In Berlin this weekend, I picked up a few postcards to illustrate just how much, and how little, the city has changed.Here's the Reichstag in 1945 with its roof blown off after Allied bombing:
And today:
Checkpoint Charlie, surrounded by Russian and American tanks in 1961:
And today, watched over by this simulacrum, an actor working for tips:
Potsdammer Platz, the DMZ at the center of the East-West divide, in 1966:
And today, home to the Ritz and a Sony Imax:
Last but not least, Kunsthaus Tacheles on Oranienburger Straße in Berlin-Mitte, formerly part of East Berlin.
The building's past uses included department store, SS office, war prison, school, and movie house. It still looks pretty much the same as it did during the Communist era, but now is an art center and nightclub. Molotov cocktail anyone?
One of your best postings. Very clever juxapositioning.
Posted by: toby | May 10, 2007 at 10:55 AM
We miss you and Sarah! Glad you are seeing such interesting sights.
Posted by: mary craddock | May 13, 2007 at 07:34 PM