The image shows the distinctive office tower of Berliner Bank on Hardenbergstraße, photographed in summer 1955. The modern, multi-story reinforced concrete commercial building with its grid-like glass façade and its far-visible rooftop lettering stands for the economic reconstruction and the beginning economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) in West Berlin. In the foreground, a streetcar with an advertisement for “Palm Cigars” passes the building—a sign of lively everyday life and emerging consumer culture in the divided city. A truck and pedestrians further animate the street scene and convey the impression of a functioning, recovering urban society. As a modern bank building in the western part of Berlin, the structure embodies West Berlin’s claim to be recognized as an economically efficient “showcase of the West” in relation to the eastern part of the city.