Читать книгу 100 Favourite Places - Группа авторов - Страница 16

12

Museumswohnung

HELLERSDORF

Step through the entrance of a recently refurbished block of flats in the East Berlin neighborhood of Hellersdorf and you’ll find yourself in a place that feels like it was abandoned in 1989. In fact, Museumswohnung WBS 70 is a careful combination of preservation and reconstruction, created by the block’s owners, Stadt und Land housing association, to give an insight into everyday life in mid-’80s East Berlin, when the flats were built.

Assembled almost like flat-pack furniture from precast concrete panels, the WBS 70 Plattenbau building system allowed flats like these to be put up in as little as 18 hours, aiding East Berlin’s residential housing boom in the ’70s and ’80s. Ring the doorbell and you’ll be let into the right-hand, ground-floor flat. Crossing the threshold, you step onto soft grey flooring – felt covered by thin plastic that threatens to turn to Swiss cheese at the mere sight of a pair of stiletto heels. Much of the wallpaper is patterned with busy designs of leaves and flowers, heavy with browns and avocado greens, while many items of furniture feature dark mahogany-brown plastic-wood laminates from SprelaCart, a company that became known for manufacturing such artificial, easy-to-clean materials for GDR homes.

Each of the five rooms is like a still life of the days before the Wall fell. The kitchen has a collection of food packaging, while one wall consists of screwed-down plywood for easy access in the event of a burst pipe. The living room has a TV and hi-fi system, both luxuries which would have cost many months’ wages. Of the two bedrooms, one is configured as a master bedroom, the other as more of a study, with a desk, typewriter and a collection of books, records and medals. In the bathroom, a roll of rough toilet paper hangs menacingly, waiting to scratch the behind of any who might dare to engage with it; perhaps thankfully, the bathroom is non-operational.

The neighbouring flat is a modernised show home, complete with brightly coloured furniture and laminate flooring: a few steps away in distance, but worlds away in feel. RC

Hellersdorfer Str. 179, 12627; U Cottbusser Platz; www.stadtundland.de

Map: Overview H2