Saturday, September 21

Today we extended our reach into the former East Berlin, which is well on its way to becoming the true heart of the city again. Here are a some views of Alexanderplatz and vicinity.

Double Decker Carousel!

Biergarten, of course!

Video in the Alexanderplatz area, culminating with a view of the Fernsehturm (TV Tower).

The atheistic Communist regime was quite embarrassed when they discovered that the sun’s reflection on the rotating restaurant at the top frequently created the image of a cross. It’s not too well defined in this view, but usually quite obvious when seen from afar. They tried all sorts of ways to eliminate it, but to no avail.

Thus the tower achieved its nickname, The Pope’s Revenge.

The Trabant (“Trabi”) was the people’s vehicle of East Germany. Many of them have survived, been restored, and made available for rental.

Then to the major objective of the day, the DDR Museum.

DDR = Deutsche Demokratische Republik = German Democratic Republic = East Germany.

But first, we had to stop for a surprise discovery, a crêpe stand. It brought us right back to many enjoyable stops at a similar establishment in Dijon during Sue Anne’s junior year in France. But they had only one grilling surface, so the crêpes came out serially.

Then to the museum. It had three major themes describing life in the Soviet-controlled East (1945-1989):

- There were lots of opportunities offered for training and education, but you really had to prove yourself as a true believer in the system to advance your position in society.

- Everything was in extremely short supply. Whatever East German industry was able to produce was first offered to the international marketplace to keep the economy moving, and the locals were lucky to get a piece of whatever might be left.

- Everyone was being watched. Neighbors were encouraged to tell on each other.

We had heard stories from American friends of trips to East Berlin where they tried to order off the menu at restaurants, only to be told that the people at that table over there had just consumed the last of that particular offering, but we would be happy to offer (some minimal item) as a substitute. Or similarly, they would spot something in the ubiquitous, elegant display cases out on the sidewalk, inquire in the store, and be told that the last item in stock was just walking out the door, but there would be more next week.

But there was one apparent high spot in East German life. The museum had reconstructed a copy of the standard tower block apartment, and it was really spacious and quite pleasantly appointed. Of course, you might not have been able to acquire enough food to really put that nice kitchen to productive use.

University lecture hall, almost totally filled with true believers.

Scale of the ‘people’? About an inch.

A favorite joke about the economy of East Germany.

Erich Honecker was the General Secretary of the East German Socialist Unity Party, and essentially the boss of the country.

The diary itself was on exhibit.

The uplifting part of the exhibit was this re-created tower block apartment.

Quite pleasant.

Locally made educational toys in the children’s bedroom.

FM radio installed in one of the cabinets and marked with the frequency of the officially approved stations.

Locally applied stickers show the location of those definitely not approved by the authorities. RIAS at the left is Radio in the American Sector. Others are of similar character.

This image was going around the Web at the time of the Fall of the Wall. It’s not from the museum.

A few strokes with a paintbrush joyfully transformed an East German automobile’s nationality plaque into one from Germany.

Then it was a bit more local wandering, and then back to our hotel via the well integrated and quite reasonably priced local transit system of subways, elevated trains, and buses. The new Hauptbahnhof (main railroad station) is a gigantic, multi-story, shopping mall sort of place that brings all of those together, along with the national rail system.

Statues that come to life when a donation is added to the bowls.