Large, grubby SoHo-style lofts in Kreuzberg, a bohemian quarter since the 60's, can be had for $500 a month, and German artists can count on government subsidies. The photographer Beate Gutschow, who had a sellout show last fall in Chelsea in New York, rents her own carpeted studio space in a Mitte building shared with about 60 other artists for $250 a month, utilities included.
"It's the most interesting city in Germany and half the price of Munich," claims Nicolai von Rosen. Together with his partner, Florian Wonjar, he runs a unique art space called Future 7. Above a McDonald's in an apartment tower full of East German retirees, the tiny rooms constitute both a studio and gallery.
The one ingredient lacking so far in Berlin's contemporary art scene has been a group of avid local collectors, so Mr. von Rosen (who is 37 years old) and Mr. Wonjar (32) buy one work by every person they exhibit. They have shown about half a dozen artists thus far, including Ms. Gutschow; the sculptor Thomas Scheibitz, who will represent Germany in this year's Venice Biennial; as well as their own work, which recently had a lot to do with computer-generated graphic maps of the United States electoral college - the country absurdly fractured into red and blue.
"What's new is that German dealers need to have a presence in Berlin," says Mr. von Rosen. "The graduates from the art schools in Düsseldorf and Hamburg and Munich are coming here. The movement hasn't crested yet."
The installation of the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection at the Hamburger Bahnhof has been a controversial success. Berlin badly wanted a contemporary art museum, and many local dealers and artists seem willing to overlook the fact that Friedrich Flick's money is entangled in a Nazi past. Works by many art-world heavyweights (Bruce Nauman, Cindy Sherman, Rodney Graham, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley) found in museums throughout Europe and the United States are here and given plenty of space, so much that it takes several hours of zigzagging to comprehend fully.
Less tainted and more refined is the Sammlung Hoffmann, a private collection open to the public only on Saturday. Reservations are necessary for the guided tours, most in German but some in English; shoes must be taken off and felt slippers donned.
Put together by Erika Hoffmann and her late husband, Rolf, who began collecting in 1968, the two floors of contemporary art in all media change once a year. Video is especially strong in this incarnation, with the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist's wailing face on a tiny monitor buried in the floor and Bojan Sarcevic's deadpan study of dogs in church being popular with my tour.
A series of grainy photo-based pieces by Felix Gonzalez-Torres on the theme of skies and birds, spaced throughout the two floors, gives a sad, autumnal chill to the show. Confessional text paintings by Sean Landers and the photographs of Nan Goldin add to the intimate, autobiographical tone. The tour ends in Mrs. Hoffmann's spectacular top-floor sky-lighted parlor where her daily newspapers are strewn over furniture by Mies van der Rohe, Frank Gehry and Richard Artschwager.
The transformation of the city into an art capital is just as apparent in the complex of 19th-century institutions on Museumsinsel (Museum Island) near Unter den Linden. The pride and joy of East Berlin - but a trial to visit for capitalist tourists during the cold war - this complex of classical buildings has been extensively spruced up.
On a recent trip I prowled around on a Thursday night, when most galleries stay open until 10, beginning at the Pergamonmuseum, with its matchless Greek and Roman sculpture and architecture, and ending at the Altes Museum, where two small, perfectly done exhibitions - one on the history of clouds in art, and another of romantic paintings by Caspar David Friedrich and Karl Friedrich Schinkel - could be enjoyed with only a few dozen fellow visitors.
How long the money for this expensive, subsidized party can last is anyone's guess. The city is now bankrupt. Nobody works in Berlin because for many there is no work to be had. But as in the 20's, this has proven to be just another excuse to drink and dance.
Berlin goes late or all night, especially in Kreuzberg, where Würgeengel (Dresdener Strasse 122,
www.wuergeengel.de) serves cocktails in a smoky red room to an attractive crowd, and Möbel Olfe, Reichenberger Strasse 177,
www.moebelolfe.de) caters to a beery gayish crowd of wall-to-wall bodies until 3 a.m. Techno has roots in Germany, and enthusiastic dancers still seek out D.J.'s at the Russian discos. Many late-night art parties, though, are secret affairs, the location changing nightly and able to be found only if you or a friend know where to go or which cellphone to call.
In former West Berlin, the venerable Paris Bar (Kantstrasse 152,
www.parisbar.de) in Charlottenburg, hangout for cinéastes like Wim Wenders and the late madcap artist Martin Kippenberger, is still jammed long after midnight. And for those who like it slick, there is the Newton Bar, (Charlottenstrasse 57,
www.newton-bar.de) named for the late photographer Helmut Newton. Monumental blow-ups of his nudes line the back room, and a fine list of Highlander scotches is available. It stands across the street from Lutter & Wegner (
www.l-w-berlin.de), a restaurant packed with local politicians and, increasingly, foreigners who have heard about this famous boutique restaurant.
Many of the artists in Berlin shun or cannot afford such finery. The gallery openings I popped into were uniformly crowded by young nomads. On a rainy night I was led to an alternative space in Prenzlauer Berg, another formerly run-down district since reclaimed by the bourgeoisie. Impossible to find without a guide, it was located inside a nest of three courtyards and up a rickety wooden staircase.
As so often happens, the art itself - a silent video of a deer standing in the road - was hardly worth the trip. But the artist's friends sipped Heinekens and spoke with low-key confidence about Berlin, as if they thought they lived in the coolest city in Europe. And I had to admit, as I inhaled their billows of smoke and remembered what New York once was like, they were probably right.
Where to Find the Art
During the cold war, visiting Berlin required changes of planes, layovers and worries about visas should you want to stray into Communist territory. And even after the Wall fell, getting to Berlin didn't get much easier, with almost no direct flights out of the United States.
But that will soon change, when Delta starts nonstop service out of Kennedy International Airport on May 2, and Continental does the same out of Newark on July 1.
Here is a list of Berlin art galleries and museums, public and private, worth checking out.
Galerie Max Hetzler, Zimmerstrasse 90/91, (49-30) 229-2437;
www.maxhetzler.com.
Galerie Max Hetzler II, Holzmarktstrasse 15-18, (49-30) 240-45630;
www.maxhetzler.com.
Galerie Barbara Thum, Dirksenstrasse 41, (49-30) 2839-0347;
www.bthumm.de.
Galerie Neu, Philippstrasse 13, (49-30) 285-7550;
www.galerieneu.com.
Klosterfelde, Zimmerstrasse 90-91, (49-30) 283-5305;
www.klosterfelde.de.
Future 7, Karl Liebknecht Strasse 11, (49-30) 2123-0904;
www.future7.de.
Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstrasse 50/51, (49-30) 397834-11;
www.hamburgerbahnhof.de.
Sammlung Hoffmann, Sophienstrasse 21, (49-30) 284-99120;
www.sophie-gips.de.
Pergamonmuseum, Am Kupfergraben, (49-30) 2090-5577;
www.smb.spk-berlin.de.
Altes Museum, Lustgarten, (49-30) 2090-5577;
www.smb.spk-berlin.de.
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HE Galerie Max Hetzler II in Berlin was empty, so the young man behind the desk seemed happy to stop reading his paperback and suggest a few contemporary art exhibitions worth seeing in the German capital. Drawing his finger over the map in Index, Berlin's nifty folding gallery guide, he noted more than 20 openings scheduled for that week, most of which he would be attending himself. Like so many young Berliners and foreigners, he had come to the city to revel in its thriving art scene. Even if each stop offered nothing more than pretzels and cheap wine, and a chance to cadge cigarettes from friends, this revolving and continuous set of parties seemed to be the foundation of his social life. 
. Thanks everyone for the info in any case, it'll be valuable in the future to me and other members. Off to start the Stockholm thread 
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