Postcards from Berlin 6 - Over the Wall

We started day three with a little shopping as I wanted to visit a stationary shop recommended by a website that the gorgeous Stephanie Levy ,a Berlin based artist, alerted me to. The area this shop was in had other interesting shops. bakeries and restaurants, and we returned there in the evening for a lovely meal at Mr Vuong which took us right back to our trip to Vietnam last year.

I loved the flowers painted on this wall

and the sparkly paper tied on to this fence

and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this guy - he looked so cool!

An antiques store had some interesting bits and bobs including these cut out figures for if you can't afford your own staff!

After lunch at the Barn (recommended ) the weather closed in and the brollies came out. Highly suitable for a trip to Starsi HQ. When we got out of the underground at our destination the buildings were grimmer than any others we had seen in Berlin, grey blocks of concrete. The site covered by the EastGerman secret police HQ was huge and when we went in we could see exactly why they needed so much space.

The museum documents the extreme nature of the police state in the GDR. Something like 1 in 3 citizens were under surveillance via pot plant, watering can and other ingenious methodologies for secreting cameras in the most unlikely places. there were huge numbers of police informants. The Stasi seemed to have been much more thorough than their colleagues in the KGB, perhaps because the population was more contained.

There were propaganda posters aplenty which reminded me of the ones we saw in Vietnam last year - there was clearly a communist vernacular in poster art!

Bringing all this to life is the office of Erich Mielke head of the Stasi from 1957 to 1989. His dress uniform still hangs in the cupboard and it seems eerily ready for use, as does the boardroom

In all it was a very sobering experience and made me realise how much we take our democratic freedoms for granted.

Take care and see you next time!

Postcards from Berlin 4 - On the East Side

On the second day of our visit the weather was as good, possibly even better than, the day before. Perfect for visiting the East Side Gallery.

The gallery is a 1.3 Km stretch of the Berlin Wall covered with political and satirical murals first painted in 1989 just after the wall fell. Time and weather took its toll so that the original artists were invited back to repaint their work for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall in 2009.

Despite notices asking them not to, individuals have added their own graffiti to the murals which unfortunately is mostly of the 'I woz 'ere' or 'Jonny loves Jane' variety, that doesn't add anything to the original works. I have not included the works where, as in this one, I felt the graffiti really detracted from them.

I thought long hard about how best to share the feel of the art on the wall with you and came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to create a vimeo video. Watch it full screen - it really makes a difference to the experience!

East Side Gallery from Barbara Evans on Vimeo.

Postcards from Berlin 3 - from Stadt to Platz

On our way back from Potsdam and Sansouci we had to change from the Schnell Bahn to the U Bahn at Potsdamer Platz. This is not, as you might be forgiven for thinking, in Potsdam but in the centre of Berlin. Heavily bombed in the war, Potsdamer Platz was then bisected by the Berlin Wall although the only reminder of this now is a discrete sign on the ground.

When the wall came down a huge empty space was left in the centre of the city and this was quickly snapped up by firms such as Sony, DaimlerChrysler and A&T. Many of the buildings are considered iconic especially the Sony Centre. As we emerged into the platz on a fine March evening the light was ideal for photographing these buildings and getting a second wind we rushed round with the camera.

Click on the picture below ( multiple times) to view the gallery

What I love most about these pictures is the light and the reflections - so happy we arrived there at just the right time