Ostalgie

May 12, 2011

After the Germans lost the war, the Russians claimed a large swath of the eastern part of Berlin and the eastern part of Germany, which became the German Democratic Republic. They built a huge embassy on the prime avenue, Unter der Lindens. I am standing in front of it, looking like the spy who came in from the cold! Initially they tried to impress people with the Socialist/Communist philosophy. Check out the propaganda mural on a major government building in the photo. When that didn’t work they built “Die Mauer,” the Wall, which sealed off the western influence. The Wall went “live” on August 13, 1961. The longest existing portion is shown in the photo. Hitler’s bunker was near the Brandenburg Gate and near what became the Wall. Next to that site a number of so-called “luxury” East German apartment buildings were built (shown in the photo...this is also where Hitler's body was taken out of the bunker before it was burnt). These buildings faced the West and were meant to give the message that life was good in the East. The most famous and powerful people got apartments in those buildings. Among them was the skater Katarina Witt.

The Wall was not one wall. It was two walls separated by what was called the “Death Strip.” Many people lost their lives trying to escape in all kinds of daring ways. A few made it across alive. To get back and forth across the wall legally, you had to cross “Checkpoint Charlie,” which was the border crossing. As everyone knows, the Wall came down on November 9, 1989. Today one can even buy tiny chunks of it as souvenirs. I am not sure if they are genuine, but they look like they are.

By the way, I did not make a typographical error when I titled this post “Ostalgie.” It is a new German word that combines “Ost” (East) with “Nostalgie” (nostalgia). There is great interest in life under the Communists and one can even rent a Trabant, the plastic car that was a symbol of its time.