Razed and rebuilt: More than 50,000 houses were demolished and a quarter million people were driven from their homes. Berlin’s remodeling into the so-called “world capital Germania” did not even stop at disturbing the peace of the dead. Over 15,000 deceased previously resting in the several graveyards which were in the way of the North-South axis, had to be relocated to new gravesites. The astronomical building costs are likely to spiral far above the one billion Reichsmarks estimated in 1942. No price seems unacceptable for realizing the dictator’s mad plans. It is an open secret that this project was only made possible by dispossessions and forced labor. Yet naturally, the populace does not dare voice open criticism: dissenters have been disappearing without a trace for months.

An East-West axis and a North-South axis now divide the city into four quarters. The Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda likes to refer to these thoroughfares as “Via Triumphalis”, in the style of ancient Rome. However the apex of architectural megalomania is the presumptuous “Great Hall” at the intersection of the axes: it is large enough to house a crowd of 150,000, dwarfing the Brandenburg Gate, which seems like a mere footnote to history next to it.

Owing to the persistent curfew and assembly ban, however, the ostentatious building is practically deserted. The famed Berlin nightlife has effectively ceased to exist; the formerly mirthful metropolis has turned into a cold and soulless monument – a city where no one, in this humble reporter’s opinion, would want to be a Berliner.