"Germans might not be temperamental or break out in dance spontaneously like in Mediterranean climates but we have people from 180 countries. It's our chance to show we're a city open to the world. Cultural diversity is not a threat but our asset."

GOOD PARTIES

Wowereit is confident Berlin's enthusiasm for a good party -- more than a million revellers crowd around the Brandenburg Gate each New Year's Eve for one of the biggest celebrations anywhere in the world -- will leave a lasting impression.

"Our aim is to measure up against Paris and London," he said.

Yet the east-west divisions in politics, attitudes and other areas will return by September when a city election will again show the former Communist party to be the strongest in east Berlin while western parties will control the western districts.

Most of the Berlin Wall was torn down in the heady weeks that followed its breaching in 1989, when strangers in the east and west threw their arms around each other in moving embraces in front of the Cold War barrier.

The internal divisions it left behind, however, seem to have only deepened in the intervening 17 years. While streets, bridges and train lines severed for three decades were re-connected, there was no emotional rapprochement after the initial joy wore off.

There are countless east-west splits. East Berliners earn less, though they work longer hours. Their life expectancy is shorter. They like different food and use different words for everything from grilled chicken to apartments.

Even when it comes to soccer, east Berliners tend to support Union Berlin while westerners are more often fans of Hertha Berlin, who play in the 74,220-seat Olympiastadion.

East Berliners read different newspapers, watch different films, different TV programmes, and are more likely to sunbathe naked -- a cherished expression of "freedom" in the Communist state that is now a source of summertime east-west tensions.

When it comes to love and marriage, there are hardly any east-west relationships. Less than three percent of Berlin marriages each year are east-west affairs. Berliners are 10 times more likely to marry foreigners than each other.

It may be hard to find anyone who admits missing the Wall -- except maybe cab drivers stuck in traffic. But many will tell anyone who listens that the Wall also had its advantages.