article: It is to build a replica of the magnificent palace used from 1702 by the kings of Prussia. Where there is now wasteland in the heart of Berlin, the plan is to recreate the courtyards and ornate domes which were once fit for Frederick the Great. Or at least, to create the appearance of them. The plan is to build the facade of the old palace on three sides, with a modern interior and a modern fourth side facing the River Spree. The way a country sees its buildings reflects the way it might like to see itself. Berlin's Nazi past has nearly vanished. The pockmarks from bomb shrapnel all over the city have been filled in. The important buildings of the Hitler regime are car parks or they are used to house exhibitions illustrating the misdeeds. But there is a yearning for the grandeur of the 19th Century. As onlookers at the ceremony to lay the foundation stone put it: "It's important for German history to build us this kind of castle. "It's good for the history of Germany to make other people see how it has been here in the past." The mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, told the BBC: "We are rebuilding something that got lost in the troubled history of this city, a city that had to go through two world wars and the communist dictatorship." The original palace survived the bombing of the war - just. It remained standing but damaged. What finally destroyed it was the communist regime of the German Democratic Republic. It decided that a royal palace did not quite fit the zeitgeist, applied dynamite and turned it to rubble, using the flattened site to build its parliament. When communism fell, the new authorities decided that the parliament was a pretty ugly and worthless landmark and demolished that too - leaving a gaping space and so room for the recreation of the royal palace at an estimated cost of about 600m euros (Â£509m; $800m). And that is one reason for the controversy surrounding the scheme. Germany now has a string of big construction projects which are massively over-budget and behind time. Berliners swing between mirth and anger when they discuss the city's new airport. It was supposed to open two years ago but delay after delay means it will not now open until 2014 at the earliest. The cost has soared as steeply as the planes that do not take off from its runways. Currently, the estimate is double the initial budget. On top of that, there are elements of farce such as the trains which have to run to it every day - empty - to keep the lines in good shape (and the money meter clicking away furiously). Then there are the lights in the terminal that cannot be regulated so they shine through the night. Or there is the Elbphilharmonie on the waterfront in Hamburg. This concert hall and five-star hotel in shimmering glass on top of an old warehouse was meant to cost 180m euros and meant to open in
summary: Amid much grandeur, President Joachim Gauck of Germany has just laid the foundation stone of one of the country's most ambitious post-war projects.