Nikolaiviertel

This guide to the Nikolaiviertel in Berlin opens with an East German television broadcast from October 1987, showing crowds strolling past medieval gabled houses that turn out to be almost entirely reconstructed. It follows architect Günter Stahn's rebuild of the district in time for Berlin's 750th anniversary, using prefabricated concrete panels dressed up with peaked roofs, and the nicknames Berliners gave the results, from Neu-Stahnsdorf to Honecker's Disneyland. Compare the stonework of the old church tower against the newer facades around it as you walk.