Germany (GDR/DDR) 1962 ▶ East Berlin Ostberlin - Wall Mauer Border Grenze Brandenburg Gate
Hard, brutal and inhuman is the particular kind of borders that the communists,
when they have state power in their hands, put in front of their own people.
Barbed wire, mines, watchtowers, walls and machine guns - all clear symptoms of violence.
That was the first impression I received when I came from the West to the East.
I don't know if such sharply armed border patrols with such a clear order
to shoot are a good argument for socialism and democracy.
I don't think so.
"Neues Deutschland" is written on the business card of the German Democratic Republic,
which shone at me, among other things, at the Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn station.
But with the old Germany, accompanied by good traditions,
this piece of ground that I visited with the camera has probably nothing to do.
The Red Flag flies at the Brandenburg Gate.
A restricted zone prevents people from moving on.
A few meters further ahead there is sharp shooting.
Shot at workers, peasants and intellectuals who wanted to leave this state of workers, peasants and intellectuals.
For security reasons, they built screens on the bridges of the Spree River facing the West.
This is how it was explained to me by a policeman who, as if by chance,
was patrolling the blinds, making sure that no one came too close to these democratic blinders.
A policeman in Friedrichstrasse, wanting to be asked politely and having my passport shown to him,
gave me a similar justification for the barricaded subway stations
that are a characteristic of the Stadtmitte district of East Berlin.
What gives rise to astonishment is the fact that those responsible for political propaganda in the zone
do not notice how nonsensical and illogical are their banners,
their posters for the People's Police, their propaganda shows, such as here a show glorifying August 13 of 1961.
A neutral observer must have the impression that a veritable hysteria of political slogans has broken out in the East at the moment.
An East Berliner gave me an explanation for this and he said:
The more the functionaries of the zone are afraid of the truth, the more slogans they invent.
With the help of shooting galleries, they want to turn the youth into staunch defenders of the communist system.
The "Berliner Zeitung", for example, organized a children's drawing contest, and it caught my eye.
While in the West one can see the advancing mechanization of our age in children's drawings,
in the East the little boys and girls march behind the blue flag of the young pioneers.
Their thinking is all about flag parades and uniforms.
That was great - meant the "citizens of Berlin newspaper" to the result of this competition.
I found the result rather sad and shameful.
But party line must remain party line.
This is particularly evident in the uniformly oriented press of the zone.
Nowhere can you find a book, and nowhere can you find a newspaper from West Germany or Western Europe.
Peek-a-boo is very fashionable at the moment. On the other hand, the lack of food is obvious.
The dairy stores have empty displays, and even the cigarette machine could use a refill.
But where food and prosperity are lacking, exact political attitude is supposed to replace the missing one.
This is the impression one gets when suddenly a bookstore is crammed with Marxist literature.
Nobody stops in front of such shop windows.
It is different with a fabric store, a new contingent has arrived and in no time people gather.
These facts should make the propagandists of the zone think.
The people who live here do not care about their phrases.
The struggle for daily bread is more important to them.
And this struggle also marks the faces of these people.
A large part of the youth, for example, already aligns itself with the West in its clothing.
Girls in uniform are not in great demand.
And even if the children of the functionaries march in step, a large part of the youth goes its own way.
Nationalization is to blame. Even this little ice cream kiosk had to believe in it.
That we always lag so far behind the West, workers and employees I spoke to on my trip told me.
Despite years of uniformity of public opinion, people here in the zone still have their own judgment.
The experiment of nationalizing the individual has succeeded only with a few.
And these few are displayed on large banners. They are the activists, the socialist supermen.
The guys who are not very popular. Uniformed are their faces, their thoughts and their actions.
They are as uniformed and cold as the outer image of Karl-Marx-Allee in East Berlin,
which used to be called Stalin-Allee.
Which is a typical example of the architecture of a so-called socialist city.
Tower buildings and endless house fronts that no longer have anything private, homely and intimate about them.
If you are looking for coziness, you will search in vain.
These are the same types of housing that I saw in Moscow, Warsaw and Bucharest.
The same height, the same layout, the same names, the same banners.
And the inhabitants of these houses, like the houses themselves, are also the fulfillment of a state should.
Nothing private exists anymore.
Nationalization is the big slogan.
The uniform face of the buildings is reflected in the uniform face of their inhabitants.
During the day, the windows and doors are closed.
Only in the evening, during leisure time, can people be seen.
Yes, even the cabs are partly nationalized.
And when I asked how you can recognize a private cab, a chauffeur told me with a meaningful smile: by the grand and the paint.