On the topic of a city divided in two, I highly recommend the novel ‘The City & The City’ by China Mieville. It’s an excelllent detective thriller that reminds you that the strongest and tallest walls are always in our minds.
Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
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Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#32Odd/amusing point, the Stasi referred to the wall as the "antifascist defense border". Although these days, I'm a bit torn on the term as I see rent prices jacked up across the world by whomever can borrow money at the lowest rate. The Stasi and the Berlin Wall | DW Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haxkWC6MgcQ
I suspect that real estate prices are dragged up by fear of inflation. People in my country buy whatever has a roof, because they do not want their savings to go to waste.
It’s all about the cheap money.
I just refinanced my house for a rate that is effectively negative in real terms right now.
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#33Odd/amusing point, the Stasi referred to the wall as the "antifascist defense border". Although these days, I'm a bit torn on the term as I see rent prices jacked up across the world by whomever can borrow money at the lowest rate. The Stasi and the Berlin Wall | DW Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haxkWC6MgcQ
The Russians' usage of the term antifascist certainly didn't age well, but it's worth noting that "fascists" is how all people in the world referred to certain Germans and Italians for a period of 25 years all up until 1945 (and the affected folks didn't mind that - in fact, the term was invented in Italy in 1915 and then adopted by Mussolini in 1918 and by Hitler in 1923 [0]). So for Russians to refer to Germans who…
> the term antifascist certainly didn't age well
antifa?
the political left has never stopped using the term fascist as a pejorative, it's thrown around quite liberally even today
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#34Berlin had the most memorable wall but the entire country was divided by a wall as well. My mom's family abandoned their house and factory and fled to the west when the Russians took their property and punished them for being capitalists. Since the wall wasn't up yet they left through Berlin, which was like a porthole to the west at the time.
I grew up on the western side of the Iron curtain. Not far from the border. My father was born in East Germany and had fled with his mother, ssister and brother before the wall was up.
They could only take one suitcase to make it look like they were visiting western Germany only. So he and his family came to the west.
His life went in a way so that he got a job near the border as it was back then in north eastern Bavaria.
Not far from where I grew up there was another village divided by a wall: Little Berlin [1]
It was interesting as a child to grow up near a divided village and country. And seeing the border fall.
I still remember my dad, tears streaming down his face while watching people standing on the Berlin Wall when it fell. I remember him welcoming the trains from the West German Embassy with the GDR people shortly before that. [2]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6dlareuth?wprov=sfla1
[2]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%BCchtlingsz%C3%BCge_aus_... (German only)
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#35Odd/amusing point, the Stasi referred to the wall as the "antifascist defense border". Although these days, I'm a bit torn on the term as I see rent prices jacked up across the world by whomever can borrow money at the lowest rate. The Stasi and the Berlin Wall | DW Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haxkWC6MgcQ
I suspect that real estate prices are dragged up by fear of inflation. People in my country buy whatever has a roof, because they do not want their savings to go to waste.
Is the real estate market (esp. for renting out) actually dominated by private investors and their savings? Here in German cities, it feels like it's dominated by faceless investors and corporations but I have no data to back that up.
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#36The East German authorities called the wall "Anti-Fascist Protection Border". >The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" from building a socialist state in East Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
What's your point though? That building walls is a useless endeavour or that anti-fascism is evil becay an anti-democratic state abused the term for propaganda reasons?
If it's the latter, I hope you'll never look into the historic use of terms such as democracy, freedom/liberty or "free elections".
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that real estate prices are dragged up by fear of inflation. People in my country buy whatever has a roof, because they do not want their savings to go to waste.
Is the real estate market (esp. for renting out) actually dominated by private investors and their savings? Here in German cities, it feels like it's dominated by faceless investors and corporations but I have no data to back that up.
In March-May 2021, I was looking for an apartment or smaller house in my city of birth, Ostrava. The market was crazy, but the prospective buyers looked like regular people. Sometimes 15-20 of us met in a single location and had to be shepherded through the dwelling in groups.
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that real estate prices are dragged up by fear of inflation. People in my country buy whatever has a roof, because they do not want their savings to go to waste.
Is the real estate market (esp. for renting out) actually dominated by private investors and their savings? Here in German cities, it feels like it's dominated by faceless investors and corporations but I have no data to back that up.
99.99% for-rent apartments I’ve seen in Western Europe were owned by some huge company. That’s a stark contrast to Eastern Europe where you’re much more likely to rent a privately owned property.
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that real estate prices are dragged up by fear of inflation. People in my country buy whatever has a roof, because they do not want their savings to go to waste.
It’s all about the cheap money. I just refinanced my house for a rate that is effectively negative in real terms right now.
We had even slightly lower interest rate on mortgages in 2017 and the market was nowhere as hot as today.
I am sort-of familiar with real estate market in Prague and Ostrava, two very different cities.
Apartments in Ostrava were hard to sell even with low interest rates, because the city lost 10 per cent of its population - a typical rust belt phenomenon. Even just two years ago, an apartment put on market in Ostrava could be there for half a year before attracting a serious buyer.
They are now hot like hell and more than twice as much expensive.
Re: Berlin, a divided city. The events of 60 years ago
#40Odd/amusing point, the Stasi referred to the wall as the "antifascist defense border". Although these days, I'm a bit torn on the term as I see rent prices jacked up across the world by whomever can borrow money at the lowest rate. The Stasi and the Berlin Wall | DW Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haxkWC6MgcQ
IIRC west germany did end up welcoming some nazis back into government positions so from their standpoint it probably seemed fairly reasonable. There were still Nazis everywhere in postwar berlin.
East Germany did that too in the early years for building up their "inofficial army" (called "Kasernierte Volkspolizei") before the "official" NVA (National People's Army) was founded in 1956. After that they mostly got rid of old Nazis in the army though, at least the high-ranking ones. In general, the more specialist and "valuable" an old Nazi was, the more it was likely that his history was quickly forgotten, also in the East.