HOME MOVIES: 1950s

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1950s

Format: 16mm

Description: Shot in the 1950s, this silent home movie shows a visit to West Berlin and includes shots of East Berlin. At :29 are images of the Berliner Funkturm or Funkturm Berlin (Berlin Radio Tower) is a former broadcasting tower in Berlin. Nicknamed der lange Lulatsch ("the lanky lad"), the tower is one of the best-known points of interest in the city of Berlin. Following are shots of East and West Berlin as seen from the tower. At 1:12 is the Victory Column, and at 1:15 a shot looking down Unter den Linden towards the Brandenburg Gate in the distance. At 1:28 the Soviet War Memorial is visible, with armed guards patrolling it. At 1:46 is a closer shot of the Brandenburg Gate. At 1:53 the burned out ruins of the Reichstag are shown. At 2:19 street sign for Unter den Linden. At 2:26 is a view in East Berlin with war damaged buildings visible. Two East Berliners pose for the camera. At 3:06 shots of a sign for Stalinallee, now the Karl Marx Allee. (The boulevard was named Stalinallee between 1949 and 1961 and was a flagship building project of East Germany's reconstruction programme after World War II.) At 3:25, shots out of a moving tram or car window. At 3:41 is the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park. At 3:49 the Soviet Monument of Honor is shown. The statue at 4:49 shows a Soviet soldier with a child in one arm, a sword in hand and a broken German fascist symbol under his feet. At 5:02 a Kubelwagen or VW Thing drives away. At 5:09, shots of a debris zone in East Germany with many buildings in ruins. At 5:33 is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church or Gedächtniskirche, located in Berlin on the Kurfürstendamm in the centre of the Breitscheidplatz. At 6:46 are shots of what appears to be a hotel with a golf course.

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