East German Apartment: an inadvertant 1988 time capsule
February 5, 2009
In the city of Leipzig, Germany, an architect found an abandoned apartment that the tenant hurriedly left…in 1988…the last days of the Iron Curtain. The entire apartment was exactly as the owner had left it, with shrivelled bread rolls in the cabinet, a pot with dried up food in it on the stove, a wall calendar displaying August, 1988, and numerous East German brands of food, cigarettes, beer, etc that are now considered collectors items. The apartment had no private toilet, only one on the landing outside, and a zinc tub was stored in the bedroom waiting for someone to bring hot water to it for a soak.
The apartment showcased the less than elegant lifestyle of a typical East German. Unfortunately, the time capsule was not saved, as the entire block was being refurbished. Hopefully, it was thoroughly documented. I couldn’t find many pictures, but I’m sure we’ll see them all in some future book or documentary…
See a writeup here.
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Tags: , 1988, Abandoned apartment, Apartment, Berlin Wall, communism, East Germany, Iron curtain, Leipzig, lifestyle, time capsule
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February 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 am
There’s a movie about this out there. I think its called ‘goodbye lennin’. Its actually about a german woman who has a heart condition from which she could die if she is startled. sadly for her children, the berlin wall falls and they dont think she has the heart to take the shock, so they painstakingly recreate an east german lifestyle. for comedic results.