This post starts out east of Alexanderplatz, heart of the former East Zone, and then loops back to the heart of Mitte, the central borough of Berlin.











This post starts out east of Alexanderplatz, heart of the former East Zone, and then loops back to the heart of Mitte, the central borough of Berlin.
I (Richard) remember the Alexanderplatz well fro ma trip I took to the East in 1977. We were in one of the first tour groups designed for Westerners. The last night, when the tour had ended and we were on our own, we walked around a bit, had sausages on the plaza. I appreciated your photo of the big workers’ apartment building. Such architecture was constantly derided as boring. But it’s really in the Bauhaus tradition. If you look at any such buildings put up in the U.S. in the past-war period, you see the same thing. It’s efficiency. I was surprised, however, to learn from you that the toilets were not indoors and private. That’s too much efficiency for me!
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Clint,
That event at the Zeiss-Ikon store was actually in 1983. I was with you. I waited outside with the lieutenant colonel, I believe, for whom you were buying it. I remember that after leaving the store he made an illegal U-turn on the street, saying, “We occupy this country!”
That was my first trip to Berlin, when you invited me along to help with a group of college journalism students interning at The Stars & Stripes, the U.S. military daily newspaper headquartered in Darmstadt. You were the city editor and I was a new military reporter.
Ed Metzler
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Good catch! I stand happily corrected about the date. We were in Germany together for years, so you’ll likely find other anomalies; feel free to use the comments.
I’ve gone to Germany many times now to work, study German or just hear how the language is supposed to be spoken. The more years that pass, the more my memories run into one another. Glad you’ll be along on the next trip.
Thanks.
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