Stasi Museum

The Stasi (Ministry for State Security) museum in Berlin is based in the former Stasi HQ.  It felt very familiar from books and TV series such as the splendid Deutschland 83.  Which I'll now have to watch again.

In the entrance foyer is this Barkas B1000.  It may look at first glance like a delivery van and I suppose that's pretty much what it was. The deliveries in question were suspect comrades being delivered for questioning.  The rear compartment is apparently fitted out with five cells (they must be tiny) and space for a guard.  The curtain is a homely touch.

 

What a great wargames table!

Minister for State Security Erich Mielke's office.  Very welcoming.

I liked this photo of a Stasi official with his collection of model aeroplanes.  I'm sure this means they were all nice chaps - right?

DDR Museum

An essential for any visitor to Berlin must surely be the DDR Museum.  This seeks to give a view of life before the wall came down, using photos, artefacts and reconstructions of a 'typical' workers' apartment and Stasi offices.

My favourite exhibit - a Volvo 264TE - as used by a few lucky and 'more equal' comrades.  The top brass preferred 2 and 7 series Volvos and Citroen CX rather then anything produced in the Communist bloc.  This, apparently, showed what a go-ahead country the DDR was.

Spacious office accommodation.  At least that's what I have by comparison with this.

"So comrade, where were you last Saturday?"

That Volvo again.

You might understand why I was drawn to this exhibit.  The toy soldiers are about 60mm, the AFVs about 1/87.  The real question I think is 'who killed the bear?'

And finally....no it's not my hotel room.  If you gave the wrong answers in the Stasi interrogation this was the next stop.

A trip to Berlin

Just back from a few days in Berlin. Here are a few fairly random photos to set the scene. Where better to start than a Prussian Field Marshal. 

The TV tower is visible from much of the city. 

Brandenburg Gate. 

Bundestag, complete with enormous glass dome. 

The finance ministry. A vast edifice originally built as the Luftwaffe Ministry and then taken over by the East German government. 

Speaking of the East - it was a lucky comrade who was allocated one of these apartments in Karl Marx Allee. 

No shortage of beer on offer. Purely medicinal of course, as the weather was damn hot. 

 

Shopping opportunities too…..

Three Frontiers and a Trier

Having set off from Schwebsange, a wrong turn saw us crossing the border into Germany too early.  Luckily there was a roundabout after only half a mile so it was back into Luxembourg for some shopping and a top up of diesel at £1 a litre.  Then off again into Germany, heading for the old - originally Roman - town of Trier.

The Roman bridge over the Moselle.  This is the oldest standing bridge in Germany (we'll not dwell on what happened to the others...) and while the upperworks have been replaced twice, the piers date from 2nd Century AD.  Trier lies on the south bank of the river - the motorhome parking is on the north bank only about a 20-minute riverside walk away.

The view from the bridge - looking east.

Partly concealed by trees and more recent buildings I spotted this c1942 flak tower. Apparently so well built it's virtually impossible to demolish.

A rather older fortification - the Roman Porta Negra.

Teetering next to the dustbin of history was this statue of the least amusing of the Marx Brothers.  He lived here for a while so there are plentiful supplies of Mark-related tourist tat.

Mixed in with rather soul-less postwar edifices are plenty of nice old buildings.

Mrs G commented on the similarity to my collection of HO scale plastic model railway buildings.

Porta Negra again.  It's really quite a substantial edifice.

In the adjacent town museum was this (approximately 1/300 scale) model of Trier.  What a scandalous waste of wargames terrain!