Berlin - The Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, ushered in a new "Berlin Republic" yesterday as the German parliament inaugurated the city's newly- renovated Reichstag.
Mr Schroder's key message was that Germany's neighbours should not fear the migration of government from Bonn to the former capital of the Kaisers. The move would in no way disrupt the democratic tradition established in western Germany over the past half-century, the Chancellor said.
"The move to Berlin is a return to German history, to the place of two German dictatorships, which brought great suffering to the people of Germany and of Europe," he told the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, sitting in its new home.