The underground train bursts out of the darkness behind Nollendorfplatz into the light above, the sweeping view across the wide open spaces of the Gleisdreieck over to the towers of Potsdamer Platz. The ground is churned up – where once goods trains carried their heavy loads across wide tracks, now trucks pound their deep tracks into the muddy soil of early January. A still, almost dead area is coming back to life in Berlin. In just a few months, apartment blocks will be shining in the morning sun, children will be playing on the green spaces, monochrome history will make way for the beauty of the modern age – these are the images of the future.
My trip, a glimpse: the steel girders of the bridge flicker on the windows as fleetingly and fast as the image of the present. The train is approaching, the doors open, the winter cold touches my ankles, the Gleisdreieck and the triangle of time are behind me.
