a blog by Peter Leonard
The last time I saw the Palast der Republik in East Berlin was 1994. Except you couldn't see the building itself: the former headquarters of the East German government was covered in a kind of photo-realistic dropcloth.
The canvas was painted with the image of the former building which had stood at the same spot: the Hohenzollern Palace, razed by the Soviets after WWII. What lay underneath was the 1976 replacement, built by East German as a 'people's palace' to symbolize classless Soviet society. After reunification, the building fell into disrepair and, in an effort to sway public opinion towards rebuilding the Prussian palace, it was covered with an image of the old Stadtschloss. Here's a good English-language article on the subject.
In 2003, the facade had been removed in preparation for deconstruction and the eventual rebuilding of the Prussian palace, so I got to take this picture. Eric Honecker's pride and joy looks like it could use a little spiffing up -- perhaps an episode of This Old Communist Hall could be filmed in Berlin if the reconstruction plans fall through.