Gdr on Grainy Mære

The art of Jürgen Wittdorf in Schloss Biesdorf

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 04:30:00 +0200

Two weeks ago, a friend sent me an article¹ about the current exhibition at Schloss Biesdorf featuring the works of Jürgen Wittdorf (1932–2018). The idea of homoerotic art in the GDR intrigued me, so we decided to visit. For me, it was a fascinating experience - a retrospective of Wittdorf’s work, and to my surprise, I recognized some of his illustrations. One room later, I found out why: he was the illustrator for the children’s book “Tiere im Zirkus” by Wladimir Durow², a book I still own, though I’d never known anything about the artist behind it.

The tuff stones in the former Narva light bulb factory

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 22:04:00 +0200

I still have some memories of the old Narva tower near Warschauer Straße, but I never really explored that area as a child. It was interesting to walk around and see how much the area has changed.

The VEB Narva Kombinat Berlin bulb factory was the central manufacturer of light sources, especially light bulbs, in the GDR. In 1992, production stopped, and HypoVereinsbank converted the buildings into office spaces. During the renovation of Building IV in 1998, four ‘tuff’¹ fountains, designed by Prof. Gustav Lange² and sent over from Slovenia,³ were placed in the inner courtyards. The idea was to connect elements of nature with the urban environment.

Stadtbad Lichtenberg

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 01:22:32 +0200

This year on the Open Monument Day (“Tag des offenen Denkmals,” an annual event in Germany that allows the public to visit historic buildings and sites not usually open to the public) I took the opportunity to visit the old Stadtbad Lichtenberg. I heard some stories about it, but I never saw it from the inside (I simply was too young). It was designed by the Lichtenberger Magistratsbaurat Otto Weis with two swimming pools for men and woman, showers and bathtubs, gymnastics room with massage rooms, a sauna and sunbathing on the roof as well as medical baths. The bath opened as the “Städtisches Volksbad” in 1928, built in the style of expressionist architecture, and it closed it doors in 1991 due to various construction defects (the water treatment system and heating were ailing) and tight budgets.¹