Various Artists - 2014 Weekly Playlists
The Bad Plus - Inevitable Western
John Lemke - People Do
2raumwohnung - 2raumwohnung Singles
Almost, by now, predictably beautiful weather...
Indeed, another scorcher on its way...
Breakfast now becoming much lighter but possibly still slightly too much...
Out into the sun...
...and a bus to Bahnhof Zoo...
..followed by an S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt...
...and a walk towards the cathedral and museum island...
Our target this morning was the DDR Museum, which we thought might be quite tacky but was absolutely superb and very informative, keeping us involved for a good ninety minutes - much more interesting than a football match...
First interactive item was a Trabant...
...in which we were able to drive around an East Berlin estate on a simulator...
The waiting list for these (the only cars in East Germany other than the Volvos of the party leaders) was up to 16 years...
The much regulated lives of children and teenagers in East Germany were also examined...
The 1st of May celebrations...
..where everyone marched past their "glorious leader" Erich Honecker, who ordered the construction of the Berln Wall and the firing upon those trying to cross it...
Communisim fell in 1989 and, in 1991, he escaped to the Chilean Embassy in Moscow but was extradited back to Germany to stand trial - due to ill health his trial was abandoned and he was allowed to join his family in Chile, where he died in 1994...
There are many displays regarding staples in the shops of East Germany, many of which often proved unavailable...
These stamp books reminded me of the old co-op stamps my family collected religiously at "the store" in the 60s and 70s to obtain an annual dividend...
I was surprised to learn that the people were paid more than they were able to spend, as the prices of staples were maintained at an artificially low rate by the state...
That plus the fact that there was never anything they wanted in the shops...
This led to "luxury shops" being introduced to allow the population to spend its excess cash. Again though, these shops were often empty due to lack of supply...
What a very strange and alien way of life...
And, all the time they were watched over by the State...
..and files were kept on almost everyone, noting down the minutest details of their everyday lives, in case anything needed to be used against them at some point in the future...
Oportunities for consumption were advertised, here, a fashion catalogue...
...here, a man shaving inside his Trabant (?)...
In truth the East Germans spent most of their spare time in their gardens, as travel was too difficult in a country where the trains seldom ran on time and you had to wait up to 16 years to buy a car...
The state did try though to ensure everyone had a standard home...
Although there was a multitude of newspapers, they all carried the same messages...
These were the papers on 10 July 1984,,,
All press was controlled by the state...
As was TV and cinema...
...and what you might have in your home...
Many books were not banned per se but strangely unobtainable...
In 1974 the two sides of Germany met in the World Cup - East Germany won 1-0...
...but West Germany went on to win the cup...
The state tried to stop rock'n'roll by introducing its own dances...
One success story in East Germany was of those with a propensity for naturalism...
In the last room, the more overtly political and military aspects of the regime were covered...
This an interrogation room where actual questions and answers from a taped interrogation could be listened to...
I had a go at designing a socialist human and scored full marks...
In the Socialist calendar you could look up any date to find a notable Socialist person or event...
I'll say this for the East Germans, between 1950 and 1989 they increased the percentage of their population with no religious affiliations from 7.6% to 63.5%...
Of course, as in George Orwell's book "Animal Farm", some were more equal than others...
Big cars, the best imported food, huge homes, country holiday homes etc etc - nothing was too good for the 10,000 or so of the party elite...
One interesting display I didn't get a snap of was the one with regard to Chernobyl. It seems, shortly after that, there was a surfeit of Russian food available in the East German shops, after the incident had been declared nothing much to worry about...
Eventually of course, the system collapsed and the wall came down...
Good to get back out into the sun...
A walk past the cathedral...
...and St. Marienkirche...
...and the Rotes Rathaus (red town hall)..
...to the Nikolaiviertel and the Nikolaikirche...
...where, of course, ice cream was required...
The black part of this quartet is a drill bit being used to create a new U-Bahn line under the city...
A tram to Hackescher Markt again...
...and a look around the Hackesche Höfe, a colony of shops and artisan outlets in a series of courtyards set back from the main street...
...including the Ampelmann shop...
A walk back to the Hackescher Markt for some refreshments...
...before taking the S-Bahn...
... to the magnificent Hauptbahnhof...
...from where it was another short walk to...
...The Hamburger Bahnhof, no longer a station but a modern art gallery...
A book on the art of Gerhardt Richter was almost purchased but I decided that, along with the already purchased Bauhaus book, the weight may have been too much for an old man to traipse across Europe on the way home...
Back the Hauptbahnhof...
...and a walk around the environs...
...and some more refreshments and some reading...
...before catching the U-Bahn up to Pankow on what was a bit of an East Germany day...
...for this was where the party elite resided before the collapse of communism...
We walked along Ossietzkystrasse and wondered who Carl von Ossietzky was...
He was a German journalist and pacifist who was convicted of high treason and espionage in 1931 for publishing details of Germany's violation of the Treaty of Versailles by rebuilding its air force and training pilots in the Soviet Union...
He was confined to concentration camps by the Nazis in 1933 after the Reichstag fire...
In 1935 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but, of course, was unable to travel to Oslo to receive it...
The award was not reported in the German press and a law was passed forbidding any Germans from accepting future Nobel prizes...
He died in hospital under Gestapo guard on 4 May 1938 from TB and the after effects of the abusive treatment received in the camps...
Onwards...
..until, through the trees...
..we came to Erich Honecker's house...
...just a wee bit OTT compared to what he was building for the ordinary citizens whose lives he controlled so strictly...
Nice back garden too...
...where a man was playing frisbee with his dog...
A walk back to the station...
..and the U-Bahn back to Prenzlauer Berg...
...for some very tasty lasagne...
...before catching the S-Bahn back to Zoo Station...
... and a bus along to Wilmersdorf...
Another packed day...
Highlight of the Day : Once again, everything really...
No comments:
Post a Comment