Helene Anderson
New member
The first time I went to what was the DDR (East Germany) was in 1994. Taken there by a guy I knew through a friend in Amsterdam . He lived a few kilometres north of Göttingen, not far from the border and the Harz Mountains. The excitement of going was not then as great as the fear might have been a few years earlier. I had no idea of what to expect although Wilhelm had been often pre 1989 as he had family there. I was surprised to earn that for him with family there it was relatively easy to cross into the east. Alas, not so easy for his family to cross into the west. The iron curtain as a structure had been removed but it had left a trace of upto two kilometres wide in parts. The last time I had seen the iron curtain first hand was in 1977 at Travemünde on the Baltic.
I met a few people there, tourists were not common in the town. I had a chance to talk to some and found that the were actually quite concerned by the recently found 'freedom'. Already some were regreting the passing of the DDR, it offered a security for them that would not exisit in the new Germany. Others were optomistic, looking forward to the opportunities that were going to come about. Me, I was surprised, after all I had heard I expected the place to be drab, in black and white, I expected the people to be suspicious, that there would be reservations, but no, nothing like that. Since then I have had the chance to watch documentaries about the DDR. Filmed in colour even. I can only speak for the area(s) I visited but I found that the people to be like anywhere else, some fearful of the future some embracing the future.
The site of part of the Iron Curtain.
The cobbles formed the road used by the East German border police.
Wilhelm took me to two towns, the picturesque Wernigerode and the run down Nordhausen. For some reason it was Nordhausen I fell for. Not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, delaborated, almost abandoned, the infrastructure just about functioning.
There were 'modern flats' built perhaps in the 1950s but it was the older buildings in the back streets that interested me. The 'modern flat' were already looking shabby.
Many had a certain grandeur but the facades showed signs of neglect. However, one building attracted me, here I took quite a few photos, interesting as there was an passageway that gave access to the rear of the building which backed on to waste land.
Entering into these buildings one never knew what one was going to find. Here there was a large exxpanse of land, all probably built on now, I don't even know if the building still exists, I would hope so. It had a certain stature, despite its appearance, like an old woman who has all the signs of age but who still has a twinkle in her eye that says "I was young once also" .
On the waste land at the rear and to one side of the building.
If there was one bright spot in the town a that time it would have been the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen, a preserved steam railway that ran from Nordhausen to Wernigerode.
Single island platform looking away from the station building.
The station had not changed much, at that time, from how it was pre 1939 probably, nothing much had perhaps changed in the town from pre 1939. I stood there on the platform, it was a little creepy, not many people about and everything in gothic scrpt. I actualy think that if someone had walked in wearing the uniform of a Wehrmarcht officer I don't think I'd have batted an eyeld, purely becuae it wouldn't have been out of place with the setting.
I love travelling by train, it is still a diginified form of travel but I am not into the details of trains, however, notwithstanding that I was quite impressed by the locomotive. I was curious about Nordhausen today and a few weeks ago did some research, that locomotive is no more.
Train preparing to leave.
I went to Nordhausen several times with Wilhelm. There was a hotel with a restaurant / bar were one could have a coffee and feel as though one had travelled through time. Going back forty years.
Wilhelm told me of the restricition placed on people that lived near the border on the East German side. That to circulate with in five kilmetres of the border one needed a special pass, if one lived in a village in that five kilometre limit. There weren't many villages affected in the area I was. Mainly farms so the farmers would need the passes, plus the farmhands that might live beyond the five kilometre limit but for work needed to move freely (relatively speaking) in that limit.
One place I went to alone was Ecklingerode, a border town. Near by there was a 'border museum' . I visited this. It was far removed from what one might see or hear in the towns, it was a seperate entity.
From this now museum the border police would set off to patrol the 'no mans land' which was not a really a no mans land, it was an area firmly implanted in the DDR. Here one would forget German folklore, forget the history of the country, the culture. All on display was the 'other side', the things that no one knew about until the 1990s. I was quite moved I wrote something in the visitors book, alas, I can't remember what.
nb: All the photos here were taken on a Minolta X700, using mainly a 70 - 210 lens. Film was Fuji Sensia 400. They have been resized for the forum but not altered in any other way.[/quote]
Had to trim things a bit, originally ten images in this story! More of a story on my blog Germany, A Long Story.
I met a few people there, tourists were not common in the town. I had a chance to talk to some and found that the were actually quite concerned by the recently found 'freedom'. Already some were regreting the passing of the DDR, it offered a security for them that would not exisit in the new Germany. Others were optomistic, looking forward to the opportunities that were going to come about. Me, I was surprised, after all I had heard I expected the place to be drab, in black and white, I expected the people to be suspicious, that there would be reservations, but no, nothing like that. Since then I have had the chance to watch documentaries about the DDR. Filmed in colour even. I can only speak for the area(s) I visited but I found that the people to be like anywhere else, some fearful of the future some embracing the future.
The site of part of the Iron Curtain.
The cobbles formed the road used by the East German border police.
Wilhelm took me to two towns, the picturesque Wernigerode and the run down Nordhausen. For some reason it was Nordhausen I fell for. Not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, delaborated, almost abandoned, the infrastructure just about functioning.
There were 'modern flats' built perhaps in the 1950s but it was the older buildings in the back streets that interested me. The 'modern flat' were already looking shabby.
Many had a certain grandeur but the facades showed signs of neglect. However, one building attracted me, here I took quite a few photos, interesting as there was an passageway that gave access to the rear of the building which backed on to waste land.
Entering into these buildings one never knew what one was going to find. Here there was a large exxpanse of land, all probably built on now, I don't even know if the building still exists, I would hope so. It had a certain stature, despite its appearance, like an old woman who has all the signs of age but who still has a twinkle in her eye that says "I was young once also" .
On the waste land at the rear and to one side of the building.
If there was one bright spot in the town a that time it would have been the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen, a preserved steam railway that ran from Nordhausen to Wernigerode.
Single island platform looking away from the station building.
The station had not changed much, at that time, from how it was pre 1939 probably, nothing much had perhaps changed in the town from pre 1939. I stood there on the platform, it was a little creepy, not many people about and everything in gothic scrpt. I actualy think that if someone had walked in wearing the uniform of a Wehrmarcht officer I don't think I'd have batted an eyeld, purely becuae it wouldn't have been out of place with the setting.
I love travelling by train, it is still a diginified form of travel but I am not into the details of trains, however, notwithstanding that I was quite impressed by the locomotive. I was curious about Nordhausen today and a few weeks ago did some research, that locomotive is no more.
Train preparing to leave.
I went to Nordhausen several times with Wilhelm. There was a hotel with a restaurant / bar were one could have a coffee and feel as though one had travelled through time. Going back forty years.
Wilhelm told me of the restricition placed on people that lived near the border on the East German side. That to circulate with in five kilmetres of the border one needed a special pass, if one lived in a village in that five kilometre limit. There weren't many villages affected in the area I was. Mainly farms so the farmers would need the passes, plus the farmhands that might live beyond the five kilometre limit but for work needed to move freely (relatively speaking) in that limit.
One place I went to alone was Ecklingerode, a border town. Near by there was a 'border museum' . I visited this. It was far removed from what one might see or hear in the towns, it was a seperate entity.
From this now museum the border police would set off to patrol the 'no mans land' which was not a really a no mans land, it was an area firmly implanted in the DDR. Here one would forget German folklore, forget the history of the country, the culture. All on display was the 'other side', the things that no one knew about until the 1990s. I was quite moved I wrote something in the visitors book, alas, I can't remember what.
nb: All the photos here were taken on a Minolta X700, using mainly a 70 - 210 lens. Film was Fuji Sensia 400. They have been resized for the forum but not altered in any other way.[/quote]
Had to trim things a bit, originally ten images in this story! More of a story on my blog Germany, A Long Story.
