and Alexanderplatz have been altogether transformed by restoration, new ministerial buildings, smart new shopping areas and a lively cultural and night life. It has been announced that nearly all the shops in the rebuilt Potsdamer Platz, once the busiest square in Europe, have been allocated and will include a carefully selected mix of popular and upmarket outlets. It seems likely that as government departments and civil servants move to Berlin in coming months there will be a continuing geographical shift towards the east of the city, despite the much-publicised decision to house the most senior of them in the western districts of Charlottenburg, Dahlen and Grunewald. Berliners remain their sceptical, critical, inquisitive and resourceful selves and are taking these transformations in their stride. They have turned them to advantage in a rediscovery of their city's past; but there is little or no trace of the menacing imperial history that observers elsewhere have feared might re-emerge in the capital of a united Germany more at ease with the assertion of its national interests. Rather does the younger generation give the lead to the mood of cultural relaxation and hedonism exemplified in the annual Love Parade. Berlin is therefore becoming a place to see and visit. Although it is still Germany's most populous city it has plenty of greenery and hundreds of miles of waterways. New railways and transport systems will make it accessible as a place from which to experience the geographical hub of an enlarging European Union and a more united Europe.