Brilliant photos: East Germany, Up Close and Personal

[trekkiedane]

Here: http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-41629.html

44 photos made in East Germany in 1999 (shortly after the reunification).

A few samples:

Picking up their heating coal: Children with a wagon collect coal bricks,
the main source of heating fuel in the former East Germany

A Sunday stroll in the East German city Eisenach: During another trip, the photographer visited
the southern parts of East Germany and found charm in the decay

A man stands above a Trabi,
the standard car that most East Germans could purchase

A bedroom and TV room with a sleeper sofa in front of shelves in the
so-called 'Gelsenkirchen Baroque' popular in East Germany, photographed in 1990

An electronics store: The electronics on sale in 1990 in Mecklenburg
were already woefully outdated by Western standards. They would soon be replaced by modern components
​

Plenty more where they came from, most of them very good! -Just thought I'd share.

 

[spinnerlys]

Thanks for the link.

I grew up in Eastern Germany, and those photos have a special charm that is lost now with all the "restorations" that took place after the GDR joined the FRG in 1990.

Btw, it was no re-unification as it is always said, as that would have meant, that the unified Germany would get a constitution instead of the basic constitutional law we got now.

 

[trekkiedane]

Btw, it was no re-unification as it is always said, as that would have meant, that the unified Germany would get a constitution instead of the basic constitutional law we got now.

My bad, Would the word unification be more correct do you reckon?

 

[spinnerlys]

You can use what ever word you like, I don't mind.

Re-Unification is used the most, as it was some kind of re-unification.

Only the FRG's basic constitutional law (Grundgesetz) stated, that in the event of an official (re-)unification, the new Germany would get a constitution.
As it is now, well still have the Grundgesetz and the GDR became a part of the FRG, and not a new Germany.

I'm sorry, if I came of as an ass, or so. It was not my intention.

Just strange to see such photos linked to on such USA-oriented board.

 

[trekkiedane]

I'm sorry, if I came of as an ass, or so. It was not my intention.

Not at all -on the contrary actually: You're better suited to understand the semantics concerning the two Germany's than I (or most other posters around here) so is is very welcome

Just strange to see such photos linked to on such USA-oriented board.

Yeah, most things on The Trek BBS tend to come from the US -but as that also includes the posters I suppose we'll have to live with it

ETA:
Been looking a bit at the photos in your sig - Wow, those are very good! -Did you ever try to make any of them into thread bombs? -I soooo wanted to use some of your work in that thread

 

[Count Zero]

It's kind of shocking to see pictures from the GDR of the late 80s/early 90s, compared to what the West looked like. It sort of looks as if time had stood still there or it was a decade behind in terms of style, starting from the design of packages to clothes (to a lesser degree). I was still a child when we emigrated to West Germany in February 1988 so I don't really remember how the GDR looked. Shortly after re-unification, we went back to visit friends and relatives. We stayed at a friend's flat. It's funny, I don't remember much of this visit but still very clearly this: at supper, I tried to coat a slice of bread with butter which hadn't been out of the fridge for long and thus was a bit hard and the sclice of bread pretty much fell apart. I thought, "they can't even get bread right." Somehow, this sums up my GDR experience quite well.