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I don’t know what’s up with us but lately we are feeling so nostalgic and enjoy sharing some more historic things about our beloved Berlin, may it be about the Berlin wall, the post-war period or the wild 80s of West Berlin. Today we have yet another look into the 80s, but this time of the East part of Berlin. We found this interesting propaganda film from the GDR that shows the capital of the country in all its glory. It has tons of footage of the same places that we cross every day, but in an entirely different look back then. If you ignore the exaggerations and glorifications from the speaker this is actually a really nice document of time that gives you a good impression of how Berlin looked at the time (even if it was maybe only for the moment of filming) and how the GDR would have liked to be seen by the people. The video and some of my favorite stills after the jump!
Released by Jac Biermann
Diesen Artikel auf deutsch lesen.
by Frank
on May 18th, 2015
updated on November 14th, 2015
in Videos
I am so glad I can live in these days. And near to Berlin 🙂
If only we could go back and tell them their modern tower blocks will become the scars of berlin.
What shitty hipster “new-berliner” comments here? I grew up in that time in berlin – it was a nice place to be … well… maybe the GDR was not a “free” country – but still, we had fun and icecream and stuff … and the tower blocks are the only solution for lots of people….
10:10 Gives me the creeps
Around the same time (mid-eighties) the first thing you’d notice was the drabness of the streets and the lack of advertising everywhere except for the occasional piece of ddr propaganda. You’d go there and meet up with people your age (20s) with tears in their eyes because they were literally trapped and if they didn’t behave themselves, under surveillance as well. And oh yeah, going to one of their show-piece department stores was like stepping back in time another 10 or 20 years.
Not a place to be nostalgic about.
I am an American (from Texas) who came to live in East Berlin two years after the wall fell. If you were not living in East Berlin before the wall fell then you really have no right to comment. Because you were not there and don’t know. There are many different stories and “pictures” of East Berlin from the people who WERE there. I heard them all while they were still fresh in the memories of the people. I will always cherish those people and those stories. And I have learned over time that even if you were in West Berlin in this time you have no real idea of what life was really like. So your comments are not important.
“you really have no right to comment”
Yeah, I thought that kind of approach ended when the Wall came down.
I was in East Berlin several times two years before the Wall came down. The people were friendly and helpful in the streets. The children loved to come up and ask if I knew where the Eis Cafe was (must have been from a television show). The War museum, next to the eternal flame, where I asked the ticket taker if I was allowed to go in and the guide who was unable to finish his spiel when he realized I understood the tale he was telling the school class. A certain cab driver who was extremely helpful when we got turned around at Friedrichstrasse and didn’t see the Checkpoint Charlie crossing (he let us out around the corner and said that was as close as he could get because of the cameras). I do remember the lack of food in the stores and the cabbages and potatoes that would have been thrown away as unsellable in the West, the store windows being full but the shelves empty and being told not to buy foodstuffs in East Berlin because it would be taking away from the Ossies. Having pockets full of East Marks and not seeing anything that you wanted to buy. Drinking a Berliner Weisse under the clock on Alexanderplatz.
Why you have to ignore the speaker man ?
Because it was on the other side of the wall?
Come on it’s actually the story telling what will make you understand Berlin. Don’t ignore it my friend
Sie waren das Volk!
Wow, Berlin was even uglier back then …