No GD-Error: Museumswohnung Hellersdorf
The buzz of the city began to fade the further we travelled. In its place came the hazy lull of a hot summer’s day in the country. Past the pastel-coloured 6-storey flats, at the end of the sandy concrete roads we could already see glimpses of virgin green farmland. We had reached the edges of Berlin. Any association with the city however was already gone once we had left Lichtenberg behind us and entered the concrete wasteland of Marzahn and Hellersdorf.
Wolfgang did not expect any visitors when we arrived at the DDR-Museumswohnung at quarter to 4 on a Sunday afternoon. We almost felt guilty for disturbing him when he found him lethargically leaning over the balustrade of the prefab flat we wanted him to show us. We were lucky: once we entered the flat our worries turned out to be unfounded as the rotund curator heartily greeted us with a broad grin and a firm handshake.
As he stepped away to show us around we were shuttled into an era full of big brown televisions, pine faux-wood cupboards, patterned wallpaper and spongy floor boards. We stood in the Museumswohnung: a replica of a typical GDR-era pre-fabricated house widely known as a “Plattenbau” in Germany. Wolfgang is quick to remark that the television, standing prominently on a shelf in the living room, is not so typical. It was hard to obtain one, waiting times for a TV could be years, and buying one was expensive: for the price of two televisions you could own a Trabant car according to Wolfgang.
The house is examplary for all other 42,000 apartments in the Hellersdorf district. Like cars or fridges, houses in the GDR were ranked by type. Architects simply selected a pre-designed flat type and applied it wherever the need arose. This flat in particular belongs to the ubiquitous WBS70 series, which stands for WohnungBauSerie 70 (construction type 70) and was available in a 5, 6 or 11-storey variant. Wolfgang explains that the elements the three-bedroom Museumswohning is made of were made in a factory in the Cottbus region and cost 109 GDR-Marks (roughly 400 euros in today’s money) to rent. Covered by that price were all possible costs of a house: maintenance, heating, electricity and water.
The curators of the museum went to great lengths to give its visitors the feeling of being in a GDR-flat. The little kitchen was perhaps the finest example of this. Spartan being understatement here: the concrete walls around the sink and stove were left bare and undecorated to prevent the otherwise omnipresent wallpaper from catching fire or getting wet. Tiles were never fitted, probably for cost reasons. Pine and imitation wood again dominated the scene here. To our great surprise the owners added everyday products such as washing up liquid or filter coffee from the GDR-days to the collection, making the atmosphere complete.
A book would be too short to sum up all the tiny museum’s curiosities. The best idea really is to head there. The museum is always open on Sundays between 2pm and 4pm. Wolfgang, a born and raised east German himself, will enthusiastically spice up your visit with anecdotes and stories behind all the artifacts. The museum doesn’t cost a penny to enter and photography is free too.
Where is it? It’s in Hellersdorf. The exact address is:
179 Hellersdorfer Straße 12627 Berlin
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Freebie, a photo of Wolfgang letting us out:
© Rémy Baurichter for Wandr