Starting from Alexanderplatz in former East-Berlin, the stately "Karl-Marx-Allee" leads down eastwards to Frankfurter Tor and on for quite a few miles and out of the city. It is the old "Große Frankfurter Straße" that carries on to Frankfurt on the Oder on the Polish border. From 1949 to 1961 the magnificent boulevard was renamed to "Stalin-Allee" and from then on "Karl-Marx-Allee". Up until today it was able to keep its name despite efforts to change it to its original pre-war version. The Alley is so impressive that it is easy to stay with one's history. It is a wide alley, with large lawns on either side of the road and a wide green lawn in the middle. Its grand architecture derives from a rebuilding from 1952 in Soviet classicist style.
It is a photographer's paradise with many details that remind us of the GDR and its Soviet influence and grand aspirations from a bygone era. One seems to wander between the 1930s and the 1950s with some odd modern surprises.
We start from Alexanderplatz.
A nicer aspect of Alexanderplatz with a view towards Under den Linden and the Cathedral.
The GDR loved murals and reliefs
It is a photographer's paradise with many details that remind us of the GDR and its Soviet influence and grand aspirations from a bygone era. One seems to wander between the 1930s and the 1950s with some odd modern surprises.
We start from Alexanderplatz.
Alexanderplatz with the TV-Tower and its quirky 1960s base construction
Why would one want a window in the elevator cabin roof?
the view from up towards Regierungsviertel
... and towards the other direction, Karl-Marx-Allee
The "House of the Teacher" with murals about life in the "Arbeiter- und Bauernstaat"
the Kosmos - Cinema
another cinema: Kino International
Platte - custom-made
Strausberger Platz at the western end of the boulevard
The fountain on Strausberger Platz
"Haus des Kindes" - House for the child
These signs are well looked after.
The facades are often covered in ceramic tiles
A surprisingly well-kept garden.
Mostly, these blocks still contain cheap housing. Not much has been converted to luxury living.
side-entrance to a kindergarten
Another monument for the intercultural understanding between sister peoples
an odd mix of advertisements:
the old Karl-Marx-bookshop
Frankfurter Tor at the other end with its lighthouse-style towers standing guard at the entrance to Karl-Marx-Allee from the east.
Why not have a break here?
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