A day in the life of East Germany

Daily life in Germany's formerly communist eastern half has changed dramatically in the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. David Sharp turns back the clock in Eisenhüttenstadt.

The train glides southeast from Berlin through seemingly endless miles of forest, finally emerging from a long corridor of pine trees into East Germany's past.

Arriving at Eisenhüttenstadt, one could mistake the town for the last outpost of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It's so far east mobile phones beep with welcome greetings to Poland.

But the town is also home to the GDR Daily Life Documentation Centre, a unique collection of artefacts culled from everyday life in communist East Germany. Hidden away amongst Eisenhüttenstadt's pre-fab concrete apartment blocks, the location for the Documentation Centre couldn't be more appropriate. It is like the smallest part of a Russian matryoshka doll: an East German museum housed within an East German urban museum.

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We should really be grateful for all the advances we have as americans. Electric Cigarette

Ha !
I remember those classroom chairs :-D
At least the two in the middle. That brings a lot of schooltime memories back. :-)

It's so backwards here.. Don't ever go to the East!

If you go, they don't let you leave. And they only are allowed to cook with Jägdwurst.

The east german experience really clicked for me when I visited the NVA museum exhibits at Prora. What a scary Film Noir place that must've been.

I have a delightful east german employee who told the only joke that's made me laugh out loud in a long time: "In East Germany, we used to nationalize things and then run them into the ground instead of the other way around."

Another bit of Schadenfreude... some say the wall came down because the Ossis had found out that what the Wessis told them about the GDR was true. After the wall came down the Ossis found out that what their government had told them about the west was also true!