1969 - East Berlin - DDR
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- July 28, 1969 - After stopping at Checkpoint Charlie for a couple of hours, entered East Berlin, Hauptstadt der D.D.R., where we took tour. Saw Hitler's Bunker Mound, the Berlin Church bombed out by the Americans, Unter den Linden, Humboldt Universität. (Video 4 of 17 of 1969 Trip taken by William R. Noack and William R. Noack, Jr.)
Just beautiful. Calm, tranquil. Spent a lot of time there in the late 70's - early 80's.
Those were the days!
Thanks for this!! You bring back many memories for me. I didn't have a movie camera in those days!!
This is an absolute gem, thank you so much for this. So important for future genearations to see this.
fantastic video. This reminded me of when I travelled though Chaechpoint Charlie with my dad in 1974 (he was British Military) I felt a huge wave of nostalgia, and quite emotional. When I went back to Berlin last year in 2009, I felt very little emotion. The place felt like it was missing the vibrancy and energy of the Cold War Years. Thank you for the memories!!
Thank you so much for this video. I first went to Berlin in 1977 and there was no big difference. The ruins were still ruins. Nowadays it seems to be in a different town. Pls. excuse my bad english :)
Amazing, William ... respect!
thanks so much for the upload. real fascinating the whole east/west germany
Faszinierend, das wieder zu sehen. Ja, viele Ecken sind mir aus Kindertagen
noch so in Erinnerung. Und ich war erst Mitte der 1970er das erste Mal in Berlin-O.
Hat sich also in der ganzen Zeit wenig verändert, scheint mir.
Auf jeden Fall Danke für die Bilder.
Yes, we had 2 Super 8 Cameras. That's why I could take a video of my Dad taking a video with the other camera at the beginning of one of these films when we first entered the DDR. So when we divided them into subjects it was approximately. My last trip to Berlin was in '73, which is 40 years ago now, so I'm not as familiar with some of the exact locations as others. Thanks for the identification.
I know West Germans were able to get into East Germany because a lot of them flew with Interflug the East German airline. Fares were usually cheaper than flying with Lufthansa. But these were usually specially chartered busses that would go directly to Berlin Schönefeld Airport from West Berlin, no stops in between.
Thank you for this video! I love Berlin and since I was born in 1973 I couldn't have seen it at the time! I love such "historical" videos which give me the chance to see how it was back then. Thanks indeed! :-)
Thanks a lot for posting! Have a genuine interest for this period and place!
The last time I was in Berlin was in '72, so it would be culture shock to go back now since reunification has happened. My Dad, on this 1969 trip with me, hadn't been back to Berlin since 1938 and with half the buildings destroyed in the War he was still able to find his way around, so I guess I could too if I ever get back.
Thanks for uploading . It is a priceless glimpse into the past .
The thing that always gets me with the GDR is that it's so odd to see a large european city with NO advertisements of any kind. Kind of nice tbh
William, I was a tour guide in the East for American forces. I was an interpreter from 1967 through most of 1969 and your film is exactly as I remember it. Did they take you to the soviet memorial in Treptower Park? That was the GI's favorite part of the tour.
So einen Flm findet man nicht jeden Tag! Vielen Dank dafür. Das sind ja quasi meine Protokollstrecken. Es hat sich doch einiges stark verändert!
Ich möchte bitte meine DDR zurück ! I will back my GDR.
It would be good to bring back but without the oppression,Stasi,and unrestricted freedom to leave and go where you wished.
Wunderschöne Aufnahmen.
Neun Jahre später, ab meinem dritten Lebensjahr, habe ich in dieser Gegend gewohnt, also von 1978- 82.
Ich erinnere mich noch gut an die teilweise "seltsamen" Eindrücke und "eigenartige" Tristess in dieser Gegend.
Es waren schöne Kindheitsjahre..
Bitte bewahre diese wunderbaren Aufnahmen.
I was an exchange student in Berlin in 1970, and went across to East Berlin many times. This is exactly how I remember it.
I also was back in Berlin in early 1971, going to the Spring semester of Schiller College in West Berlin, so also went back and forth to the East many times. Just got in the mail yesterday the new book "Beyond the Wall: A History of East Germany" which I'm looking forward to going through.
Thanks for uploading this.
Although most of Berlin has changed there's still small bits that haven't - I've added a video reply with a photo of the mural which can be seen in this video behind the pillars around 6:00-6:05 - taken the same day you uploaded this video - just over 40 years after this was recorded :)
John
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS FILM.....MARVELOUS....ITS CHANGED SOOOO MUCH
In addition to 1969, I spent about 4 months in Berlin in 1971 & 1972, about 35 trips across the DDR/BRD Grenze. Then my last trip to the DDR was in '85. Haven't been back since reunification, so it would seem very foreign to me now, both for good and bad. In '71 I was almost run over by aggressive American tanks practicing in the Grunewald, plus British troops in the West and Russian in the East. I visited British, French, & American bases in West Berlin while I was there, mainly for foods.
The modern Alexanderplatz centerpiece with the round monument was not built until after this '69 trip. I remember seeing it the first time in either my 1971 or 1972 trips to the DDR when it was opened and heavily promoted as a tourist center.
This is relly cool!!
Thanks for showing this.
No, the rubble of the Berlin Castle had been carted away a couple of decades earlier, in 1950. Then a few years after this film was taken the Palace of the Republic was built on the site of the Royal Palace in 1973. That in turn was demolished by 2008.
I'm so glad that you bring it up :
"less hassles at American airports"!
And maybe this "less hassles" describes the true "science-fiction-futuristic" kind of stuff you had in mind while you thought of Berlin. The U.S. authorities (e.g. Customs, Immigration, Homeland Security) have become paranoid ever since 9/11. And for me it looks like the slogan "take it as it comes" is the only way to cope with this situation today. Due to the fact that seemingly America's "War On Terror" isn't finished yet.
Thank you so much for uploading this excellent document. The quality is astounding. It's incredible how much the city has changed.
All the films are posted here of my entire 1969 trip - as noted this was #4 of 17, but only a couple are of Berlin. Yes, I think the Cathedral when I photographed it was before they put the spires back on - I remember seeing pictures of that in the DDR Review issues later. The people who transferred my film did a good job - special cleaning and digital HD capture of the original films. I then transferred it to a lower-grade medium so I could upload to RUclips - I think I transferred to MP4's.
Also I saw the Oscar-winning film Patton when it came out AT an American Army base I visited in Berlin, in the middle of winter. Coming out of the theater, in the snow with American troops all around and German civilians speaking German it was mind-blowing, like being IN the movie, or transported back 25 years to the end of the War! (I had access to bases through my father having been a general in WW2 - US Army, but German heritage. Also he had been attached to the Embassy in 1938 in Berlin.)
super video - danke fuers hochladen
Surprising amount of the older classical-style buildings left in '69. They must have repaired a lot of war damage for them still to be standing.
Also nice to see no advertising, no graffiti, less traffic, no obvious immigrants, more open spaces...so different from the Eastern Berlin of today.
+Sally Smith Yes, before this my Dad hadn't been back to Berlin since 1938 - 31 years earlier, and felt very much at home in the East since it looked pretty much as he had remembered. But a lot of the West downtown had been bombed flat, so the building he had lived in on Ku-damm no longer existed and had new construction. I haven't been back to Berlin myself since 1972, so I'm sure I'd be surprised by the changes - the less German culture, with no graffiti, more Americanization taking over. They didn't even have American hamburgers over there when I lived in Berlin in 1971! So if the whole world just duplicates Big Business everywhere, with Starbucks in Beijing, and McDonalds in Mumbai, and the same franchises of clothing stores in every city's downtown, why even bother to travel these days? May as well stay home... as I have, since the 80's. The unique individual cultures are getting squashed into one world culture. There were parts of Germany when I was last there where very few people spoke English. Can't say that is true today. It makes it easier for a native English speaker, for sure, but it is kind of sad to have the loss of uniqueness everywhere in the world.
+Bogdan-Ioan Moisă Very good points.
Oh, sooo nice. No Advertising... for what? Things the ordinary GDR people cannot buy? No Graffiti, that´s a good point… clean street.. no Graffiti, no oposition! Nice the "less traffic", as getting a car was with a waiting list of arround 13 years and paying a fortune to get a Trabant. No obvious immigrants, so a national socialist state… ab interesting how you could identify a nationality by watching corny Pictures... and ignore Vietnamese contract worker held in camp like areas. More open spaces, soooo nice if you ignore the fact, that theses spaces were buildt before and destroyed during WWII. Sooooo nice!
This brought back many memories. Thank you! I have films and slide presentations of Berlin from 1959, 1961 and various other years on my channel. My mother is from Berlin and it is the city that re-energizes me! It is my second home.
That's what I thought. I'm sorry if I seemed like a pedantic, but I'm a Berlin historian and I give English speaking private tours that take me by there on a regular basis. What an amazing experience it must've been for you to be here during the Cold War. Thanks so much for posting this footage!
Was there restricted areas that tourists could not see at the time?
Lovely footage, truly amazing. I was wondering. Would it be okay to use some of this footage for a music video?
Yes. That would be OK. William
@@WilliamNoack Thank you so much!
1:40 Who is the bourgeoisie with the convertible car ?
I remember when I walked across Checkpoint Charlie in 1977, as soon as I crossed into East Berlin, I could see very close by, some buildings that were clearly bombed in WW2, that still hadn't been repaired or demolished. I believe eventually they were demolished to clear the way for a wider "no man's land" on the border with West Berlin. There were lots of other buildings further deep into East Berlin that still looked bombed. I remember walking past the famous Jewish Synagogue, still totally bombed out, that just had a fence around it, no signage, just a bunch of rubble.
How long does the original run for? Your film really captures the city at that time. Can you imagine, friends from California and I, were standing on the roof of the Cathedral in 1988? I was watching in suspense to see if you were going to include it! Workmen on site, took us on a mega tour of the building, from the top, inside/outside and all the way down into to the Gruft/Crypt! It was unforgettable! There are companies that do HD for Super 8, are you aware of this?
I like this video..
Thanks for showing this :)
Even though its unified politically I have read that there are massive cultural differences between east and west even to the point of type of light is used . A sattelite map confirms this showing the old border and the different colour of light .
The good all days..No Multi-kulti garbage.. Real Deutschen Stock..🌷🌷🌷..👍👊🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪=DDR..
Yeah only socialism garbage you mean.
Sounds like a worthy project! (My original Super 8 film I had transferred to DVD, then made copies of parts of the DVD to upload here.)
True, apart from political placards exhorting people to be better Socialists. There was also no graffiti, it was safe to walk the streets everywhere, and everyone had housing and a job and free education, health care, opportunity to attend concerts and events for nominal prices. It was so sad to see at the end of the film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) graffiti all over East Berlin. There are definitely TWO sides to this issue - in some ways it was better, a more equal society.
It was so beautiful that everyone wanted to escape from this socialist eden
William Noack have you ever been there? Did you know anybody that lived under these pricks? I doubt it
Peter Mayer
Got a good friend from DDR.
Was not as bad as believed.
Todays refugees get more Euros than what hed receives in pension. That's Germany of today. Makes u think doesn't it?
Safe to walk the streets...every flat had its own Stasi agent listening in on you and following your every move, misspeak 1 time and your life is ruined, limited to where you were allowed to travel, neighbors informing on you….Yep, definitely 2 sides.
Greg Menego That’s something good considering how people are still bombarded by the West to think it was the second coming of hellhole. People should go to Detroit or inner city Washington D.C.
At 1:46 you're not in East Berlin anymore; you're across the street from what's left of the Anhalter Bahnhof in Kreuzberg (West Berlin). Did you combine two cameras or film on separate days?
I'm seeing quite a bit of cars that aren't Trabbants
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the two Germanys should have remained separate nations or at the very least not "rushed" to reunite after the Wall fell. It should be academic now that East Germany was not ready economically to unite with West Germany. It should have been given a chance to develop the way the other former Eastern Bloc nations did. With few exceptions, most East German companies could not compete with Western ones which caused massive unemployment and poverty. If East Germany had been allowed to go through a transition period, it would have adapted to capitalism more gradually and on its own terms and then would have been in a much better position to reunite with West Germany or even remain independent. Sure, things are much better now but reunification has come at staggering financial and human cost.
I agree completely. It was sad how a viable country to which many people felt a sense of belonging and love was gobbled up by the greedy capitalists from the West. Rich West Germans rushed in to buy up properties, goods, and get Eastern girlfriends. It should have been a gradual unification, or a separate state, like German-speaking Austria had been left out of the Union in the 19th Century so a unified German state would be Protestant-dominated instead of Catholic-dominated. I haven't been back to Germany since the 80's, but from seeing the film "The Lives of Others" - it made me very sad to see the new East filled with graffiti and other western decadence. I saw wonderful changes and progress and prosperity in East Germany from the shabby 60's to the prosperous 80's. Western propaganda blamed the system, but really Russia denuded East Germany after the War, shipping factories and even tearing up railroad tracks to take back to Russia - at the same time the Marshall Plan was pouring American money INTO West Germany. And parts of East Germany were less prosperous even before the War. Considering how the Russians treated East Germany, ithe East Germans did a remarkable job pulling themselves up from poverty and becoming the most prosperous state in the whole eastern bloc, of which they were very proud. And it was all taken away from them.
The people I felt sorriest for were those East Germans over 50 who lost their jobs when their factories closed. Most of them never found work again and were completely left out of the new German society. It was almost criminal that no provisions were ever made for such people to help them integrate into the new economy. I strongly suspect that if the East Germans had known of these devastating consequences of reunification, I doubt most of them would have supported it. What was needed was "capitalism with a human face", not the casino capitalism that West Germans offered.
The process was rushed on purpose. Read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, it's a real eye opener.
I remember a conversation I had with someone 4 or 5 years before the wall fell. We both believed that even if the Soviet Block came to some end that the East wouldn't really necessarily end up in a single country. It was pretty clear to me at the time that if they didn't get the East into the Bund quickly the Ossies would lose the desire for a single nation state.
Ironically many of the progressive ideals heralded by Sovietist Socialism took root in the East and if the DDR had continued it had a real chance to be the most modern of societies. Gender Equality, Gay rights, egalitarianism, child care, pensions, and basic economic rights and privileges all were farther advanced in the East or becoming so at the time of the Wende. The powers that be were afraid competent leaders in the East might figure out how to pay for or make the East's economy function. Without Aparatchiks gumming up the machine, real Democratic Socialism might threaten the Western system.
Oh good lord, you are psycho. I am so glad to be free from communism and the east. Go to cuba, see how well they are doing. Nothing got gobbled up. People FLED communism, just like Cubans are still fleeing now.
@supertomrocks same for me, in 1984. It was unreal, the contrast between the West and its Eastern part in the night.
They usually took time to look at passports, comparing them against databases of names not allowed in the Republic - this was before computers. It usually took me about a half hour to get through customs and go into East Germany the 30 or 40 times I crossed the border. The guy at the right in :44 was our bus driver, having an animated chat while waiting. I presume the girl was a border guard talking with him while somebody else had taken the manifest away to be analyzed in one of the houses.
What I love about countries like the Soviet Union and DDR is no commercialized ads anywhere to be seen, not even a billboard. Now it's all junked up with litter.
many thanks
Like all policemen, some were friendly, some were arrogant, throwing around their weight. I only felt "watched" at the borders, and only paranoid if doing something forbidden, like having traded money on the black-market, or carrying in citrus fruits during the early years when it was hard to get. (E. Germany had no access to Western citrus which came from Israel or Spain. Eventually they got imports from Bulgaria.) Or if I had a lot of religious literature on me at the time I worried a bit.
(actually it doesn't seem to have linked - It's available on my profile!)
Trabbies everywhere...as ubiquitous as the Beetle was in the west. did not realize they were so common. a capitalist swine Mercedes convertible makes a couple entrances (2:14), also, a big sneeze ZIL limo (I think) cruises by (8:10), and oddly, a brand new '69 Camaro zipping along (7:58).
Not exactly the swinging sixties, of London is it?
We're East Berliners allowed to own houses or did everyone live in them bleak apartment buildings? I don't think I seen one house in this video.
Most of the people in the Eastern Bloc lived in these bleak apartments, yes. But on the inside they looked quite comfortable
yes because you sacrificing a bit of comfort gives every body the opportunity to have roof over their head
@the guy: Everybody had a roof over their head in West Berlin too. And it was a better quality roof in a better quality apartment.
The apartments were quite small and often you'd have to share with family or even strangers. The maintenance was very bad.
mchlbk no they didnt east germany was capitalist meaning it had homeless and unemployed people
This is very interesting. I never got to go see Berlin at all. I wish I could have seen the 2 Berlions to compare them. A lot I do not know. I am surprised they allowed tourists to take cameras at all into East Berlin. Did they allow the good cars, like Mercedes and Porsche to go into East Berlin? Was anyone allowed to have cars like that if they lived in East Berlin? Or were they only allowed to have those crummy little Trabant cars? Did everything shut down real early, with no night life or rock and roll clubs at night? I would like to know exactly how it really was, what was allowed, what was not, what was common, etc, beyond just hearing about the wall and the Stasi agents. I bet they had almost no street crime or shootings with all the Stasi and military everywhere.
Yes,I think I have film of the Soviet memorial in one of these films. If you were a tour guide back then, maybe you knew our DDR & Ost Berlin guide in 1969, Ingeborg Giese. She would have been a few years older than you.
Yes, after Willi Brandt created his Ostpolitik, relations started between the two Germanys, and when the U.S. put an Embassy in Berlin Hauptstadt der DDR, and as E. Germany became more prosperous, things improved. The Cold War became less heated, borders to protect the economy of the DDR were more secure, so there weren't as many incidents at the border such as shootings. Because of his experience at the Embassy in Berlin in 1938 my Dad tried to get Carter to appoint him Ambassador to the DDR.
good video, thanks
For those of you who are thinking of going back to visit Berlin, I highly recommend the Berlin Underground Tours that tell the story of Berlin University students who tried to get their fellow students out of East Berlin by digging tunnels, once the Wall had gone up, as well as the numbers of U-Bahn employees and border guards who used the U-Bahn to flee westwards. There's also the Espionage Museum which gives you a very good idea of what was going in and around Berlin at that time.
Post war Berlin looks so depressive...
Better that than a city full of rich bitches
@@marcoyankovich Are you a communist or what?
@@4ever242 lol no.
0:48 so El Chapo was an East Berliner?
3:38 what is the function/name of this building?
Hi..this is the main building of the Humboldt university of Berlin. 🏢🏬
is there any sign of the berlin stadtschloss?
@supertomrocks Yes, I visited the British base in 1971. I had an American military ID card from my Dad, so got to go to the US & British & French commissaries to buy groceries. I didn't feel at home in the French one, but at the British I could buy Aero bars, etc. I haven't been back to Berlin since the early 70's. It was a unique place at the time - the two worlds of West and East, plus little slices of Britain, America, and France with all the military bases, plus the sites of the Nazis.
Why not add some background audio to this?
Well, anything I added would be inauthentic. Descriptive? I don't remember the names of the streets I was passing. Political opinion, praising the socialist utopia as opposed to the capitalist oppressors of the poor in the West? Music? Which genre - the great composers from Eastern Germany - Bach, Händel, etc. Or contemporary from 1969, and if so East German popular songs, or Western hits of 1969? No reason to besmirch my pure authentic video by tacking on an audio track unless it contributes in some way.
Felicidades. Un documento histórico de primer orden. Wirklich, ein sehr interessantes Dokument über die Stadt, die nicht mehr existiert: Ost-Berlin.
3:50 aeroflot office in germany?
Maybe cuz East Germany was occupied by the Soviets (1945-1990). But for example, there was also an Aeroflot office in Prague. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, a crowd of people smashed this office during the celebrations of victory in hockey. 😂
It was really nice to see this film, bought back happy memories. I spent time going into East Berlin on 'official' duties back then and I remember the simplicity of East Berlin. I also remember the food seemed to taste better in the East! As I said a good time, despite being arrested at gun point by the Russians at Checkpoint Bravo. It got sorted and I was released but that episode was made even stranger some 15 or so years later when I met Gorbachev and went for lunch at the Kremlin.
No, I wouldn't know any East German guides. My job was just with the US military and we had no contact with East Germans (because our country didn't recognize the DDR as a separate country from the rest of Germany). We only ever had contact with soviet officials but never personal.
que de souvenir avec cette video. j'etais a berlin en 1977. j'y retourne depuis et berlin a changée.c'etais la bonne epoque.
Saw my hotel from my stay in 1968 - the Interhotel Unter den Linden (yellow building corner of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse). Not filmed is the G Bar (pronounced gay bar in German) and the nearby Mokka Coffee Bar, two very liberated gay bars. Homosexuality was legalized in the GDR in 1968. Conscientious objectors were also recognized and offered an alternative to military service. Where is the modern Alexanderplatz development and all the new apartment blocks in this video?
This amateur film is an amazing documentation of history! I experienced these views for the first time in March 1980, after I moved to West Berlin from Hawaii in 1979. Some of the streets are recognizable to me, but all of the landmarks are. I would love to record this film once again, exactly, second by second, location by location, and have both films running simultaneously side by side, for a comparison. A little photo-shopping would lighten up the darkness, besides that nothing!
perfect images for xx century camera
Very interesting. Wish I had visited the DDR before the fall of the wall. I have friends whose new building would be inside the wall near Bernauer Str. The back yard still has the foot path the border police walked, today the kids of the building ride bikes and trikes along it. A new wall memorial has been erected along Bernauer with steal poles following the path of the iconic western section of the wall, along with interactive displays at important points.
Any other car guys just here to look at Trabants?
wow. in 1969 they had such high powered zoom lenses!! maybe that was an iphone camera, before the 8mp iphone zoom lens camera came out!! in 1969! amazing,
There I was, a year before, 1968.
This is an amazing time capsule! Berlin in 2010 is absolutely unrecognizable from 1969. The Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate surrounded by empty land at 5:21 now bustles with government buildings, embassies, and roads.
I went there in 84 and bought a sausage and a peice of cake ,which was dirt cheap.when went back a couple of years ago ,thier were waiters running around and everything cost a bomb.
I was in there in 1969 but only in the West Berlin.
Hum, how many free parking spaces, suspect
Not a migrant in sight.Reckon the DDR was not such a bad idea after all.
Greg Menego They had large number of Vietnamese “guest workers” in the DDR, for example in textile industry. However, their freedom of movement of somewhat limited so the natives would not get wrong ideas, like the one forcefully suppressed only two decades earlier.
pawelpap9
Still.....the country was much beter of.
Got a East German friend and he explained life behind the wall. No Charlie guest worker left there now. Unlike the Turks in Deutschland today...never mind the influx of over a million useless migrants of today.
Comparison between then and now is frightening.
+Greg Menego: ´Was such a better state... so East Germans are just blaming and doomed, for some bananas, their paradise...
Well, I know: Israel is following a strange strategy called "Behavioral Analysis Screening System" at its customs/entry sites.
And I'm not sure if it really helps in any way.
But I would like to thank you for your quick response anyway.
;)
I'm afraid the "War on Terror" will never be over... it will become an endless war with shifting opponents as in George Orwell's 1984, 9/11 being the excuse, as the burning of the Reichstag became an excuse for the Nazi consolidation of power. Hopefully citizens' outcry over the American TSA will eventually trim this bureaucracy so it will start to make intelligent choices in screening passengers similar to the exemplary Israeli airport security.
It was better??? Are you German?
Spies, spies everywhere
Some of them probably are. Most of them are victims of a totalitarian regime.
How about today ? Lmao like right now monitoring your words
Я появился на свет в 1969 в гор. Schwerin.
In reality East Germany was just amazing
Trabi, Trabi, Trabi ... !❤
Bismarck and Wilhelm II are rolling in their graves...
@mnicolaidou Well, perhaps "historical" to you, but since the last time I was in Berlin was 1973, that's the way the Berlin was that I remember! If I ever get to 21st Century Berlin that, for me, would be traveling into a science fiction futuristic city of Berlin! ;) I hope to get back to Europe eventually when it's easier to fly (less hassles at American airports.) I love Berlin, lived there about 4 months, but haven't been back to the Bundesrepublik since 1973 or to the DDR since 1985.
@mejor25
... "sin pasar al lado oriental??" .... que lastima.
Just at well Germany has been unifyed.
Great video! It is interesting to see how it looked then compared to when I was there in 1985-90. I sure changed a lot! Good riddance, DDR!!
"...the Berlin Church bombed out by the Americans...." Might point out that all of the allied forces bombed the hell out of Berlin. The Russkies especially in April- May, 1945.
True. And while the Americans invested heavily in rebuilding Berlin and West Germany, the Russians didn't. They wanted East Germany to remain a wreck - so it did.
mchlbk It is somewhat more complicated than you are making it, but instead of writing a long diatribe I would rather suggest you to consult history books. East Berlin was supposed to be a showcase of the east as much as West Berlin was a showcase of the west. If you had a chance to visit both in the 70s you’d be able to judge by yourself.
They sure did. Its called...WAR.
Grey grey grey...
Der DDR 🇩🇪🇩🇪- DDR ...
Everyone seems a spy