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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Feb '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Stasiland is an extremely good account of what it was like to like to live in East Germany and re-unified Germany and how people made the transition. The book gives insites about color as well -- buildings were only painted to a certain height so that the big shots when riding around in the cars would see painted buildings, but otherwise why bother with paint. The book also gives accounts from those who were pro-DDR and members of the Stasi.
May '12
Re: East Germany, Before and After
My father was a Russian linguist for the USAF, and we were stationed in Berlin from '84-'87. At one point, we lived in an apartment less than a mile from the Wall and could hear "activity" at night. We visited the East Side several times. When I try to tell people about the difference between East and West, I'll show them our photo albums - looking at the pictures of the Berlin Zoo compared to the east Berlin Zoo is the story in miniature.
Sep '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Cities like Baltmore and Detroit show us that you don't need full communism to reap many of the same benefits.
Nov '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
I was in Germany from 1987 to 1991. I was stationed in a town called Kitzingen, which was reasonably close to East Germany. I can tell you what it was like to march up and down the border, photograph minefields, get shot at by East Germans, and see entire towns separated by concrete and concertina wire. But those were classified operations and I’d have to kill you if I told you. Anyway, I found it interesting the kinds of people who began streaming in after reunification. All of a sudden no servicemen could find housing off base, as anything open was reserved for those fleeing former (or soon to be former) East Germany. The people and their cars were drab. Aside from those first few weeks of seeing the people and their cars, I don’t remember much, just that Germany seemed to go on being Germany. I never made it to East Germany before or after reunification. But I will be travelling to Berlin next week and I simply cannot wait to see the city.
Re: East Germany, Before and After
SlightlyLoony: From '92 to '02, I (an American from San Diego) had the opportunity to visit Tallinn, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia frequently - my company had purchased a software development company there, which I worked with (and eventually managed). This gave me the opportunity to travel all over the area, but most especially Estonia. I got to watch the country transform itself from a Soviet satellite into a thriving European country.
. · 23 hours ago
Fascinating. At an event at the Reagan Library a couple of years ago, I met former Estonian prime minister Maat Laar, the man largely responsible for the country's rapid transformation. When I asked him how he did it, he replied, almost sheepishly, "I just followed one book, Free to Choose by Milton Friedman."
May '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
The King Prawn posted a link to my "after the wall" photos in the area of the church in the death strip - the Communists blew it up just a couple years before the wall fell. Here are photos taken by my family in three different decades before the wall fell.
I used these in a digital scrapbook I made a few years ago. I'm not sure I have the original file for the scrapbook because I suffered a burglary recently and I think the book files were on the laptop that got stolen. Otherwise I'd share all the pages. I included both Kennedy's and Reagan's speeches in it.
I haven't gotten around to making a book of the before and after photos of Germany. There was a lot of rubble still in West Germany when my parents moved there. My father spent a lot of time playing war games in the field.
I have to say I felt especially gleeful having coffee at the Starbucks in the former eastern zone right behind the Brandenburg Gate when I visited in the 2000's.
I promise I'll find the Panmunjom slides, too.
Feb '12
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Peter Robinson
Fascinating. At an event at the Reagan Library a couple of years ago, I met former Estonian prime minister Maat Laar, the man largely responsible for the country's rapid transformation. When I asked him how he did it, he replied, almost sheepishly, "I just followed one book, Free to Chooseby Milton Friedman." · 1 hour ago
To get Nobel prizes in sciences you actually need to discover or invent something. To get one in literature you need to actually author a literary work. Only in Peace and Economics it's enough to have a theory that theoretically could lead to success. Obviously, Nobel Peace prize is even more egregious, but I want to point to economics here.
Two people deserve Nobel Prize in Economics since they actually accomplished positive transformation of their society - Mart Laar and Chandrababu Naidu. (Peter - it's Mart, not Maat). Neither of them got one. Tells more about Nobel Committee than about Laar, Naidu, or Paul Krugman for that matter
Aug '10
Re: East Germany, Before and After
I have a fantasy that one day, the free countries leave the United Nations to establish the League of Democratic States. The LDS could establish alternative prizes to the Nobels. Mart Laar sounds like a worthy candidate for the LDS Economics Prize. I like the idea of honoring people who apply sound economic principles to the real world in order to effect real change.
The United Nations could change its name to the Union of Dictatorships, Autocracies, Monarchies, Theocracies, Kleptocracies, and Basket Cases.
Sep '11
Re: East Germany, Before and After
Too close to "Latter Day Saints".
Those days may be coming.
or "Learning Disabled Students"
Those days are already here.