East Germany

[heebeegeetee]

Hi, anyone been here?

Next March I think I will take myself off for a revisit to Osnabruck, where I was based in the Army in the late seventies. From there I'd like to have a nose around the former East germany. Anyone here been there, and anyone have any interesting route/road recomendations?

I think I'd like to have e read up on the subject. I'd be interested in a book/books that gives accounts on what life was like for the ordinary citizens at the time, and if I were able to drive over and take a look at places refered to in the book all the better. I'd also like to see places that still have real communist overtones in architecture, statues, etc.

Any info will be very gratefully recieved.

Cheers,
HB

[dcb]

heebeegeetee said:

Hi, anyone been here?

Yup, but not recently.

heebeegeetee said:

Next March I think I will take myself off for a revisit to Osnabruck, where I was based in the Army in the late seventies. From there I'd like to have a nose around the former East germany. Anyone here been there, and anyone have any interesting route/road recomendations?

I can't recommend any interesting routes.

If I went back, I'd like to give the Baltic coast a look, and maybe some of the hills in the south.

Dresden was basically shut when I was there.

heebeegeetee said:

I think I'd like to have e read up on the subject. I'd be interested in a book/books that gives accounts on what life was like for the ordinary citizens at the time, and if I were able to drive over and take a look at places refered to in the book all the better. I'd also like to see places that still have real communist overtones in architecture, statues, etc.

The usual Rough guide / Lonely Planet books should help you out.

heebeegeetee said:

Any info will be very gratefully recieved.

Do not attempt to drive at over 100 mph in the pouring rain, along a cobbled two lane autobahn, mixing your rented Opel Vectra with the very popular Trabbies and Wartburgs.

[heebeegeetee]

Hi,

Thanks for that. Been doing a bit of research on the net and my word, I had no idea the country was still so ed. I've learned (I always suspected, but didn't realise the seriousness of it) where Germanys economy as a whole is going. So far its cost them 1.95 TRILLION euros, and they've got nowhere, basically. I was reading of the one town which had a population of 63,000 when the wall fell, its now down to 28,000 and thats just one town.

Of the emigrees, the men have a tendency to return to the east for various reasons, but the women aren't. Indeed all of the educated women leave, never to return, so the country is in danger of descending into hicksville. It already has a worrying gender imbalance.


The feeling seems to be that this could bring the whole of Germany to its knees.

So now I understand more when Tony Blair is gloating over how much better his economy is doing over germanys. Yeah, we've got North Sea oil, they've got a bankrupt and devestated former commie block country to sort out. Which is gonna take decades.

Shan't be going in a rented car either, I'll be going in my (ahem) MX5. Via the 'Ring of course, if its open in March.

If anyone else has info or experience of the former east Germany I'd be very grateful to hear it.

[r988]

heebeegeetee said:

Hi, Thanks for that. Been doing a bit of research on the net and my word, I had no idea the country was still so ed. I've learned (I always suspected, but didn't realise the seriousness of it) where Germanys economy as a whole is going. So far its cost them 1.95 TRILLION euros, and they've got nowhere, basically. I was reading of the one town which had a population of 63,000 when the wall fell, its now down to 28,000 and thats just one town. Of the emigrees, the men have a tendency to return to the east for various reasons, but the women aren't. Indeed all of the educated women leave, never to return, so the country is in danger of descending into hicksville. It already has a worrying gender imbalance. The feeling seems to be that this could bring the whole of Germany to its knees. So now I understand more when Tony Blair is gloating over how much better his economy is doing over germanys. Yeah, we've got North Sea oil, they've got a bankrupt and devestated former commie block country to sort out. Which is gonna take decades. Shan't be going in a rented car either, I'll be going in my (ahem) MX5. Via the 'Ring of course, if its open in March. If anyone else has info or experience of the former east Germany I'd be very grateful to hear it.

Thats why South Korea is paying aid money to North Korea, the last thing it wants is for the North to collapse and require the South to pick up the tab and clean up the mess. It's worth them paying the money now rather than risk taking on the burden of the economic disaster that is North Korea.

[mmm-five]

Osnabruck is where the car designer Karmann are based.

[Gilesm]

name said:

Hi, anyone been here?

I've spent alot of time in Dresden in the last 18 months, great place, friendly helpful people and good roads, the autobahns are mostly new and they do have a lot of unlimited speed sections. The rural roads are also pretty good, and fairly quiet.

I also worked in East Germany in 1991, the place has changed a huge amount since then.

The communist period buildings seem to be just very ugly concrete flats (tower blocks) to me, but I'm no expert. There has been a real push during the last 10 years or so to re-build the pre commie East, Dresden is a fine example of this.

If you go to towns closer to the Polish border, you will see more of the communist past, Frankfurt-Oder is a good example of this, but I would not recommend a long stay there, however if you really want to see what the world behind the Iron Curtain was really like, try Belarus, I've had a couple of trips there, I wasn't impressed.

There's a monument to the Russian Soldiers that were killed in WW2 in Frankfurt Oder which is interesting.

HTH

Giles

>> Edited by Gilesm on Thursday 10th November 15:15