As the new architecture and urban design begins to demonstrate, the problem confronting Berlin today is one of identity. As the status of capital shifts back to the city from Bonn, the challenge it faces is one of defining and establishing a specific cultural identity which can survive the levelling effects of globalization. This is a problem which Berlin shares with other cities, as forms of local identity and culture succumb to the pressures of global commerce. In Berlin's case, however, the struggle for identity has less to do with a vision of a future than with a new vision of the past, and it is on the difficult and unstable terrain of history that the search for cultural identity collides with the politics of memory. Ralph Stern is an architect based in New York and Berlin. He is co-founder and director of the Program for Urban Processes at the Universitt der Knste Berlin, where he is associate Professor of Architecture in History and Theory.