Brandenburg Gate, BERLIN in 2017 and 1957

Went on a 3 day trip to Berlin, Germany as I wanted to visit some of the 'scenes' I took in 1957 with my British Ensign Selfix 16/20 model II c amera. In 2017 I had a 63 year old Ensign Selfix 16/20 model 1 with 75mm f4.5 'Ensar' lens.
i could not believe how all the trees have grown up obscuring views ! I tried to get the same angle on the Brandenburg Gate from the West Berlin side as i did in 1957 -- it has a huge 'traffic System' now ( but NO East German Police! ) and I had to be careful i didn't get run over !

Brandenburg Gate Berlin 2017 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Brandenburg Gate 1956 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Do you have other photos of the ruined Berlin? I'd like to see them.

Fascinating photos. My mother was in Berlin from 1955-57, working as a civilian for the OSI (Office of Special Investigation - the U.S. Air Force's intelligence agency). Although not much interested in photography while there, she did buy a Braun Paxette rangefinder at a local camera shop and took quite a few photos of the city with it, including a couple almost identical to your 1957 shot (except on slide film).

She, my dad, and I visited Berlin in 1995, during the post-unification building boom - the whole area east of the Gate was one huge construction site. It was a strange feeling for my mother to simply walk up to and through the Brandenberg Gate, since it was such a absolute barrier - physically and psychologically - when she was there.

I haven't been back since, although coincidentally enough my sister flew into the city yesterday and will be there for several days.

(Shortly after returning to the U.S. my mother lent the Paxette to her brother-in-law, who promptly dropped it in Lake Chickamauga in Tennessee while out on his boat for the afternoon. I recently began searching for a decent, working model of a mid-50s Super Paxette, to show to my mother and maybe take on my next trip to Germany.)

BayG75 said:

It was a strange feeling for my mother to simply walk up to and through the Brandenberg Gate, since it was such a absolute barrier - physically and psychologically - when she was there.

Click to expand...

People could pass to and fro the border. A lot of people were living on one side of the border and working on the other (living in the East and working in the West was most lucrative).
Due to the special statute of Berlin there the border stayed open for the people until 1961.

Western-Allies military personnel had the right to enter East-Berlin (except for the crisis days).

Western Allies surveillance (spy) teams officially entered East-Berlin and the GDR regularly for their missions from 1946 to 1990.

AgX said:

People could pass to and fro the border. A lot of people were living on one side of the border and working on the other (living in the East and working in the West was most lucrative).
Due to the special statute of Berlin there the border stayed open for the people until 1961.

Western-Allies military personnel had the right to enter East-Berlin (except for the crisis days).

Western Allies surveillance (spy) teams officially entered East-Berlin and the GDR regularly for their missions from 1946 to 1990.

Click to expand...

Yes, I perhaps should have made it more clear that I was referring to my mother's specific situation - the Gate (and the rest of the border) was a very real barrier to her. Due to her particular work at OSI, she was forbidden to cross into East Berlin, and never did so during her two years there. It was a source of some low-level but ever-present stress at the time, since she had to avoid situations where she might have to explain to people she was with why she couldn't accompany them into the East (as a secretary at the Tempelhof Air Base, which is how she described her job, crossing the border shouldn't have been a problem). That is why it felt so surreal to her to just stroll across the former border in 1995 - even forty years later it seemed like something she shouldn't be doing.

I went across into East Berlin ( Russian Sector ) ONCE, THROUGH the Gate into Unter den Linden in uniform on a special Coach Tour -- we had an East German 'Guide' in the coach watching every move !! NO PHOTOS out of the window of East Berliners living in holes in the ground !! they showed us the ONE STREET built up 'Stalin Allee' -- I wonder what it is called now !
Then we went into the Russian War Memorial Gardens quite far from Berlin Mitte so did not get time to go back in 2017 -- I HAVE shown more photos here taken with my CONTAX III and Perutz Peromnia film of those gardens.

In the process of De-Stalinisation the alley was re-named "Karl-Marx-Alley" in 1961.
It still got this name.

When the appartments in that alley were finished in the early 50s, it was the place to be: luxurious appartments for really little money. The Stalin-Alley was the presentation project for the re-construction of (East-) Berlin.

"Alley of the Workers"

pentaxpete said:

!! NO PHOTOS out of the window of East Berliners living in holes in the ground !! [in the 50s]

Click to expand...

Here are photos of West-Berlin housings in the 60s:

http://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/2014-04/fs-berlin-armut-wohnungen

Es var ein Video sehr interessant ! Vielen dank !

Wish i had time to go to Karl Marx Allee -- our Hotel was near the TV tower and we could have got a U Bahn from Alexanderplatz to Frankfurter Tor

pentaxpete said:

Went on a 3 day trip to Berlin, Germany as I wanted to visit some of the 'scenes' I took in 1957 with my British Ensign Selfix 16/20 model II c amera. In 2017 I had a 63 year old Ensign Selfix 16/20 model 1 with 75mm f4.5 'Ensar' lens.
i could not believe how all the trees have grown up obscuring views ! I tried to get the same angle on the Brandenburg Gate from the West Berlin side as i did in 1957 -- it has a huge 'traffic System' now ( but NO East German Police! ) and I had to be careful i didn't get run over !

Brandenburg Gate Berlin 2017 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Brandenburg Gate 1956 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Click to expand...

the Brits were no help then, so, they should stay away from it now too.

Thank you for sharing your then and now photo. I like the idea: the same photographer, same camera type and same location, 60 years apart.

AgX said:

People could pass to and fro the border. A lot of people were living on one side of the border and working on the other (living in the East and working in the West was most lucrative).
Due to the special statute of Berlin there the border stayed open for the people until 1961.

Click to expand...

Amongst the east-german movies depicting the open-border situation in Berlin this one may be of special interest to Apuggers:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/index.php?threads/old-cameras-in-old-movies.129082/page-8#post-1993574