SLIDESHOW: LIFE BEHIND THE WALL

"The country was really bleeding to death," says Thomas Hoepker of his visit to East Berlin in the late 1950s. Because Germans were either dying or leaving, local authorities decided to build a wall, so that "no one would be able to cross any more."

Hoepker narrates this powerful slide-show of his photographs of East Berlin, which chronicle 40 years behind the wall. This is a place of greasy cakes, bugged flats, sinister men in leather jackets and something called a "perhaps bag", an object of unexpected poetry. Children play alongside barbed wire and "mediocre-looking people" rule the country with an iron fist. Also, there is beauty and complexity and dislocation. 

~ EMILY BOBROW

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Nice slide show. The whole

November 25, 2009 - 16:32 — Henrik (not verified)

Nice slide show. The whole "concept" of the Berlin Wall is pretty hard to understand and even more so for todays young. Today East Berlin is one of my favourite cities in Europe. Go there if you haven't already been.

Also, there is beauty and

July 23, 2010 - 14:55 — streek (not verified)

Also, there is beauty and complexity and dislocation. It is confusing to me. But what I know about it is a symbol of the Cold War, built on August 13, 1961, opened by East Germans on November 9, 1989 and torn down
by end of 1990, as Communism collapsed and Cold War ended. Thanx for the good post.glycolic acid products

Today remnants of the Berlin

July 29, 2010 - 14:27 — chery (not verified)

Today remnants of the Berlin Wall can be found at Bernauer Strasse and in front of the Neiderkirchnerstrasse, the former Prussian Parliament and current Berlin Parliament. Is the change perceivable now?Wheat Grinders