This could probably fit just as easily in the German Cities and Sights thread, but I thought I'd post it here.  I went to Germany once - back when it wasn't called Germany   .  More technically, it was called West Germany at the time (this was back in 1984 - geez, I'm dating myself), and I'm pretty sure I visited Cologne there.  I don't remember much about it, though.

Ohhhhh, this is nice!

FRG and GDR were a thing waaaaay before my time I was 10 years too late. I only know about them from History class and I think it's pretty sad that we don't have a real impression of what it was like back then. On that note, I'm really jealous that you have! Then the difference between the old Cologne and the new Cologne is even greater!

Oh, yeah.  I hadn't realized the age difference was that much   .  Anyway, we never tried to visit East Germany, so I can't really give an impression of what the Communist side was like.  But I remember West Germany as looking much the same as the rest of western Europe in terms of development.

I guess the main thing I remember from back then is that the Berlin Wall was up and in place at that time.  And it was always guarded by people in the Communist military, whose job was to prevent anyone from climbing over the wall from East Berlin to West Berlin.  Their primary method of preventing this was to shoot anyone they saw trying to escape from the Communist side to the free side, which usually killed them, sadly enough.

So every so often on the national news here in the U.S., there would be a short story during the newscast about another person being killed for trying to scale the wall like that.  Although I remember this story had an unusual twist one evening.  Someone had tried to scale the wall in the other direction - yes, from West to East.  (I never did hear why this person tried to do that.)  Sadly, the Communist guards shot him dead, also.

Very interesting facts! Thanks for sharing! I personally liked the fact about the gummy bears xD I didn't know they were originally German

Do you know "Haribo"? The gummy bear company? The meaning behind "Haribo" is actually super simple: Hans Riegel, Bonn

Yes I know Haribo, but they're so gross xD I had no idea their name origin was that, though! Very cool

I don't like them that much either xD
But yeah, I found out just a few years ago xD

mercuryfan wrote:

Oh, yeah.  I hadn't realized the age difference was that much   .  Anyway, we never tried to visit East Germany, so I can't really give an impression of what the Communist side was like.  But I remember West Germany as looking much the same as the rest of western Europe in terms of development.

I guess the main thing I remember from back then is that the Berlin Wall was up and in place at that time.  And it was always guarded by people in the Communist military, whose job was to prevent anyone from climbing over the wall from East Berlin to West Berlin.  Their primary method of preventing this was to shoot anyone they saw trying to escape from the Communist side to the free side, which usually killed them, sadly enough.

So every so often on the national news here in the U.S., there would be a short story during the newscast about another person being killed for trying to scale the wall like that.  Although I remember this story had an unusual twist one evening.  Someone had tried to scale the wall in the other direction - yes, from West to East.  (I never did hear why this person tried to do that.)  Sadly, the Communist guards shot him dead, also.

Why did I never see this post? xD

It's true that people who tried to climb over the wall got stopped all the time, sometimes even if they had to shoot them. However, I wouldn't say that everyone got shot. Most of them just went to jail or something like that isn't the best thing either but better than getting killed

Did you also hear about that guy who tunnelled under the wall back then? And not only he, but also a few others used it to cross the wall.

Most people didn't even know about all that stuff going on. People just lived their lives and as long as they didn't try to break any rules, they could do so without any problems. The people who lived in GDR, for example, never said that they hated it there or felt in danger.

Princess Moon wrote:

Why did I never see this post? xD

It's true that people who tried to climb over the wall got stopped all the time, sometimes even if they had to shoot them. However, I wouldn't say that everyone got shot. Most of them just went to jail or something like that isn't the best thing either but better than getting killed

Did you also hear about that guy who tunnelled under the wall back then? And not only he, but also a few others used it to cross the wall.

Most people didn't even know about all that stuff going on. People just lived their lives and as long as they didn't try to break any rules, they could do so without any problems. The people who lived in GDR, for example, never said that they hated it there or felt in danger.

Ah.  Then I didn't get the full picture from the news, because it never mentioned the majority that just went to jail.  I've come to realize that's typical.

No, I never heard about the guy who tunnelled under.  I must've missed that night on the news.  He must've been a clever person.

Now that I think about it, it would make sense for those who didn't break any of the rules to not feel any danger.  That must've been the real majority.

Yeah, media tend to play everything up and make it appear worse than it actually is. I can only say, based on the experiences of my family, that they didn't live that bad.