westberlin

west-berlin:

Stuttgarter Platz, Charlottenburg, um 1963

Die Gegend galt in den 60er Jahren als Nachtschwärmerviertel, wovon die „Leila Tanz-Bar“ zeugt. An Stelle des Kinos Mascotte befindet sich heute ein Apartmenthaus mit Spielothek im Erdgeschoss. Die Hotels gibt es noch, sie heißen nur anders. Und das „Montmartre“ hat keinen Stuck mehr. Die Entstuckung sollte die Häuser moderner machen.

Schön war die Zeit, als die Welt noch in Ordnung war-

West-Berlin in pictures #228:

Stuttgarter Platz, Berlin-Charlottenburg, ca. 1963

This area had been known as a quarter for nighthawks in the 1960s as the “Leila Tanz Bar” proves here. Instead of the cinema “Mascotte” there is an apartment house inclunding a casino on ground floor now, but the hotels are still there today, they have been just renamed. And the “Montmartre” lacks plastering nowadays because the removal should have made those houses look more modern.

Photo: Heinz Noack

west-berlin:

Lützowstr. 89-90, Tiergarten/Schöneberg, ca. 1963

Das Löwenportal markierte einst den Eingang zum „Deutschen Kolonialhaus“, Berlins exotischster Einkaufsstätte mit Waren aus den Kolonien. Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg war es damit vorbei, im Zweiten fiel das Haus. Heute steht hier ein Bürogebäude, das Trümmergrundstück daneben ist immer noch leer.

Schön war die Zeit, als die Welt noch in Ordnung war-

West-Berlin in pictures #226:

Luetzowstr. 89-90, Berlin-Tiergarten/Schoeneberg, ca. 1963

The Lions portal had once marked the entrance to the “Deutsches Kolonialhaus” (“German Colonial House”), Berlin’s most exotic shopping place offering products from the colonies. It had been closed after World War I and was destroyed during World War II. There is an office building today, the area aside has remained undeveloped until today.

Photo: Heinz Noack

betonbabe:

WOLFGANG KROLOW

A FACADE WITHOUT A BUILDING, BERLIN KREUZBERG, LATE 1970s/ EARLY 1980s

thrash-and-burn:

Berlin 1967 // Christer Strömholm

Hein Vontin: Berlin in March 1954 - Fotoserie

via strollology

klauspollmann:

arbeitsplatz in kreuzberg. damals waren die artikel am nächsten tag in der zeitung.

klauspollmann:

kreuzberg 1980er

transitmaps:

Historical Map: Berlin S-Bahn (c. 1955-1960) still at the ruined Siemensstadt station

What an amazing photo!

The Siemensbahn was part of Berlin’s S-Bahn network from 1929 (when it was built as a short spur line to allow workers to commute to and from the Siemens factories in the area) to 1980, when it was shut down after a railway workers’ strike. As seen on the map, the Siemensbahn is the short spur line just above and to the left of the large red area in the centre.

The map is located (or was, in 2008, when the photo was taken) at the Siemensstadt station, which now lies in ruins and largely forgotten. The original poster of Flickr dates it to around 1980, probably based largely on the time the station closed. However, I date it to somewhere around 1955 to 1960 for a few reasons.

Firstly, the map is pretty much hand-drawn and lettered. A map from 1980 would look more sophisticated, as this link shows.

Many of the outer lines are still steam-powered (cross-hatched lines are marked in the legend as “Mit Dampf…[torn]”).

While borders between West and East Berlin (as well as the Greater Berlin area) are shown, and there’s a clear colour differentiation between the two cities (blue for West Berlin, red for East), it’s still possible to travel between east and west. Each station is marked with both the time it takes to get there from Siemensstadt and the price… and these markings continue into East Berlin. Therefore, the map’s post-WWII, but before the Berlin Wall went up (1961).

Comparing this map from 1955 and this one from 1960 shows that the outer ring line around the northwest of the city was completed some time between these dates. This line is shown on this map, although it’s hard to see because of the damage to the map: this gives the best dating I can come up with without researching individual stations. Can anyone narrow it down even more?

Another point of interest is the East Berlin station of Stalinallee, where someone has crossed out Stalin’s name and replaced it with “Frankfurter”, a reference to its pre-war name: Große Frankfurter Straße. This grafitti could have been added at anytime in the decades since the map was first put up, but the “Stalinallee” name also helps date the map, as the street was renamed as Karl-Marx-Allee in 1961.

(Source: SnaPsi Сталкер/Flickr - definitely worth clicking through to the large version)

klauspollmann:

kreuzberg, landwehrkanal, 1980er