To mark the fall of the Berlin Wall Radio Free Europe photographer Amos Chapple visited the precise locations of 14 striking photos taken when the city was split - in the 1950s, 60s and 70s - and took 2019 versions of those scenes. And the contrasts - or lack thereof - are fascinating.
"Berlin today is one of the world's hippest, most affluent cities - a cultural powerhouse and a mecca for party animals.
"But just over 30 years ago it was a city torn in two, divided by a wall measuring 91 miles. On one side was capitalist West Berlin, on the other communist East Berlin. Anyone who tried to get over it was shot." . . .
. . .
" 'The photo of the church taken from the television tower is, I think, the most interesting. To see how much the city has been built up since its devastation by war is amazing.
" 'It gives you a sense of how the city's elderly people must feel, looking at all these new buildings that the rest of us just pass by. They remember the rubble that once stood in its place, maybe sometimes the people they knew who were killed inside it.'
"Looking at his completed project, Amos says it was 'deeply educational'.
"He added: 'Looking at those old photos just reinforces my sense that government should never be allowed too much power. Whether the politics are right, left, fascist, communist or centrist - it doesn't matter. Any government is made up of people - they're just people. Even if they have good intentions, people make dumb mistakes and errors of judgement. I do, you do, we all do.
" 'So when I look at that line of scruffy communist militants standing there thinking they will make the world better by stopping people's freedom of movement, when I watch the Stasi videos of agents creeping through people's apartments, looking for evidence they were thinking the wrong way… I think it's terrifying, and it's a lesson.'
"The separation of Berlin began in 1945 when Germany was split into East and West Germany." . . .
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