Berlin, by far Germany's largest city with a population of 3.4 million, will host the World Cup final on July 9 at the Olympiastadion, an honour it was denied in 1974 when the World Cup was last held on German soil and the final was in Munich.

The reunited capital has borne the brunt of the best and the worst of Germany's turbulent history. Shiny new office towers and modernised quarters stand in contrast to older pock-marked buildings, silent testimony to World War Two bombs and bullets.

Berlin's high unemployment rate, low rents and falling property values also reflect a weak underlying economy that belies the ostensible wealth and power on display in the newly renovated government quarter or posh new shopping districts.

Unlike European capitals such as London or Paris that dominate their countries, Berlin faces constant challenge from provincial cities -- leery of centralised power after the Nazi abuses -- that compete for funding, cultural events and corporations.

The loss of many key pre-war industries -- the banks went to Frankfurt and firms like Siemens fled to Munich -- has left gaping holes in the local economy and mountains of public debt.

Berlin, where people from all 31 visiting World Cup teams live in a melting pot made up of 180 nations, will be briefly reunited at least emotionally in celebrations around the tournament -- especially in vast public viewing areas at the Brandenburg Gate.

The city, a magnet for students, artists, filmmakers and musicians, is hoping stimulus from the World Cup will inject a new optimism to help overcome structural woes and its trauma-filled history.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to present Berlin to the world with positive news," said Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's popular mayor -- first elected after outing himself as gay.

"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.