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Article: BERLIN'S BIRTHDAY BASH // It celebrates the richness of 750 years
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- January 4, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Mark Twain called Berlin "the European Chicago" - and he meant
that as a compliment.
"A rest to the eye, a thoroughly well governed, a free city,"
Twain rhapsodized after an 1874 visit. He praised "the spaciousness,
the roominess of the city. There is no other city, in any country,
whose streets are so wide. . . . Only parts of Chicago are stately
and beautiful, whereas all of Berlin is stately and substantial, and
it is not merely in parts but uniformly beautiful."
Fourteen years earlier, Henry Adams had been less dazzled. The
erudite New Englander described Berlin as "a poor, keen-witted
provincial town, simple, dirty, uncivilized, and in most respects
disgusting."
A century and ...