Berlin
Date Made: n.d.
Country: West Germany
Materials: paper
Measurements: 11.5 cm x 16.5 cm; 4 1/2 in x 6 1/2 in
The postcard is a color image of a guard in a guardtower looking across the Berlin Wall through binoculars. The guard is stationed in East Berlin, and the concrete of the Berlin Wall can be seen separating the guardtower from the photographer. To choose this image for a postcard of Berlin shows how striking the strict surveillance of East Berlin must have been to visitors to Berlin at the time. It suggests that the control and surveillance apparatus of the German Democratic Republic had become a curiosity to the West. The scene of a photographer and a border guard staring each other down, one through a camera lense and the other through binoculars, also demonstrates the constant tensions between East and West Berlin and the suspicions each side had of the other.
Accession Number: 2017.015.025
Collection/Series: Peter Bochmann Border Guard Collection