North Korea is not a communist country. It is an absolute, hereditary monarchy with elements of industrial feudalism. A much better destination to relive the experience of communism (or the 'real socialism' to be more precise) is Cuba.
I went to North Korea in 2015 for the 75th anniversary of the WPK, it's like how I imagine visiting the Eastern Bloc was on steroids. It is absolutely a once in a lifetime experience.
+Janusz Krysztofiak Socialism is a science and as such it can only be Socialist if the economy is centrally planned, all private property and private accumulation of wealth is abolished, the DPRK fits all of these. Feudalistic economies still have huge elements of private property you twat and private accumulation of wealth, so remove both were basically is the core of both feudalism and Capitalism you end up with neither. Cuba is in fact a Capitalist country today because of the simple fact its economy is no longer planned, there is private ownership of property and private accumulation of wealth, Cuba ceased to be Socialist in early 2000s, DPRK is the oldest standing Socialist country in history.
Having grown up in Mexico during a near economic collapse we had unlimited food, candy, colorful stores with plentiful fruits vegetables etc we never came close to being this dull.
Thank you for recording and sharing this, good sir. I wish could go back in time and tour all those 'lost worlds" but these videos are the best we've got.
My last trip to East Germany was in 1967 spending five weeks visiting my relatives near Ludwigslust, Mecklenburg. As a fourteen year old, it was a trip of fascination mixed with wonder. My crossing into East Germany at Schwanheide was particularity interesting. I hope to return in 2022 to where I was born and lived as a child before emigrating to Canada.
It was a culture shock for the people! Money different, vacations different, housing, cars, law, rules, shopping, clothing, roads, how to write letters, jobs, everything different! 80% of all people lost there jobs within three Years. Even music or the school system changed. People had a culture shock.
For me it was, and still is amazing, beyond my ability to fully fathom, to see the wall, it coming down and the transformation throughout the 2000s. Now the double row of stones in the ground showing where the wall was. All around it, the modern structures and goings on as if there never was a wall etc. I stand at the stones, look around and just simply cannot get passed astonishment, bewilderment and awe.
You can see in this video that Transition was already in progress then, before the wall fell the shops didn't have a lot of color and advertisement at the front and bars wouldn't have fancy interiors ( the bar in this video was already outfitted in West German coffee bar style). The scene of the street starting at 4:12 looks not much different with a shopping high street in a West German small town by that time. I have been a couple of times in communist Hungary (1972 and 1980), and I remember that everything in bars and restaurants had very basic interiors or a 1950's modernism look, shops had just a writing on the front denoting if it was a bakery or a general store etc. , there were few stores that had self service. You see in this video some houses having freshly painted walls, while other streets still had that grimm colorless look of the DDR. As the wall came down there was access to a wealth of building materials, and first thing people did was renewing roofs, paint everything and turn many years of overdue maintenance back. Nice aspect in this video is the streets still filled with Trabants, Wartburgs, Dacia's and Lada's, in just a couple of years most of these were swapped for a VW, Opel or BMW, because people always had dreamt of the cars from West Germany, when I went to the East in 1998 you had to search for a Trabant on the street.
Exactly correct. Amazing what advancements and improvements the East Germans made in the months following the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. To be sure, these are the urban areas, where modernization and remodeling would have hit first
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people!
In sep1984 I had bus ride from west berlin to Nuremberg and it starts at evening and we got there early morning , lots of check points in the middle of nowhere with dim lights which made you scared . Looks like the whole area was abandoned
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people! also almost no tourists!!!
I was there in April of 1990 and the East was in the early stages of transition. It was very strange to basically go from one world to another. They are very proud people those East Germans. I went on to Poland and they were scared shitless thinking the Germans were going to go there and buy up everything.
The Poles were not wrong. No, in the EU, which the fourth REich actually, Poland produces nothing, we are only cheap labour fo German factories. Not that I miss communism, never. The point is the transition in the post soviet block benefitted Germans the most. Just like the Second World War. A paradox, huh?
I’m so happy that the wall came down as I had a lot of relatives of my mother trapped behind it and they lived a grim life and they also lived in fear of the Stasi.
@Robo Do you really know that as fact and can you back up your comment ? Video of the mass demonstrations and the rush of people crossing the open border speak volumes and I had relatives who lived in various parts of the East who would only tell me the truth of life in the East only when we were well away from prying ears.
@Robo No we don't. The younger generation of East Germany is complety against seperation. So keep lying. Are you trlggered about the fact that we Europeans got finally rid of Communism? *Cry me a river* 🤣🤣🤣
I visited Berlin for 3 days in December of 1990. Our train still had to stop at the former border of west/east Germany. The sniper tower was empty. The wall was gone in Berlin, and I had full access to all locations, including that giant radio/tv tower in the former east Berlin. I hope to return someday.
@Robo We Germans love American music. We always have. So STFU. We can listen to whatever we want to. Also western music was very popular with younger GDR citizens.
Edgars Cirulis I see that the quality of camera is not very good, but the old buildings are not grey. The buildings that were grey were the apartments which were given to people for FREE! So don't complain, you could paint it yourself if you wanted to.
@Robo Hahahaha not really. As a German i can only laugh at your comment. Because of Communism the East today is much poorer then the rest of Germany. I visit the East all the time and its by far not better.
@Robo We're talking about pre 1990 GDR, not present day united Germany. Importing western cars was a relative luxury, but perfectly legal. A lot of people have the misconception that it was illegal to import into the eastern bloc.
Please, never delete this. Your video is my favorite on RUclips. I remember watching this video 10 years ago for the first time. It's what got me interested in eastern bloc countries. Thanks
I made a couple of trips to the GDR in 1988 and 1989 , jusr before. The pressure you speak of WAS there, the people mostly wanted democracy and most of all freedom to travel. It was no paradise but many of the things we in the west stress our whole lifes sorting out - health and education and crime - were not a problem.
@@m.w.6526 He's not. The elections were ridiculous, you could only vote for one party. Call that an election? And a basic human right is freedom of speech or freedom in general but east Germans were literally imprisoned in their country and freedom of speech wasn't exactly a thing.
@@nahbenhaben7614 it wasn't, my family lives in mecklenburg-pomerania, and they always said that hungary and the czech republic where muuuch nicer, and richer, back in the socialist days
Lauri Toerni Interestingly last week I was speaking to a Romanian lady who was very disappointed with how Romania is now and yearned for the days of Communism. There were less freedoms in many ways but she had job security, healthcare and education. It wasn’t perfect but capitalism hasn’t given them the dreams they were promised
@Michael Moretti You're right! I'm from UK and spent years touring throughout Europe yet EVERY time at UK border control my vehicle is searched and i'm asked where i'm going or been to.
These pictures are taken pretty long after the wall dropped. There are many places already been renewed or started renewing. East Berlin and actually the whole GDR looked much worse in Nov '89 ....
James Walker racists usually are, can’t help it germany was broken by people like him they craw out of the woodwork scream and shout ruin everything then craw back under the rock they came from ready to do it again and again sad really
SMGJohn So what if they are Muslims? The only thing you can complain about is the easy nationalisation laws for people who don’t come from the land as a socialist. I suppose, you would be lax on immigration.
I always suspected East Germany prior it's fall to look like how North Korea looks today compared to the South Korea. This video to me appears that East German towns where looking like any other town in Europe with shops, pubs, and housing flats. Only difference was the soviet style cars and trams.
To be fair, this was filmed in the cities that have been used by the goverment to show how well the life is. If you go to different cities and villages you see houses that are about to collapse at any moment and you see houses without windows. But food was always enough.
Ricardo Kakáresma Still it looks almost first world for Latin American standards. Things here look the same as they used to 50 or 60 years ago. Impoverished neighbourhoods, decaying infraestructure, homeless people, etc. Despite most of us haven't experienced communism.
It was (almost) like North Korea is compared to South Korea today. This video was taken just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and things had been steadily opening up by this point. Few people could afford cars and those who could had to wait years for a dreadful Trabant. Those who were really lucky could hope for a Wartburg, Lada or GAZ. A lot of the urban planning was typically Soviet, with masses of concrete flats known there as "plattenbau". And the quality of the roads was dreadful.
sure m8, ever been to the DDR? my parents lived there, and they are anti-communist , but according to them IT WASNT BAD AT ALL. maybe if your country didnt put an economical block on the DDR and the USSR they could have lived more free
@@euso2008 Okay, yes I have heard of it and lived through it. Did you? I assume what you are trying to say is that the wall was built to protect the eastern countries from outside forces. So tell me, if that was the case, why did these eastern nations shoot citizens who tried to leave their countries?
It looks like either the East Germans kept or rebuilt some Baraque architecture buildings. Some of those yellow buildings with the Baraque collumns look like buildings you'd see in Vienna.
Wonderfully clean society, pristine buildings and visitor attractions, healthy wholesome food at restaurants, hardly any drugs/ prostitution/ homelessness/ AIDS/ motorway deaths. Happy and well educated school kids, good youth teenage society/ entertainment, and an academic study showing that East German married couples had much better sex than those in the West! The East has it! Whats not to like?
How about constant opression by state and STASI? How about being unable to achive anything in life without crawling up the asses of the comunist party? How about not being able to eat banans, oranges, coffe, chocolate etc? Not having phones or good roads unless living in big city? And thats just the DDR the least unsuccesfull of the communist States, the Soviets and Chinese killed half thier population!
I dont' see that everything was so bad in the DDR as they want us to believe. If you are makin fun at their cars you should know that not everyone in the West can afford to have a Mercedes.
WOW, did the communist do ANYTHING to East Germany from 1945 to 1989. NO what a joke communism is a TOTAL JOKE. Shitty little deathtrap car, a skateboard is safer.I can't believe how BAD the east was.
I've heard a lot of negative stuff about East Germany, and it doesn't look remotely nice at all here. Dilapidated old buildings, poor road surfaces, obsolete Soviet trams and almost all of the cars are Eastern Bloc Trabants, Ladas, Skodas, ZAZ etc. The weather here also doesn't help things. Outside of the dilapidated old towns were masses of grey concrete Soviet apartment blocks. As nasty as the place looks though, it's a very interesting video and of great historical value.
The pressure I speak of WAS always there from the moment of the DDR's creation. However the point you've made is exactly the point that I was making, no system is perfect so we don't have to act like socialism is something evil, look at the state we're in now because of (American) capitalist greed. The only difference now is there's no wall to jump over with an (imaginary) paradise waiting on the other side.
I love the way people reminisce about the good old DDR and slag off the western way it’s nice sometimes people forget what we have it’s called free speech where if you criticise your free to do and not get locked up for ten years in prison yeah let’s remember the good old DDR
Al Fern The issue is for misr people i talked to the standard of living was higher in the DDR than after unification. The biggest complaints were Stasi informants, a type of whimsical irrational censorship mainly of western books or music where something is banned and it makes no sense why, lack of Western luxury items. But there is a lot of nostalgia for inexpensive rent and guaranteed housing and guaranteed work, inexpensive entertainment etc. I was there four times since 1991 and I heard no one wanting to return to DDR, but many want certain aspects to return. And there are political proposals to match some old DDR policies especially housing issues.
Matthew Kopp hey in the Western world we want cheaper rent guaranteed housing and work we’ve always moaned about these things but we know we have a certain freedom that sometimes we take for granted
tony alder Yes of course. One man I talked to in Berlin left East Germany immediately and moved to one of the worst crime ridden neighborhoods in Chicago, Humboldt park, where I lived for one year, was completely disturbed at the sight of poverty and crime because he had never seen it before, but he was also very grateful that he could travel and had a sense of humor about it. Most people I met were artists who want a more liberal society. But apparently there are many others from the DDR who are more Isolationist and want a simpler and comfortable society, and did not transition well.
Matthew Kopp I’ve been to Berlin I live in London Berlin a unified Berlin is better than most capitalist cities I love and envy Berliners they look at life wrong in Germany especially in the east Germany is the best country for living in my opinion in the capitalist world I love Berlin the vibe it’s a cool city
Berlin is half the Price for rent and smokes plus food and drink is cheaper it’s a better way of life in Germany I envy Germans they treat people like adults no barriers at the U-Bahn or s Bahn go to London and see the difference I’ll tell these people who moan that’s where they don’t want to go 😂😂😂😂
I totally agree, the DDR was pressured into collapse by capitalist European countries backed by the USA. The idea behind it was good but it never got a chance, we always seem to forget that capitalism isn't all that great either.
They value function over aesthetics. They'd rather have people live in shitty building that aren't so expensive to make than on the streets. Brutalist architecture can look cool sometimes though.
Looks quite nice compared to the rust belt of the UK ,where I live it looks marvelous !!by the way rust belt used to look great when Britain was a much more socialist country in the 70s
James Hazelwood UK was very capitalist, just had small socialist aspects in it's government. Never confuse Capitalism with Socialism just because the state had small socialist ideas. Also, that's the opposite for the rust belt of the US.
@@teletek1776 "very capitalist": how do u define this. Socialism doesn't have to be statist to count as socialism. In a society where workers receive and have self determination over the fruits of there labour, such as with the enormous trade union membership in the 70s, thst society is to some degree socialist. 70s Britain was more socialist than present day china as income was more equitable, capital is concentrated in the hands and presided over by fewer people in China than in 70s Britain.
trekenomics Comparing modern-day China to the UK in the 70s is odd. China now is considered one of the most, if not the most capitalist nations in the world.
@@teletek1776 all I'm trying to say is shouting at a country and saying "Ur capitalist not socialist" isn't helpful at all. There's no harm in saying 70s Britain was highly socialistic or even exadgerating it as socialist. What's the use of putting Sweden and the USA in the same group of social democracy, when Sweden is a radically different country because of socialist influence and surely needs a distinct category.
trekenomics Socialism can work for a short time, but when it stops working, where will the government get their money? If the UK were socialist, things would be very different. If you need me to prove it, look at examples from Detroit, Chicago, and other former industrial belt cities in the US. After the socialists gained influence, the cities began to become bankrupt. And please never bring Sweden into this. Their citizens are already sick of their government.
My left ear enjoyed this video
That's funny, my left arm....:-)
One side stereo ;-)
it's because east was leftist af
@The Flash it hasn't
Yup, my camera did not have stereo, that was only available on the more expensive ones! :-)
I was behind the iron curtain in 1987, an amazing experience it was. Something that you never can relive.
Uh yeah Korea is still divided, so it is possible to relive that feeling by travelling to North Korea.
North Korea is not a communist country. It is an absolute, hereditary monarchy with elements of industrial feudalism. A much better destination to relive the experience of communism (or the 'real socialism' to be more precise) is Cuba.
I went to North Korea in 2015 for the 75th anniversary of the WPK, it's like how I imagine visiting the Eastern Bloc was on steroids. It is absolutely a once in a lifetime experience.
Who would want to? Masochists not included!
+Janusz Krysztofiak
Socialism is a science and as such it can only be Socialist if the economy is centrally planned, all private property and private accumulation of wealth is abolished, the DPRK fits all of these.
Feudalistic economies still have huge elements of private property you twat and private accumulation of wealth, so remove both were basically is the core of both feudalism and Capitalism you end up with neither.
Cuba is in fact a Capitalist country today because of the simple fact its economy is no longer planned, there is private ownership of property and private accumulation of wealth, Cuba ceased to be Socialist in early 2000s, DPRK is the oldest standing Socialist country in history.
Back when there was good music on the radio
Having grown up in Mexico during a near economic collapse we had unlimited food, candy, colorful stores with plentiful fruits vegetables etc we never came close to being this dull.
Were you safe walking in the streets at night?
@@lilli9822 Yeah, Mexico was okay until the mid 90s - early 2000s before the cartels took over.
There's far, far, far, far more poverty in Mexico than there ever was in East Germany.
Mexican people are great 👍
@@daddybeagleaz907
true but irrelevant
Thank you for recording and sharing this, good sir. I wish could go back in time and tour all those 'lost worlds" but these videos are the best we've got.
_I Agree_
My last trip to East Germany was in 1967 spending five weeks visiting my relatives near Ludwigslust, Mecklenburg. As a fourteen year old, it was a trip of fascination mixed with wonder. My crossing into East Germany at Schwanheide was particularity interesting. I hope to return in 2022 to where I was born and lived as a child before emigrating to Canada.
*_Did you make it back last year?_*
@@jean6872 I did not due to global covid related issues. Hopefully this year.
@@uwebeyer3459 Enjoy your time then.
It was a culture shock for the people! Money different, vacations different, housing, cars, law, rules, shopping, clothing, roads, how to write letters, jobs, everything different! 80% of all people lost there jobs within three Years. Even music or the school system changed. People had a culture shock.
I guess that's just what happens when your economic system changes within seconds, lets just say at least Germany didn't end up like Yugoslavia
@@kingdomofprussia4649 yeap. But Yugoslavia was a mix of nations. Germany is one nation that was unjustly divided.
@@margol2168 Actually no, Germany before 1872 was a mix of German states, like Bavaria
@@kingdomofprussia4649actually yes. German people always were one truly Nation. No matter how many states were divided in.
@@margol2168 No , that idea only took off after the rail-system was present.
For me it was, and still is amazing, beyond my ability to fully fathom, to see the wall, it coming down and the transformation throughout the 2000s. Now the double row of stones in the ground showing where the wall was. All around it, the modern structures and goings on as if there never was a wall etc. I stand at the stones, look around and just simply cannot get passed astonishment, bewilderment and awe.
oh my good, i have almost forgotten how grey our towns where, just the cars were coloured!
+mike s Now most of the children in Germany are coloured!
+young5ever cool?
+Blue Pill Antidote lmao so whitewashed
Angel OfTheRedSands I agree, most Finnish buildings look like shit but you'll have to explain how the hell is Finland Marxist?
Most of Sweden looks like that.
They had good taste on music.
In 80 You dont must have dont good taste of music :) good music was in radio :)
Pawel KOKLOPS this was 1990
@@thecraplordsell4575 oh Yes You have right, but early 90s :) so lot of songs in radio was from 80s :)
PS. In 7:40 is one of my favorite song of all time Johnny hates jazz - shattered dreams :)
Mungo Jerry... Nice music...
You can see in this video that Transition was already in progress then, before the wall fell the shops didn't have a lot of color and advertisement at the front and bars wouldn't have fancy interiors ( the bar in this video was already outfitted in West German coffee bar style).
The scene of the street starting at 4:12 looks not much different with a shopping high street in a West German small town by that time.
I have been a couple of times in communist Hungary (1972 and 1980), and I remember that everything in bars and restaurants had very basic interiors or a 1950's modernism look, shops had just a writing on the front denoting if it was a bakery or a general store etc. , there were few stores that had self service.
You see in this video some houses having freshly painted walls, while other streets still had that grimm colorless look of the DDR.
As the wall came down there was access to a wealth of building materials, and first thing people did was renewing roofs, paint everything and turn many years of overdue maintenance back.
Nice aspect in this video is the streets still filled with Trabants, Wartburgs, Dacia's and Lada's, in just a couple of years most of these were swapped for a VW, Opel or BMW, because people always had dreamt of the cars from West Germany, when I went to the East in 1998 you had to search for a Trabant on the street.
Exactly correct.
Amazing what advancements and improvements the East Germans made in the months following the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. To be sure, these are the urban areas, where modernization and remodeling would have hit first
I’m a former East German Myself although I was 3 in 1990’ I don’t remember a lot but hey at least I got to be apart of something.
I used to go shopping in East Germany before the wall came down. We took the train there over night.
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people!
I would have loved to visit East Germany and the eastern block as a whole. My grandparents did it and always brought back good memories.
My family lived in the eastern Block.
They fled to the West because they hated it there.
They only had bad memories of Communism.
So very clean, spotless really. One lady was sweeping the gutter.
It was a friend of mine, a West German who was staying in the same hotel I was. His name is Jurgen Koppen. Great guy.
I traveled to Prague and East Berlin in August of 1971. The most vivid memory was of the putrid smell in the air from car exhaust pollution.
To be fair, the West hadn't really implemented emissions control at that point yet either.
In sep1984 I had bus ride from west berlin to Nuremberg and it starts at evening and we got there early morning , lots of check points in the middle of nowhere with dim lights which made you scared . Looks like the whole area was abandoned
Yes, there was no sign of any people/officials at either of the borders we went through. Completely abandoned!
@@celsdon3000 thanks
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people! also almost no tourists!!!
I was there in April of 1990 and the East was in the early stages of transition. It was very strange to basically go from one world to another. They are very proud people those East Germans. I went on to Poland and they were scared shitless thinking the Germans were going to go there and buy up everything.
The Poles were not wrong. No, in the EU, which the fourth REich actually, Poland produces nothing, we are only cheap labour fo German factories. Not that I miss communism, never. The point is the transition in the post soviet block benefitted Germans the most. Just like the Second World War. A paradox, huh?
The music though haha. What an awesome snapshot of a moment in time, thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
7:41 Johnny Hates Jazz - Shattered Dreams.
Still one of my Best song of all time.
My granny lived in Germany when the wall fell... She visited th east about 2 months after that.
Lovely , thanks for this nice view from early 90´s!
Many cars from way ago, and an overview which is not present anymore nowadays!
Great video... a very valuable piece of history.
Please, never delete this video
the city in the video is schwerin, the capital of mecklenburg-western pomerania which is today even much more beautiful and worth a visit.
Back when BMW E30 was brand new
I’m so happy that the wall came down as I had a lot of relatives of my mother trapped behind it and they lived a grim life and they also lived in fear of the Stasi.
Made a huge difference to so many lives.
@Robo Do you really know that as fact and can you back up your comment ? Video of the mass demonstrations and the rush of people crossing the open border speak volumes and I had relatives who lived in various parts of the East who would only tell me the truth of life in the East only when we were well away from prying ears.
@Robo
No we don't.
The younger generation of East Germany is complety against seperation.
So keep lying.
Are you trlggered about the fact that we Europeans got finally rid of Communism?
*Cry me a river*
🤣🤣🤣
@@peternewman3487
No he can't.
As a German i can tell you that the absolute majority of us Germans wants to keep democracy and freedom.
Driving through Germany in a 190 E when it was a new car awesome lol
I visited Berlin for 3 days in December of 1990. Our train still had to stop at the former border of west/east Germany. The sniper tower was empty. The wall was gone in Berlin, and I had full access to all locations, including that giant radio/tv tower in the former east Berlin. I hope to return someday.
Great footage, listening western music, driving a Mercedes Benz, at that time in DDR, very interesting, thanks for sharing!
@Robo
Why not?
@Robo
We Germans love American music.
We always have.
So STFU.
We can listen to whatever we want to.
Also western music was very popular with younger GDR citizens.
very intereesting. Thank you for posting. People forgot how run down and grey east Germany looked. We should never forget.
Yeah sure, go tell that East Germany was bad and grey propaganda makers.
+Gleb Sokolov Look more closely this video and see for yourself!
Edgars Cirulis
? what do you want to tell me? I don't understand your comment..
Edgars Cirulis I see that the quality of camera is not very good, but the old buildings are not grey. The buildings that were grey were the apartments which were given to people for FREE! So don't complain, you could paint it yourself if you wanted to.
Ulrich Lehnhardt Read the comment above.
Most of the videos shows West Germany during spring/summer with sunny days, meanwhile East Germany shows autumn/winter dark and rainy days.
Offcourse, on porpuse, propaganda
@@DuleVideos
East Germany was misrable.
By family grew up there and they hated it.
@Robo
Hahahaha not really.
As a German i can only laugh at your comment.
Because of Communism the East today is much poorer then the rest of Germany.
I visit the East all the time and its by far not better.
The soundtrack...ect...insane this should have 1.9 million views lol
Thank you! :-)
It's strange seeing the occasional Volvo, Mercedes and SAAB sneak their way into the East German carscape.
It wasn't illegal to buy imported western cars, it was only uncommon due to price.
@Robo We're talking about pre 1990 GDR, not present day united Germany. Importing western cars was a relative luxury, but perfectly legal. A lot of people have the misconception that it was illegal to import into the eastern bloc.
The world fucking changed 180 degrees in 24 years
It was pretty grim actually - very dark and depressing. The video makes it look nicer than it was.
Please, never delete this. Your video is my favorite on RUclips. I remember watching this video 10 years ago for the first time. It's what got me interested in eastern bloc countries. Thanks
@@m.w.6526 Happy to of been an inspiration!
@@celsdon3000 thank you! I have some interesting travel videos myself if you'd like to check them out!
That's a really nice camera for the 90s!
Amazing video!
Also, great music while you were driving, I had to open my SoundHound app to find the songs :)
Yes, the music is classic, it was all current at the time!
What was the German song at frame 2:00 onwards
Germany 🇩🇪 will NEVER BE DIVIDED Again ❤
I made a couple of trips to the GDR in 1988 and 1989 , jusr before. The pressure you speak of WAS there, the people mostly wanted democracy and most of all freedom to travel. It was no paradise but many of the things we in the west stress our whole lifes sorting out - health and education and crime - were not a problem.
Kinda sad to see history being neglected. So much stuff that could have been converted into a Museum.
TheYizuman their is a museum in Berlin of the DDR
Johnny Hates Jazz...Shattered Dreams...used to sing that in the back seat of our car when I was small!
Car thief in GDR:So which car am i going to steal today?Trabant or Trabant?
ive wanted to visit germany for a while. i was born in 1984 when the gdr was still there
Go when you get a chance, I am sure its changed a lot since I made the video
are you south african and speak in an accent. are you married@@celsdon3000
@@davidshaw6160 yup, from Durban (milder SA accent) and yes, we are married! :-)
This must be the city of Schwerin, out on the A24 motorway, back on the road nationwide B5 (F5). Fortunately this past spitting .
looks a lot like leeds
rolf saville ha ha
Bobby Smith Behind the Iron Curtain they don’t have to worry about elections and basic human rights
Ron Burgundy now you’re just exaggerating.
@@m.w.6526 He's not. The elections were ridiculous, you could only vote for one party. Call that an election? And a basic human right is freedom of speech or freedom in general but east Germans were literally imprisoned in their country and freedom of speech wasn't exactly a thing.
@@sif_2799 sounds like the future elections in the USA... only votes for the GOP are counted...
Video is about 29 years old now. How the world has changed.
These was great times... no Hipsters and Terrorists.
Read some history.
I love this video!! Wunderbar!
Thank you!
mungo jerry "summertime"
not as bad as I thought it was,,just needed a little cleaning up in places,,
+David Frobel The DDR was the most, well kept, of the non-USSR socialists in eastern Europe.
@@nahbenhaben7614 It was clean in USSR, much cleaner than in most of western cities today
@@nahbenhaben7614 it wasn't, my family lives in mecklenburg-pomerania, and they always said that hungary and the czech republic where muuuch nicer, and richer, back in the socialist days
Lauri Toerni Interestingly last week I was speaking to a Romanian lady who was very disappointed with how Romania is now and yearned for the days of Communism. There were less freedoms in many ways but she had job security, healthcare and education. It wasn’t perfect but capitalism hasn’t given them the dreams they were promised
@@lauritoerni2080 same my family said they had Better lifes in socialist czechoslovakia
Love the footage. Thank you for sharing
@DeLorean4 among the Ladas, Skodas and Trabants. I love those cars (and yes, I own a Lada).
I liked that little 2-tone car at 5:43.
halt! papers please :)
Cause no trouble
@Michael Moretti You're right! I'm from UK and spent years touring throughout Europe yet EVERY time at UK border control my vehicle is searched and i'm asked where i'm going or been to.
I've always wanted to wait in a bread line.
rmadrid2000 why?
You realize thats common place with capitalism too, right?
Marxist Hedonist Secular Demon You are literally generalizing a small portion of people into the entire system.
rmadrid go to Detroit you fucking bigot
@@ramadansteve1715 never had to wait in line for bread lol
These pictures are taken pretty long after the wall dropped. There are many places already been renewed or started renewing. East Berlin and actually the whole GDR looked much worse in Nov '89 ....
besonders beeindruckend: die Zahnputzbechermusik!
Re-Unification wasn't done for the generation then but for generations to come.
You mean the MUSLIM generation? Thanks Liberal, should stayed split and Socialist with the wall in place.
@@SMGJohn What happen ? Why are you so angry
James Walker racists usually are, can’t help it germany was broken by people like him they craw out of the woodwork scream and shout ruin everything then craw back under the rock they came from ready to do it again and again sad really
Certainly turned out worse for east Germany.
SMGJohn So what if they are Muslims? The only thing you can complain about is the easy nationalisation laws for people who don’t come from the land as a socialist. I suppose, you would be lax on immigration.
Love the music and cars hehe
I always suspected East Germany prior it's fall to look like how North Korea looks today compared to the South Korea. This video to me appears that East German towns where looking like any other town in Europe with shops, pubs, and housing flats. Only difference was the soviet style cars and trams.
To be fair, this was filmed in the cities that have been used by the goverment to show how well the life is. If you go to different cities and villages you see houses that are about to collapse at any moment and you see houses without windows.
But food was always enough.
Ricardo Kakáresma Still it looks almost first world for Latin American standards. Things here look the same as they used to 50 or 60 years ago. Impoverished neighbourhoods, decaying infraestructure, homeless people, etc. Despite most of us haven't experienced communism.
It was (almost) like North Korea is compared to South Korea today. This video was taken just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and things had been steadily opening up by this point. Few people could afford cars and those who could had to wait years for a dreadful Trabant. Those who were really lucky could hope for a Wartburg, Lada or GAZ.
A lot of the urban planning was typically Soviet, with masses of concrete flats known there as "plattenbau". And the quality of the roads was dreadful.
somedudeguytv I know! Communism is really no different from any other peaceful society!
+Ricardo Kakáresma
You know they have diagnose for people who believe in things that are not true, its called being mentally retarded.
Awesome video :D Thanks for sharing it
sure m8, ever been to the DDR? my parents lived there, and they are anti-communist , but according to them IT WASNT BAD AT ALL. maybe if your country didnt put an economical block on the DDR and the USSR they could have lived more free
Actually, the Berlin Wall was built by the Soviets to prevent East Berliners from defecting.
Twenty years has made a big difference
Wow, look at all the East German cars. :o
It's as if time stood still and everything got frozen in 1945 after the war on the Eastern side of Berlin
Yes, there were even some building with old bullet holes from the second world war!
If only I could've experienced this society..
You actually can!
Just travel to North Korea.
My guess is if it was that wonderful to live there, they wouldn't have had to build a wall and post guards to keep their citizens from leaving...
+Buttrape Bill
He did not suggest America you inbred Mexican, he said North Korea, there is a difference.
@@RS-tz2zn That's not the whole story... have you never heard of the cold war?
@@euso2008 Okay, yes I have heard of it and lived through it. Did you? I assume what you are trying to say is that the wall was built to protect the eastern countries from outside forces. So tell me, if that was the case, why did these eastern nations shoot citizens who tried to leave their countries?
Thank you!!
Great songs
+jastral16 song at 6:10?
It looks like either the East Germans kept or rebuilt some Baraque architecture buildings. Some of those yellow buildings with the Baraque collumns look like buildings you'd see in Vienna.
Wonderfully clean society, pristine buildings and visitor attractions, healthy wholesome food at restaurants, hardly any drugs/ prostitution/ homelessness/ AIDS/ motorway deaths. Happy and well educated school kids, good youth teenage society/ entertainment, and an academic study showing that East German married couples had much better sex than those in the West!
The East has it!
Whats not to like?
Communist Party
Please tell me this is a joke
Useful idiot...
triggered capitalists
Hahahahahahahaha!
How about constant opression by state and STASI?
How about being unable to achive anything in life without crawling up the asses of the comunist party?
How about not being able to eat banans, oranges, coffe, chocolate etc?
Not having phones or good roads unless living in big city?
And thats just the DDR the least unsuccesfull of the communist States, the Soviets and Chinese killed half thier population!
How can this be 1990 wall came down in 89
Brilliant thank you,
I live in the united states, and what i see here does not look like an impoverished and horrible place to live. It looks quite adequate.
juxtn You sure about that? Why did they build a wall to keep people IN their country?
You’re an idiot
@@Ryguy-lg2xz That's cold war. To keep people out as well. It was a necessary evil.
Sehr schön von mein schwerin wohne heut noch in schwerin
I went twice once in 85 an again in 86.
it's... better than i expected lol
Anyone know the name of the song at 6:05 ? Thanks.
according to google it's a "Wind - Fly With The Wind"
ruclips.net/video/6MPgtrVyrlM/видео.html
precious!! thx a lot for the footage! :)
Easy Germany never would have agreed to a smooth unification if it thought party members were going to be tried for war crimes.
I dont' see that everything was so bad in the DDR as they want us to believe. If you are makin fun at their cars you should know that not everyone in the West can afford to have a Mercedes.
WOW, did the communist do ANYTHING to East Germany from 1945 to 1989. NO what a joke communism is a TOTAL JOKE. Shitty little deathtrap car, a skateboard is safer.I can't believe how BAD the east was.
Hey! Awesome footage. Is it possible to please use some of your footage for a school project? I will reference your work :)
Go ahead!
What I see is not poverty, what I clearly see is no advertisements on the streets.
They were just starting to creep in.... not may though!
that's mind blowing.
Real dreary looking place.
thanks for posting this vid. It is very interesting
Ostalgie vanishes when the fog clears and they remember how dull and grey it all actually was.
Yes, I am sure that is the case.
I've heard a lot of negative stuff about East Germany, and it doesn't look remotely nice at all here. Dilapidated old buildings, poor road surfaces, obsolete Soviet trams and almost all of the cars are Eastern Bloc Trabants, Ladas, Skodas, ZAZ etc. The weather here also doesn't help things.
Outside of the dilapidated old towns were masses of grey concrete Soviet apartment blocks.
As nasty as the place looks though, it's a very interesting video and of great historical value.
Looks like Queens New York
The pressure I speak of WAS always there from the moment of the DDR's creation. However the point you've made is exactly the point that I was making, no system is perfect so we don't have to act like socialism is something evil, look at the state we're in now because of (American) capitalist greed. The only difference now is there's no wall to jump over with an (imaginary) paradise waiting on the other side.
well said!!
good music!!
I love the way people reminisce about the good old DDR and slag off the western way it’s nice sometimes people forget what we have it’s called free speech where if you criticise your free to do and not get locked up for ten years in prison yeah let’s remember the good old DDR
Al Fern The issue is for misr people i talked to the standard of living was higher in the DDR than after unification.
The biggest complaints were Stasi informants, a type of whimsical irrational censorship mainly of western books or music where something is banned and it makes no sense why, lack of Western luxury items.
But there is a lot of nostalgia for inexpensive rent and guaranteed housing and guaranteed work, inexpensive entertainment etc.
I was there four times since 1991 and I heard no one wanting to return to DDR, but many want certain aspects to return. And there are political proposals to match some old DDR policies especially housing issues.
Matthew Kopp hey in the Western world we want cheaper rent guaranteed housing and work we’ve always moaned about these things but we know we have a certain freedom that sometimes we take for granted
tony alder Yes of course. One man I talked to in Berlin left East Germany immediately and moved to one of the worst crime ridden neighborhoods in Chicago, Humboldt park, where I lived for one year, was completely disturbed at the sight of poverty and crime because he had never seen it before, but he was also very grateful that he could travel and had a sense of humor about it.
Most people I met were artists who want a more liberal society.
But apparently there are many others from the DDR who are more Isolationist and want a simpler and comfortable society, and did not transition well.
Matthew Kopp I’ve been to Berlin I live in London Berlin a unified Berlin is better than most capitalist cities I love and envy Berliners they look at life wrong in Germany especially in the east Germany is the best country for living in my opinion in the capitalist world I love Berlin the vibe it’s a cool city
Berlin is half the Price for rent and smokes plus food and drink is cheaper it’s a better way of life in Germany I envy Germans they treat people like adults no barriers at the U-Bahn or s Bahn go to London and see the difference I’ll tell these people who moan that’s where they don’t want to go 😂😂😂😂
I totally agree, the DDR was pressured into collapse by capitalist European countries backed by the USA. The idea behind it was good but it never got a chance, we always seem to forget that capitalism isn't all that great either.
Why do all communist places look so grey and depressing
Much better I guess m.ruclips.net/video/JN4ATDfCYmo/видео.html
Because that’s what communism is.
They value function over aesthetics. They'd rather have people live in shitty building that aren't so expensive to make than on the streets. Brutalist architecture can look cool sometimes though.
@@painfan476 ah yes communism is when when everything Grey and depressing
Thats what u capitalists think, communism can be good too!
the song was at about 2:04
Im slowly compiling a list of the songs - will post when done!
Shattered Dreams sounds about right for the DDR :(.
Would love to visit today and see whats changed...
Looks quite nice compared to the rust belt of the UK ,where I live it looks marvelous !!by the way rust belt used to look great when Britain was a much more socialist country in the 70s
James Hazelwood UK was very capitalist, just had small socialist aspects in it's government. Never confuse Capitalism with Socialism just because the state had small socialist ideas. Also, that's the opposite for the rust belt of the US.
@@teletek1776 "very capitalist": how do u define this. Socialism doesn't have to be statist to count as socialism. In a society where workers receive and have self determination over the fruits of there labour, such as with the enormous trade union membership in the 70s, thst society is to some degree socialist. 70s Britain was more socialist than present day china as income was more equitable, capital is concentrated in the hands and presided over by fewer people in China than in 70s Britain.
trekenomics Comparing modern-day China to the UK in the 70s is odd. China now is considered one of the most, if not the most capitalist nations in the world.
@@teletek1776 all I'm trying to say is shouting at a country and saying "Ur capitalist not socialist" isn't helpful at all. There's no harm in saying 70s Britain was highly socialistic or even exadgerating it as socialist.
What's the use of putting Sweden and the USA in the same group of social democracy, when Sweden is a radically different country because of socialist influence and surely needs a distinct category.
trekenomics Socialism can work for a short time, but when it stops working, where will the government get their money? If the UK were socialist, things would be very different. If you need me to prove it, look at examples from Detroit, Chicago, and other former industrial belt cities in the US. After the socialists gained influence, the cities began to become bankrupt. And please never bring Sweden into this. Their citizens are already sick of their government.
One thing they did very well was consaervation .
nice footage.