Most important, perhaps, Mr. Schröder has come to symbolize a new German way of looking at the world, that of the so-called "Berlin Republic."

A Berlin Republic (1997, collection of interviews with Habermas)

In a blistering commentary, the influential center-right newspaper Die Welt said today that Mr. Schroder's "Berlin Republic" was directionless.

Germany after 1990 is sometimes referred to as the Berlin Republic.

At this time, the term "Berlin Republic" (alluding to the Cold War-era "Bonn Republic" and the interwar "Weimar Republic") emerged.

No fanfare, no flag-waving, no formal ceremony attended the birth of the "Berlin Republic" in 1999.

The Chancellor appeared concerned to allay any such concerns, saying it was the success of "Bonn democracy" that "makes the Berlin Republic possible."

"We are initiiating our Berlin Republic in the midst of a European war," he said, "and I am one of the people responsible for a policy that leaves me no reason to be optimistic or happy."

The shifting nature of that equation is evident in the fact that some people here have taken to saying that a more accurate name for the new "Berlin Republic" would be the "Brussels Republic."

Contemporary German Fiction Writing in the Berlin Republic.