Berlim: antes e depois

O fotógrafo Stefan Koppelkamm viajou a Berlim, logo após a queda do muro e tirou algumas fotos de edifícios que sobreviveram à guerra e às construções estatais da Alemanha Oriental. Dez anos depois ele voltou a fotografar os mesmos locais. O contraste fala por si. Para quem não sabe, informo que a Alemanha Oriental, que se apresentava como "República Democrática Alemã" - enquanto a outra, a verdadeira democrata era "República Federal Alemã" - era governada pelo Partido Comunista. O leitor verá as fotos que atestam a prosperidade e a liberdade que só os comunistas e outros esquerdeiros sabem proporcionar aos povos que governam. Touchant! 

A matéria é de Solveig Grothe, na revista Der Spiegel:

During a trip to East Germany in 1990, photographer Stefan Koppelkamm discovered buildings that had survived both the war and the construction mania of the East German authorities. Ten years later, he returned to photograph the buildings again. The comparison threw up some unexpected contrasts.

Footsteps echoed on the cobblestones in the narrow street. The photographer carried a large plate camera over his shoulder. Fascinated, his searching gaze wandered over the lavish Renaissance portal entranceways, the balconies with filigree railings and the elaborate stucco facades. The plaques above the doorways bore witness to a brisk business in the neighborhood: "Bicycles and Motorcycles, est. 1907" read the sign above one of the shops. Others read "Schindler's Floral Hall" or "Printing Society and Publishing House." But on the street itself there wasn't a soul to be seen.

The man paused, looked for a place to mount his tripod and pointed the camera at the street. Then his head disappeared under the black cloth, and soon he saw his subjects appear upside down on the ground glass focusing screen. A row of town houses dating from between the Gothic and the late 19th-century Gründerzeit periods. One small niggling detail irritated the photographer -- and brought Stefan Koppelkamm back to the present. A Trabant car was parked on the side of the road. It was June 1990 and he was in Görlitz, a small town in what was still East Germany.

For a moment, designer and photographer Koppelkamm felt as if he had travelled back in time 50 years, to pre-war Germany. "It must have looked like this," he supposed.

Had the recently deposed GDR leadership had their way, the West German photographer would not have been standing in the old quarter in Görlitz in the summer of 1990. The whole of the old quarter would have already been torn down.

(...)

Para continuar lendo a matéria e visualizar as fotos, acesse aqui. Boa viagem!