Germany - Berlin - Rusting DDR Wartburg 312 car

Detail of a rusty Wartburg 312 car standing at the kerbside in an eastern Berlin district. A sticker with the letters DDR as the German Democratic Republic (DDR in German and GDR in English) as East Germany was called during the Cold War. Any car was a highly-prized possession when ownership of luxury goods like vehicles aroused suspicion for other than Communist Party officials. This car may have been someone of rank or influence. The GDR was a self-declared socialist state, referred to in the West as a "communist state" in the Soviet Sector of occupied Germany created after the second world war and partitioned when DDR leaders built the Berlin Wall that eventually segregated Germany and Europe. The East Germany state existed from 7 October 1949 until 3 October 1990 and was a potent symbol of a divided Europe during the Cold War.

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Filename: DDR_travel01-06_1990_1.jpg
Copyright: Richard Baker
Image Size: 5216x3527 / 1.6MB; DDR GDR Wartburg rusty rusting car kerb roadside sidewalk pavement old heritage history past era bygone historical historic ideology Berlin Germany East Germany former German politics political privilege reward status official expense Socialist Communist Cold War Eastern Bloc Warsaw Pact enemy opposition 1990 reminder Communism authority indoctrinated status symbol sticker prized possession wreck devalued value rank influential sector state symbolic possession abandoned classic 312 rear close-up detail ownership property oppression oppressed Iron Curtain police state totalitarianism change of fortune regime change philosophy
Contained in galleries: Richard Baker - All pics

Detail of a rusty Wartburg 312 car standing at the kerbside in an eastern Berlin district. A sticker with the letters DDR as the German Democratic Republic (DDR in German and GDR in English) as East Germany was called during the Cold War. Any car was a highly-prized possession when ownership of luxury goods like vehicles aroused suspicion for other than Communist Party officials. This car may have been someone of rank or influence. The GDR was a self-declared socialist state, referred to in the West as a "communist state" in the Soviet Sector of occupied Germany created after the second world war and partitioned when DDR leaders built the Berlin Wall that eventually segregated Germany and Europe. The East Germany state existed from 7 October 1949 until 3 October 1990 and was a potent symbol of a divided Europe during the Cold War.