Berlin, Germany, East Germany, DDR, East Berlin

Berlin Wall – MADNESS!!

Last year at this time, I had done quite a few blogs on the Berlin Wall because it was the 30 years since the wall fell. I’m going to redo one of these blogs about a section of the wall with the word MADNESS written on it – with an exciting update!!

Originally Written on October 20, 2019

I am endlessly fascinated by the graffiti on the wall. It captures the essence of the 1980s and while a majority of the wall and graffiti are gone for good, the images from the 1980s have captured and preserved the essence of that raw, youthful energy forever. This was art on the streets being used as protest. It was the voice of a generation that used the wall as a canvas to reduce some of its horror and make it less threatening. In the words of Thierry Noir, who is the first artist to illegally paint large sections of the Berlin Wall, painting the wall, “subverted this iconic symbol of war into a symbol of hope, granting it real human significance.”

*Berlin Wall Graffiti by Thierry Noir (courtesy thierrynoir.com)*

One of the remaining sections of the wall has the word MADNESS written in large black letters. It remains to this day in Berlin in the Topographie des Terrors Center and is visited by the millions of people that go to Berlin annually. It would appear to have been done by someone protesting the madness that was the Berlin Wall.

However, it turns out the graffiti was done by a member of the British Rock Band called Madness when they visited the wall in the early 80s. In his twitter feed, Dan Woody Woodgate (one of the band members) writes that in 1980 another band member, Graham Suggs McPherson, climbed on top of a van and wrote MADNESS on the Berlin Wall, which is the same one that exists today. I was thrilled to see the origin of this fascinating and meaningful word that remains to this day. While most people that see the remaining graffiti naturally conclude that it was a teenager’s commentary on what was going on with the wall and the East German regime, it was actually a band member of a popular 1980s band writing his group’s name on the wall.

In another fascinating find, as I was scouring Instagram for images of the wall, I actually found this word written on the wall from a 1980s image. What an interesting coincidence – first I found the origin of the word, and then I found an image of what appears to be the same writing from the 1980s. What do you think? Is it the same writing or another one?

*Berlin Wall Graffiti Image from the 1980s (courtesy Instagram Massimiliano T.P.)*

I want it to be the same, but I see the differences in placement and letter sizes. So maybe not the exact same writing but still an interesting find.

EXCITING UPDATE

A couple of weeks back I received the following image from the owner of the blog www.madnessontv.com, with a note that the graffiti in the second image was definitely done by the band, as proved by this image:

British rock group Madness right after they wrote their name on the wall!!

Madness were in Berlin in January 1980, and appeared on German TV “Musikladen” on January 10, 1980, and then on another TV show on January 17, 1980. Two of the bandmembers were active in the London graffiti scene before they joined the band. A great big thank you to madnesstv.com for sharing this picture with me!!

(Sources: madnesstv.com, concerts.fandom.com)

The world’s too small for walls

What a difference a day can make. The morning of November 9, 1989 started like any other day for Berliners on both sides of the wall – but by the end of the day the barrier that stood between them had fallen. Today marks the 31st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Two nights ago, as the long-awaited (US) election results were announced, the sombre mood of the nation changed in one moment and celebrations broke out across the country.

In the words of Willy Brandt (1913-1992), German politician, mayor of West Berlin, and 1971 Nobel Peace Prize winner, “Now we are in a situation where what belongs together, will grow back together.”

(Images Courtesy: Guardian, Time Magazine, US News & World Report).

Berlin’s Ghost Stations

Before it was divided into East and West, Berlin had a large underground train system that covered the entire city. Like everything else, this too was divided by the wall and some train lines ended up exclusively in the East or the West, while some ended up in both – so a train could start in West Berlin, cut through a section below East Belin, and then be under West Berlin again.

The thin lines show train lines only in the East, while the stations marked with an X show stations in East Berlin where the West Berlin train did not stop.

East Berlin Subway Map with all West Berlin stations removed.

The trains thst started in West Berlin were not allowed to stop at the stations in the East, they would slow down and roll through the eerily empty station and then speed up again. Often these stations were patrolled by East German Guards. Interestingly, the trains were allowed to operate in this manner, and not completely stopped, because the trains were owned by and were a good source of revenue for the East German regime. These stations were marked on West Berlin’s subway maps simply as “Banhofe, auf denen die Zuge nicht halten” – the train does not stop at this station.

The stations came to be known as Ghost Stations – they were dimly lit and completely empty, and saw no human activity for decades. After the wall fell, these stations appeared to be frozen in time with 30 year old posters still hanging on the walls.

One of the stations Friedrichstrasse was completely in East Berlin but was used by West Berliners to change trains and go from one patform to the next. It was used as a border crossing and this was also where the West Berliners who came to meet relatives in the East came in and left from – as a result the station withnessed many tears and heartbreaks.

All evidence of the past has been removed after reunification, and it is difficult to imagine that the bustling stations of today are the same ghost stations of yesterday.

(Source: YouTube Video, Atlas Obscura, and berlin.de).

“Our Life” in Tiles

Art on buildings, among other public places, was a big thing for socialist countries – and in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz is one of the most iconic and largest of these artworks. It wraps around two floors of the East German Ministry of Education’s “House of the Teachers” building like a bandage.

Artist Walter Womacka (1925 – 2010) was chosen by the East German government to make this mural – and the large-scale socialist realism mosaic built in 1964 is now a protected landmark. Its popularity probably stems from the colorful folk-art vibe which is so much softer and fun than hardline socialist propaganda art.Womacka called his mural with 800,000 tiles “Our Life,” and that’s precisely what it depicted – various aspects of life in East Germany that the government wanted to showcase.

One side depicts scientists and engineers, while another shows workers looking at an artist painting.

This section of the mural depicts worldwide friendship and harmony

Sportsmen get flowers from admiring children, while farm workers chat with each other

A woman releases a symbolic dove, while a man waving the everpresent red flag is flanked by a soldier

Another section shows a couple relaxing in a garden – which is similar to Womack’s extremely popular work, On the Beach (1962).

(All images courtesy Instagram and Haus des Lehrers website).

Ligthing up the divide

European Space Agency’s astronaut Andre Kuipers took this photograph of Berlin from space. This image as well as Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s image and tweet brought attention to the marked difference in Berlin lights at night when he saw it from space in 2013.

Chris Hadfield took this picture from space, “Berlin at night. Amazingly, I think the light bulbs still show the East/West division from orbit.” April 17, 2013. (Twitter).

On April 13 2013, it was 23 years 5 months and 4 days since the Berlin Wall fell – so why this difference?

East Berlin’s street lights were a sodium vapor lamp which emit a soft yellow light, whereas West Berlin has fluorescent lights which emit white light. Apparently, the reunified city government had not gotten around to changing the East German lights yet!!

The brightly lit up blob in the center which looks like it’s in the East is Alexanderplatz which was heavily renovated after reunification and hence shows white light. The oval shaped darkness at the 9 0’clock spot is the Tiergarten, and the lit up line running through it is a major road, Unter den Linden, which leads to the well-lit Brandenburg gate.

The legendary Tempelhof Airport is now a park.

At around the 3 o’clock spot there’s another dark circle – that is the legendary Tempelhof Airport – the site of the Berlin airlift where American cargo planes brought in food and other supplies to the city when it was blockaded from all sides by the Soviet Union. The airport is now a park.

Belin is home to some of the most beautiful streetlights, some of which have been around the mid 1800s. It seems that the remaining 30,000 streetlights are set to be replaced with more energy and environmentally friendly street lights. Many Berlin residents are trying to get a UNESCO World heritage classification for the old streetlamps in an effort to save these beautiful lamps.