Berlin East 04/24

Cute ad.....roughly translates to "my dog ate my transit ticket, pay your share."

The Fruchtbarkeitsbrunnen (fertility fountain) in Arnswalder Platz; popularly known as the bull fountain

The Fruchtbarkeitsbrunnen (fertility fountain) in Arnswalder Platz; popularly known as the bull fountain.

The Jannowitzbrücke Station, a viaduct and S-bahn/U-bahn station on the Spree river next to Jannowitzbrücke (Jannowitz Bridge). The viaduct first opened in 1882 and has gone through many iterations, the station/viaduct visible here is a complete rebuild that occurred between 1927 and 1932. The station/viaduct was largely unharmed by WWII, but while the Wall existed it was a ghost station that West Berlin trains passed through without stopping. The three buildings over the station are the headquarters of Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which is the public company that operates the transit system. The initials BVG date back to a previous name of the company, but have been kept because they're popular with the public. Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Jannowitzbrücke_station www.bvg.de/en/Company/Profile

Jannowitzbrücke Station with the TV tower in the background, an S-bahn train entering the station (the rightmost train), and two regional trains on the outermost tracks that bypass the station.

Along Karl Marx Allee, one of the buildings typical in design for the next 2 km. A look at large version of the picture will provide interesting detail including the high quality of construction, the extensive use of ceramic tile, and what's on people's balconies :)

A sense of the massiveness of the housing, stretching to Frankfurter Tor in the distance, roughly 2 km (1.2 miles).

The facades did not seem to be deteriorating, so I'm guessing that the overhangs are to prevent injury from things falling from balconies. As was the case through out much of Berlin, there were placards all along Karl-Marx-Allee providing histories of the area -- there's one here on the left side of the picture.

Spring in bloom, along Karl-Marx-Allee. At about this same point there are a series of signs documenting serious problems within the GDR in 1953 including exceptional demands to extend workers hours so as to speed up the construction of this housing. Anger was high enough that there were large scale demonstrations and the bringing in of Soviet forces to squash the rebellion, resulting in the death of 125.

Somehow I couldn't escape references to San Diego in various places. Considering San Diego's often righward political leanings, it seems an odd juxtaposition to have 'Steakhouse San Diego" on Karl-Marx-Allee in a GRD built location.

Just off Karl-Marx-Allee, a well preserved church. I was surprised at the number of older churches in good condition in the former East Berlin. A friend told me that a key reason for this was that a steady source of income for East Berlin was payments from West Berlin for the maintenance of the church buildings.

Along Karl-Marx-Allee, near Frankfurter Tor.

Franfurter Tor on Karl Marx Allee

Kosmos Cinema, built in 1961/62 (when the wall was first constructed), another touch of modern architecture that was not expected on the street. The Wikipedia page (link below) is in German but has multiple wonderful pictures of it during its heyday. After reunification it was divided into a multiplex, but that closed and the space is now used as an event center. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_(Berlin)

My next stop that day was to spend some time wandering along Karl-Marx-Allee (named Stalinallee during the East German rule.) My reaction on coming out of the Strausberger Platz u-bahn station was surprise. Having been raised with the American Cold War messaging from the late 1950's on, I expected very simple, functional, alienating architecture that would appear to be similar to what we were building for public housing during that era. I did not at all expect to see massive projects of housing for workers built with an attention to detail and scale that, though monumentalist, looked inviting. Admittedly the street was designed to be a showcase for the GDR, but considering the volume of housing built, it clearly provided a nice (architecturally) residential area for a large number of citizens. Though it has now been quite some time since unification, the details and pictures from the area when it was East Berlin (link below) suggest that what I was seeing now in terms of the architecture is not materially very different from what it was like before reunification. The contradictions to expectations seen on this visit to Karl-Marx-Allee, in my second week of explorations, was instrumental in my beginning to reflect on the extent of American propaganda on its own citizens during the Cold War. That our images of Germany, East Germany, and Communism were reduced to simple and inaccurate stereotypes so as to manipulate public opinion, without giving the public the credit for being able to sort out the available information. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Marx-Allee

Oberbaumbrucke, opened in 1896 as a bridge for pedestrians, vehicles, and what was then the new u-bahn line that ran across the top. The towers are purely symbolic, but it was built to resemble a gateway to Berlin. 'Oberbaumbrucke' is literally 'upper tree bridge', the name is used because very long ago this was the site of a tree barrier across the river that limited access to Berlin. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberbaum_Bridge

On the right, what looked to be some sort of boat made to look like a raft, on the left (see larger version of picture), an interesting structure that looks to be housing designed to resemble an uncompleted highway bridge.

Oberbaumbrucke and the U-1 u-bahn line.