gdr

feeling watched

berlin mitte, 2023

touch me i’m pink

berlin mitte, 2021

mudhoney – touch me i’m pink (click, hear)

der knipser

berlin alexanderplatz, 2021

interesting backstory: this wall frieze was only very recently uncovered again. for more than twenty years it was hidden behind an ad for a steakhouse in this building. for more information you might want to check wikipedia

talking the talk

berlin mitte, 2021

ein himmelblauer trabant

dessau, 2021

schneidern musik machen reparieren haushalten

DSC09102-Bearbeitetberlin lichtenberg, 2020

guten morgen, berlin

DSC08307

berlin mitte, 2020

have a good week and a nice cup of coffee!

hey, teachers!

DSC07043-Bearbeitethaus des lehrers, berlin mitte, 2019

danger! high contrast!

P4062231haus der statistik, berlin mitte, 2019

swallowtail in blue

dsc09167-bearbeitet

berlin friedrichshain, 2019

(swallow -> schwalbe in german… -> schwalbe -> a german motor scooter – yes, the one on the left)

lard

P6060637-Bearbeitet

berlin mitte, 2018

lard – the power of lard (click, hear)

some more brown in some other town

P4265456-Bearbeitetköln, 2017

mz

DSC02903detail of an mz ts in berlin friedrichshain, 2016

mz stands for motorradwerk zschopau and ts for telegabel-schwinge… so these are some really effective abbreviations :)

swallowtail

swallowtail

from friedrichshain, berlin

the rear wheel of a schwalbe motorcycle. schwalbe is swallow (the bird) in english, hence the title. the schwalbe motorcycle manufactured by simson in suhl from 1964 to 1986 was (and in fact still is) very popular in eastern germany and rightly so.

trabant

trabant

the interior of a trabant 601 found in lichtenberg. aloha!

mmm 1973 (traces)

messe I

messe II

messe III

combined advertising/motivational/propaganda(?) material  from the messe der meister von morgen* (mmm) and the weltfestpiele der jugend und studenten** that have taken place 1973 in east-berlin, then capital of the gdr. apparently now used to shade a cellar from the sun? found in berlin mitte which indeed is part of east-berlin.

i somehow like the zooming-in effect here, but i’ll fully understand if you think that’s cheesy :)

*trade fair for the masters of tomorrow, the name of a yearly held youth science competition in the GDR

** world festival of youth and students (just for fun you could search the 1973 logo on the german wikipedia page and match it with the partial logo on the pictures here)

 

shine on you crazy flood light

flood lights (cross)

shot straight up with the m.zuiko 45mm at alexanderplatz, berlin. (lamp post series of course ;))

spooning

there once was this shop down in leipzig, where – it appears – there’s nothing to rhyme with, so i just stop it here…

but still there is this shop in leipzig where they do sell stuff from the good ol’ days in the german democratic republic but where they don’t like photographs to be taken. what a pity  because it’s quite a picturesque little shop. i got away with these two pictures though and i post them here anyway because i do not disclose the shop’s name or address. so these spoons could have been found anywhere (and maybe they were).