(pic: wikipedia)
The wall finally fell and hence we stop getting "bombed" with WWI-stuff but get this instead.
And this is funny, at least for a Wessi like me.
T, who grew up in GDR and just celebrated his 50th birthday always jokes, they knew how bananas smelled like, oh, yes.
Maybe it went around the world: When the first Trabbis were parked in "West-Germany", people put chocolate bars and bananas on the windscreens.
Not really to tease the people but because ... well. To let them have it.
And ideed I now learned in a documentary:
They had 14 bananas per person per year, theoretically. Most of the bananas went to the zoos.
And for chocolate... cocoa was expensive, hence they had creck, a chocolate-replacement made from crispbread, sugar and a tiny bit of cocoa. Yes, you read it right, crispbread!
There were more "replacement" products, for example Ketwurst, the GDR-Hot dog.
They wanted to have it but it had not to be "west-like".
Mind you, blogging really is a good thing. I just found a whole GDR-dictionary !
Only 20% of GDR households had a telephone.
And even if so it could take forever to get a free line.
And it was true: They had to wait 15 years for a Trabbi! Many people ordered one when their Baby was born!
They had to work at least 10 days for a TV.
They also made their own nylon and called it "dederon" - leave out the vocals and the n, you get DDR, the German word for GDR.
And since "Fön" is a product-name, hair dryers were called "Luftdusche", air-shower.
They had to be creative. For a family of four they had an apartment of 65 m² only.
So they invented the "MuFuTi", "MultiFunktionsTisch, a multi functional table where you could vary the height for watching TV and eat dinner.
Condoms were officially called "mondos" to make it less embarrassing to buy them in the pharmacy. Certainly very quickly everybody knew what a mondo was...
And loose cash was called "aluchips" cause it was made from aluminium! Weird, no? Aluminium was cheap, hence...
And a Dj was a SPU, a Schallplattenunterhalter - as said, creative.
Let me tell you. I am thankful, really, I grew up in the West!
Once I went to Berlin back then. That meant you had to travel through GDR.
You were advised to not look the GDR-officer directly in the eye. To wait patiently till they sign you to drive to the post. To have your passport ready at hand. And if they want to examine your car - get out and let them do their job, otherwise they take your car away for a close inspection and you loose heaps of time.
Boy. Was I happy when it was over without an incident!
Maybe that´s why I don´t like Berlin...
These days you shake your head and maybe even laugh.
And take the good things they had, like Spreewald-gherkins, Rotkäppchen-Sekt, Halloren-Kugeln...
Here are some short original "news", if you care.
Where I was when he wall came down? At home. Only some 60 km away. A tad angry cause my then-boyfriend, being a firefighter, had to help - hello, weekend! ;-)
Right this moment Chancellor Merkel holds the most boring speech, how sad.
2 comments:
I also remember the day the wall came down, we had just left Frankfurt on our way out of Germany, when the pilot announced the Berlin wall had come down! Everybody clapped and we were all excited. I can't believe 25 years have gone by!!
Sad they had to be rationed on some of their food, and wait so long for a car...I suppose if you live there it's all natural and you just accept it.
That sure is a coinidence, you just left that very day! Wow! So actually you never saw the reunited Germany.
Well, yes, those who did not dare to flee had to live with what they had, T (actually all "my" three T's are from the East) has some stories to tell.
I never dared to ask if he is sorry he had to live over there (cause what good would that be anyways).
Yes, can you believe it, 25 years gone by in a blink of an eye...
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