The final decade of the 20th century started well for Berlin. In 1989, the capitalist west and communist east sides of the city were reunited after 44 years of separation. The following October, the newly-reunified German state selected the Reichstag as its seat of parliament, and a year later, the Government shifted back to Berlin from Bonn permanently.
Reunification was followed by a flurry of economic activity. Construction boomed as companies moved to rebuild the city, while the old East German companies, long protected from the pressures of capitalism, folded or restructured to keep abreast of the times. All of which, of course, signalled a boom time for law firms.
