Not all parts of Germany look like a toy town, which is an oddity for me -someone who has lived in Munich for 5 years and is just discovering other parts of (former East) Germany.
This is Löwenberger Land and Grieben. It used to belong to the Potsdam district in former East Germany, or the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). Now it belongs to Oberhavel, a county with two white swans on it’s crest, called das Wappen in German (a word that sounds like what would happen if you got hit in the head with one). It seems to be taking the folks here a while to catch up to the 21st century. I didn’t realize this was a tavern until after I uploaded this photograph. Where are the pretty, window sill flowers?
Although, with a newly repaved road, things appear to be on the up swing if you blink a few million times. Before we drove through this village we spent a day in Leipzig, a city booming of reconstruction since the German Unification. But here it is as if time stood still. Everything is some shade of dull, grey-brown–even the cyclist are grey–with a straight, two-lane road splitting the town in two.
Where a household finally splurged on painting their home our eyes squinted at the sight–neon green–ultra bright puce–random, screaming facades jutting out in a row of mud slapped dwellings.
These homes aren’t very inviting compared to the Sarasotian pastels I’m used to seeing in Florida. But it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between former West and former East. A tiny part of me appreciates the visible reminder that Germany was separate (and not equal) for a time -almost preserving the history of how towns suffered. I wonder, do some people who have the means to repaint their homes choose to keep them–out of nostalgia–looking so, eh, modest? There are DDR memorabilia shops, after all. Perhaps there is a mild humor here I’m just not getting. Although there are clues (and I didn’t get a shot, unfortunately) that some are screaming to take the camouflage off.
Impressive. This is why Germans call it Dunkeldeutschland.
I was just in Havelsee in June to breed Anneliese with a rather handsome dackel there!
I have wondered the very same thing. Is it nostalgia, a fear of being different, or what? When I first saw all of these gray buildings, I felt sadness for all they lost through the years. It was so dismal and time did appear to stand still. Funny, we strive to travel to places that haven’t changed in decades and then we wish for more lively scenery.
Many of the young people leave for a better job expectation. Those who (have to) stay fight against “Antriebslosigkeit” or even worse “Hoffnungslosigkeit”.
@exexpat Whoa, I didn’t know that B-)
@Maribeth Ah, I looked up Havelsee. It must be very pretty there despite the brown houses!
@Chris I really like your last sentence. Funny how we actually see things.
@Ingo That’s very sad. Good thing the world is constantly changing. Maybe there will be an influx of people in next 20 years to revive the towns.
we see things from our personal and cultural lenses. If another American with the same attributes goes through the journey she will see the same things differently. The grey painted houses look good the owner of the house but may not so to someone else. This diversity is good and beutiful. Memory of a journeys outside your home is very sweet. I still talk about my journey to Iran, 15th years in USA and a couple of hours on the streets of Frankfurt.
These houses are not grey painted but locally available flint (Kies) is worked into the plaster. That’s how it used to be done where I was at home too (just outside Berlin). Its not as grey when its freshly done and not located next to a major road as in the pics, then its more of a golden colour. And yes, to me its the colour of home, its part of the landscape (Brandenburg is literally built on sand after all) and certainly not depressing. And frankly, after 1989 painting houses white usually singled out the kind of ‘Western’ newcomers we resented, the kind that even exchanged the soil in their garden for fear of communist contamination …
North German guy(Schleswig-Holstein)in Florida.Very well done site.