Gary Poster, with essential assists from Galyn Norwood, Phiroon Phihakendr, Jose Quijada, Pavandeep Kalra. On Berlin's 0ranienberger street, just a short walk north of where the Wall once stood, is a popular bar where the Cold War never ends. Framed photographs of Erich Honecker and other leaders of the former German Democratic Republic adorn the walls. The 400 or so patrons who crowd the bar every evening drink Russian vodka or second-rate GDR champagne called Rotkappchen, filling the air with a haze of acrid smoke from the Karo or Cabinet cigarettes that were among the few brands available under the old regime. They sit on wobbly bar stools of the lumpy, uncomfortable kind that were common in former days or in booths made from the back seats of old Trabant automobiles.
Speakers blast vintage recordings by long-defunct East German rock bands.
Customers browse over old tour books showing the socialist sights of the GDR and happily carry away outdated maps that show the route of the Berlin Wall and the barbed-wire border between the two Germanys. Checkpoint Charlie, the once-tense Allied crossing point between East and West Berlin, is now home to vendors hawking uniforms and military medals of the old National People's Army. They only noticed afterwards how many good things there were back then. It was a more just and social society, people stayed closer together and there wasn't as much selfishness and greed as now. Most Ossis don't miss those parts of it, but millions long for the drab certainties that made life at least bearably predictable, and for the heartening camaraderie of the oppressed.