The following is the text of a letter kindly sent by Jan Engemann in response
to my question 'What makes the DDR' different.
There are typical details, that make the layout like the GDR. The stuff from
KOTOL is very cool and looks realistic. A few things that came into my mind:
- street lights (see this one is very typical for the 70s and 80s: http://www2.tu-berlin.de/fb7/imup/bohley/99/eingang2.JPG
here another one that was used on larger streets: http://www.lederschneidermeister.de/schn02a.jpg
a better version here: http://www.beier-christian.eu/photo/data/thumbnails/99/20061225_cbe_009.jpg
- powerlines:
typical high voltage overland powerline: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/0/02/Strommast_gross.jpg
- power transformation building (where the overland powerlines ended and the
cabling for the village went underground)
http://www.lbforum.com/images/Messe%202007/N-Ndetail-Trafohaus.jpg
http://www.lbforum.com/images/Messe%202007/Luetke%20N%20Trafohaus.jpg
http://www.ornithologie-niesky.de/Wir_uber_uns/Trafohaus-WK.jpg
- public telephone box
http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/langenacht_alt/img/telefonzelle.jpg
Auhagen has one together with a newspaper shop, very common: #12340 http://www.auhagen.de/katneuip/media/12340.jpg
The telephone boxes were yellow like the color of the postal service, because
the telephone network belonged to it, only few people had a telephone at home,
so those
telephone boxes were in every small village. And you found them often near the
post office, or inside.
The post boxes itself looked very similar to this one: http://www.inidia.de/postkasten.gif
thus this one is a newer one from after 1990
- trash cans
look at this link, there you find the original GDR trash cans and post boxes: http://www.rs-modelle.de/anti.htm
- Electro mover: http://www.rs-modelle.de/oldtimer.htm
These ones were used for baggage/goods transport on railway stations
- see this photo: http://www.instant-design.de/instantimages/2003/030803_ziesar/Bilder/ecke_jpg.jpg
look at following typical GDR details:
Powerline used in villages, antennas for radio/tv on the roofs, on the lower
right corner see the concrete trash bucket -> found everywhere, the concrete
fence in the middle, also very common
see the colour of the houses, can also be even darker from dirt and brown coal
smoke
- concrete plate streets like this: http://www.cumschmidt.de/bilder/x_xenia269.jpg
were mainly used in military areas and for streets in the countryside outside of
towns or when new quarters were built with Plattenbau
- typical GDR traffic signs: http://www.tt-modelleisenbahn.de/ttbilder/kreye.jpg
- some photos of the GDR:
- waiting at the butcher: http://www.kameramuseum.de/fotogalerie/reisen/ddr/hdg/fleischerei.htm
- typical GDR Schrebergarten (small garden outside the town): http://www.kameramuseum.de/fotogalerie/reisen/ddr/hdg/datsche.htm
(while most people lived in small appartments, everyone seeked to get a garden
with a small house like on the foto above, these gardens were mostly on the edge
of the towns, very often close to the railway tracks; the DRG gave such land for
small gardens to their employees in the 1920s and 1930s so that they can grow
their own vegetables and hold chicken, rabbits and other small animals to enrich
their food plan in the poor years after WW1; this tradition lived on in the GDR)
- foto from Meiningen, Thuringia, small town GDR atmosphere: http://www.kameramuseum.de/fotogalerie/reisen/ddr/hdg/unterwegs.htm
- foto from administration centre Suhl in Thuringia: http://www.kameramuseum.de/fotogalerie/reisen/ddr/suhl-centrum.jpg
city center with shopping mall
- newly built Plattenbau houses in a small town in Thuringia: http://www.kameramuseum.de/fotogalerie/reisen/ddr/hdg/plattenbauten.htm
- GDR police car: http://www.kameramuseum.de/fotogalerie/reisen/ddr/vopo-auto.htm
here another one: http://www.polizeioldtimer.de/oldtimerseiten/wartburg.htm
- small motorbike were widely used, like this Simson SR50 http://motorrad.thegeek.de/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/SimsonS50.jpg
or this MZ ETS150 http://www.trabifreunde-kinzigtal.de/MZ.jpg
or this Simson Schwalbe (Swallow): http://www.rollermarkus.de/Simson_Schwalbe/simson_schwalbe.html
(i had one between 16 and 19 then sold it)
a very special thing was this DUO built of two Simson Schwalbe for disabled
people, was driven like a motorbike: http://www.schwalbennest.de/tk_neu/g_duo4_3.jpg
Should be enough impression for the moment!
Jan Egermann