Elephant in Berlin: east berlin

Showing posts with label east berlin. Show all posts

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Intershop: DDR products shop (and exhibition)

2000, berlin, ddr, DONE, east berlin, east germany, germany, intershop, museum, old, original, ostalgie, products, shop

Intershop was a chain of government-run retail stores in the DDR in which only hard currencies could be used to purchase high-quality goods. The East German mark was not accepted as payment. Intershop was originally oriented towards visitors from Western countries, and later as an outlet where East Germans could purchase goods they could not otherwise obtain.

From the shop, then, there was also a chain of Hotels and of Aiplanes.

After Die Wende, all the shops disappeared, but now it's possible to have a look at the DDR world in a small shop in Friedrichshain near Stralau. The place is between a real shop (some objects are original some others have been re-produced by the same factories that were producing them during the DDR) and a museum part, where you can have a look at the more Ostalgic and famous objects of the time.

Today, 30th of July 2017, the shop is closing, they can not afford the rent.

More infos: WIKI

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/8PGik

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

Parks: Gärten der Welt (Marzahn)

750th, anniversary, berlin, britzer garten, capital, east berlin, garden, garden of the world, Gärten, green, Horticultural Exposition 2017, marzahn, park, plants, present, relax, welt, world

The Marzahn Recreational Park was on 9 May opened in 1987 on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Berlin as the Berlin Horticultural Show and the gardener gift to the capital of the GDR and thus should be a counterpart to the Britzer Garten in West Berlin.

Every pavillon is structured to give an idea of different cultures: arabic, chinese, japanese, italian. The entrance is 4€ in summer, 2€ in winter (but some areas are closed then).

Since October 2000, the park has the title Gardens of the world, making it also became known far beyond the city limits. In 2005, the Chinese Garden was honored in the gardens of the world, the third most beautiful park in Germany.

Since 2013, the park is extended and rebuilt for the International Horticultural Exposition 2017.

More infos: Gruen Berlin
Map: google maps

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

Inside the DDR Museum (Mitte)

berlin, coldwar, collection, ddr, ddr museum, east, east berlin, east germany, exhibition, lob des kommunismus, memory, mitte, museum, objects, ossi, paiting, palast der republik, ronald paris

This is not the first time we have a look inside some museums in Berlin (Inside the Stasi Museum, Inside the Palace of Tears or the German-Russian Museum in Karlshorst) and this time we've been invited directly by the Museum and by Federica Felicetti to take some pictures.
The DDR Museum is very central, just near the Berliner Dom, it's dedicated to the life of Berlin during the East Germany and it is usually full of tourists.
It has been recently expanded, the oldest part is made in a plattenbau buildings shape shelfs, with drawers to open, full of stories to read and original small objects to look at. Mostly all the topics of the history of DDR are covered and being and interactive museum, it is possible to drive an interactive Trabant, to visit an appartment with original DDR furniture, there's a prison room and an interrogatory room, and the new part of the museum hosts a political room and informations about the NVA.
But what is very fascinating in these kind of museums, is to look for original objects and among the others, the museum hosts a chandelier from the Palast der Republik and very important, the wall paiting "Lob des Kommunismus" by Ronald Paris (which is now in the restaurant area), that was in the abandoned Haus der Statistik (the Stasi administrative building in Alexanderplatz; the future of that building is most probably to be demolished, so at least they've saved the paiting).
They also have some other objects that are on an extended loan, like a cinema projector or the Zionkirche's rotary press, used to print the protest flyers during the DDR time, when the pastor Hans Simon gave the basement to the opposition's groups like the „Friedens- und Umweltkreis in der Zionsgemeinde“. As Federica has explained us while she was guiding through the museum, there are a lot of donations of objects made by former DDR citizens, maybe forgotten in some boxes for the last 25years. As we've already argued in OstPro Berlin - Back to the DDR for one day, "the memory of the SED-Diktatur is far away from the everyday life of people, the ideology is totally disappeared and maybe it's time to see what's left".
It's hard for a foreigner to judge a museum dedicated to local memory and history, the general feeling is positive, although the space looks sometimes too small to examine in depth all the topics. I'm sure that the former DDR citizens will love it, so full of their memories.

More infos: ddr-museum.de

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/kYyce

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "