BARELY a generation ago, the two things that sprang to mind at the mention of Berlin would probably have been its infamous Wall and Liza Minnelli's frenetic turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

With so much of central Berlin flattened by Allied bombing during World War II, the city's post-war rehabilitation - both physical and psychological - has been a little difficult to say the least. After all, the city - split in two like Jekyll and Hyde - has long laboured under the seemingly impossible burden of being Hitler's headquarters and, by extension, the symbolic core for the Holocaust.

Yet, quite without anyone really noticing it, 16 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German capital is in the midst of a Renaissance that is broadcasting social, cultural, political and economic flourishes in equal doses.

All this against a background of a recession and an economy staggering under the weight of a muscular euro, where locals still muse longingly for the more halcyon days of the deutschemark. Still, with incremental steps that have become increasingly bold strides, Berlin has staged a resurgence - and at the same time a rallying call for savvy jet-setting mavens to pack their Tumis immediately for a long overdue visit. Whether for fashion, cuisine or just plain old-fashioned sightseeing (Berlin boasts an enviable spread of majestic museums, galleries and boutiques), this is a hedonistic bolt-hole.

Throughout its turbulent modern history, the city has never lost its reputation for electric creativity nor, indeed, its armour-plated aura of stylish brio - here again, cue images of Ms Liza followed closely by its favourite son, the provocative photographer Helmut Newton.

Incidentally, the latter is immortalised with the slick Newton Bar, its restrained Art Deco interior dominated by a wall of Herr Newton's outsized saucy images of nude Amazons. Prudes should just steer clear and, instead, high-tail it to KaDeWe, Potsdamer Platz and Ku'damm for some high-octane retail therapy.

Of course, the party circuit is red-hot with the epicentre for bright young things, with plenty of euros to spare, lasered on the clubs and bars around Muhlenstrasse, Simon-Dach-Strasse and the new beachheads of late-night carousing, Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg.

Certainly, Berliners would have you believe that there is more to the city than just its legendary unbridled partying. And here, they will trot out, as an example, the recently unveiled European School of Management and Technology, the city's putative answer to Harvard, Insead and IMD. Set up by 25 of the country's leading companies - Lufthansa, Daimler Chrysler and Siemens among them - the ESMT is a private university. Housed in the beautifully restored State Council building, its sole aim is to groom the next generation of super-elite captains of industry. That its yearly intake is a paltry 30 students shows how seriously the university's founders are taking their task.

Not surprisingly, the design scene is a hotbed for daring works with the likes of architect-turned-furniture designer Tom Kuhne leading the way with a series of unconventional, but intriguing, chairs and bookshelves.

Meanwhile, Berlin's architectural landscape boasts an enviable roll-call of bold-faced names courtesy of the 1957 builders' exhibition at which the then West Berlin invited the likes of Oscar Niemeyer, Walter Gropius and Alvar Aalto to design in the city. These days, even the most disinterested archi-student would be hard-pressed to miss Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation, Rem Koolhaa's marvellous Dutch embassy, Frank Gehry's deconstructed interiors at DG Bank and, of course, Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie.

Elsewhere, the by now cliched draw card is Norman Foster's classic in the round Reichstag, a gently ascending spiral that unveils the panorama of central Berlin with each turn. More sobering, though no less compelling, are Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum and the haunting field that is Peter Eisenmann's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, just south of the iconic Brandenburg Gate.

There are, in the end, so many reasons to visit Berlin, not least the fact that from now till July, the city (indeed, the entire country) is host to a number of World Cup fixtures, with the grand final taking place at the historical Olympiastadion on July 20. Without any apologies, the city is both chaotic - there are still parts of Berlin, mostly in the east, that appear not to have changed much since its Communist heyday - and exuberantly creative. And perhaps, therein lies its allure - the fact that, like New York pre-Giuliani's manic spring-clean, Berlin remains a multi-faceted diamond, half brilliantly polished, and the half still excitingly raw.