East Germany, Before and After
Just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, photographer Stefan Koppelkamm traveled in East Germany, photographing buildings that had survived both the Second World War and the Communist craze for bulldozing historic structures. Ten years later, he photographed them again. Now Der Speigel has published a sampling of Koppelkamm's work online.
As I've mentioned on Ricochet before, I keep searching for ways of enabling the rising generation to understand--to see--what Communism was like. As the example I reproduce here makes clear, Koppelkamm's work helps. It helps a lot.
I wonder.
Here on Ricochet, are there any Germans--or, for that matter, Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Romanians, Bulgarians or citizens of the Baltic states--who have before and after stories they would be willing to share?
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Jun '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
This is almost as stark as a photo of the Korean peninsula after dark. Sometimes pictures are worth ten thousand words.
The top photo illustrates despair and hopelessness. The bottom one some form of optimism.
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 9:46pmAug '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Such bourgeois gentrification. Tsk tsk tsk...
Dec '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Caroline posted some pictures in the member feed of Berlin after the wall came down. She might be a great resource on this.
Sep '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
A close friend of mine escaped as a boy. We worked together in the years before and after and before the wall fell he went back to visit relatives but one cousin was married to a woman who worked as a police dispatcher so they would have no contact with him. She feared for her job. He said to me, imagine if all these buildings - we worked in a downtown area - had received no maintenance for 50 years. You wouldn't take the elevator.
Mar '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Dresdener Frauenkirche 1989/2010:
Jun '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
I'm always off-narrative. Yes, the first picture is a beautiful symbol of authenticity and gritty realism.
Mar '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
One of the starkest visual contrasts for those who lived in East Germany is color. For some strange reason, the East German government would only allow a very limited number of very faded colors to be used in everyday life.
So houses were unanimously painted a dingy tan, cars were black or a weird ecru, even tablecloths and lineolium were restricted to a few tones such as "DDR green."
One of my in-laws' most prized possessions from socialism is a matchbox made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the DDR. Why? Because to highlight the festive nature of the date, the government actually allowed the color purple to be used on the outside of the box.
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 10:05pmJun '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Mendel: One of the starkest visual contrasts for those who lived in East Germany iscolor. For some strange reason, the East German government would only allow a very limited number of very faded colors to be used in everyday life.
So houses were unanimously painted a dingy tan, cars were black or a weird ecru, even tablecloths and lineolium were restricted to a few tones such as "DDR green."
One of my in-laws' most prized possessions from socialism is a matchbox made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the DDR. Why? Because to highlight the festive nature of the date, the government actually allowed the color purpleto be used on the outside of the box. · 5 minutes ago
Edited 1 minute ago
Was this anti-color policy intentional (i.e., bright color is frivolous and communism is serious) or just an organic growth from a system that is by nature drab?
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Flip the "Before" and "After" photos around, and you could call the slideshow "Paris 2075."
Aug '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
tabula rasa
Mendel: One of the starkest visual contrasts for those who lived in East Germany iscolor. For some strange reason, the East German government would only allow a very limited number of very faded colors to be used in everyday life.
So houses were unanimously painted a dingy tan, cars were black or a weird ecru, even tablecloths and lineolium were restricted to a few tones such as "DDR green."
One of my in-laws' most prized possessions from socialism is a matchbox made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the DDR. Why? Because to highlight the festive nature of the date, the government actually allowed the color purpleto be used on the outside of the box. · 5 minutes ago
Edited 1 minute ago
Was this anti-color policy intentional (i.e., bright color is frivolous and communism is serious) or just an organic growth from a system that is by nature drab?
Was it a function of the fact that brightly coloured dyes prior to the age of synthetics required the importation of exotic ingredients, and that means ... I shudder to imagine it ... trade.
Aug '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Detroit 2012.
Edit: Upon further reflection, I take it back.
Unlike Detroit, the buildings are at least still standing in the above photos.
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 10:34pmMar '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
tabula rasa
Was this anti-color policy intentional (i.e., bright color is frivolous and communism is serious) or just an organic growth from a system that is by nature drab?
A good question, and one to which nobody seems to have a complete answer.
Certainly some of the drabness was a result of the constant lack of funds. Dyes, especially for large houses (like the kind the government erected everywhere) were expensive and not strictly necessary.
On the other hand, the institutional nature of product development certainly played a role, although I imagine an indirect and subtle one. Socialist governments loved to grasp onto superficial displays of prosperity to hide the rot within, so I can't imagine that the drabness of society was a calculated move to affect morale.
Aug '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
tabula rasa
I'm always off-narrative. Yes, the first picture is a beautiful symbol of authenticity and gritty realism.
The top photo is also 75 per cent more carbon-friendly!
The DDR was truly enlightened.
May '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
In 1992 3 years after the wall fell, I was fortunate enough to be on a study abroad in Germany so I toured a great deal of it. Going west to east was like going back in time 40 years. There were spots where they were modernizing their buildings but for the most part everything was grey and dingy. I remember walking thru the ruins of Dresdener Frauenkirche while a country music festival was going on next door. It was kind of weird walking thru the desolute ruins of a bombed out church while Garth Brooks was blasting away in the background.
Mar '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
For all the beauty of before/after pictures of East Germany, we should keep in mind that much of the restoration of those cities was not financed by private enterprise, but by a series of enormous government-mandated transfer payments (although many projects, such as the Frauenkirche above, were facilitated through private charity).
Tragically, many of the beautifully renovated buildings in the east stand desolate, vacated by unemployment and emigration. I once visited a three-bedroom apartment with marble fireplaces, gold leaf on the ceiling and glass chandeliers. The rentor was asking 250€ a month and could find no takers. The beautification of East Germany, while certainly heartening, has been about as profitable as TARP.
For me, the most genuine visual signs of revitalization in the East are pictures like this one, taken a few steps east of the Brandenburger Tor in what was once cheerfully known as the "death zone":
Jun '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Misthiocracy
The top photo is also 75 per cent more carbon-friendly!
The DDR was truly enlightened. · 26 minutes ago
I assume that's because they had nothing to burn to keep warm and the remainder of the nation's carbon was safely encased in layers of grime. Eco-utopia.
Aug '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
tabula rasa
Misthiocracy
The top photo is also 75 per cent more carbon-friendly!
The DDR was truly enlightened. · 26 minutes ago
I assume that's because they had nothing to burn to keep warm and the remainder of the nation's carbon was safely encased in layers of grime. Eco-utopia.
More basic than that. The top photo has 1 automobile. The bottom photo has 4.
Sep '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Am I the only one who likes the "before" pictures more? Is it because I spend too much time listening to Tom Waits and hanging out in New Orleans?
~Jimm
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 11:00pmJun '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
And the you'll rub your French brother-in-law's nose in it (or, more accurately, your descendants will rub his descendants' noses in it).
Jun '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Misthiocracy
tabula rasa
Misthiocracy
The top photo is also 75 per cent more carbon-friendly!
The DDR was truly enlightened. · 26 minutes ago
I assume that's because they had nothing to burn to keep warm and the remainder of the nation's carbon was safely encased in layers of grime. Eco-utopia.
More basic than that. The top photo has 1 automobile. The bottom photo has 4. · 1 minute ago
But, from what I hear, the exhaust from four East German cars could destroy an entire eco-system.