Secret Soviet Flat

I love Leipzig. I bet there's lots more of these waiting to be found.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7857256.stm

The flat has since been developed, the architect has told the BBC.

Well, that's that story ruined.

I did a walking tour in Berlin and they showed as a cold war 'preserved' flat. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking at.. looked just like my folk's place ;)

The flat has since been developed, the architect has told the BBC.

Well, that's that story ruined.

and no picture to boot! rat.

I forgot to put both links in. Here are the pics.

My friend Mone told me about it; she lives there and says that when you know the area well you notice that lots of flats are completely empty. When she first got there there was supposed to be 80,000 empty apartments in the city.

There's lots of empty warehouses, too, which are used for some excellent clubs and all sorts of madness. It's a really interesting city and I'd love to stumble across one of those time-capsule flats myself.

empty for a reason. 18% unemployment rate.
Only interesting if you are not stuck there for life and you can take it as an 'experience'

That part of Germany (South-east. Although probably all of the east) is a strange. I spent a week in Schneeberg/Aue (south of of Dreseden and Leipzig) and the number of NPD bumper stickers and graffiti was a bit off-putting. The highlight of the trip was probably finding a kebab shop run by a Lebanese guy and being able to speak French with him (I'm exagerating a bit - met some really nice people, and went on some lovely hikes).

One of the problems (apparently - this is a German professor of mine's story) in the East is that you have an emigration West of people who have achieved a decent level of education and/or are women. So you're left with a bunch of young, unsatisfied, and under-educated men.

That part of Germany (South-east. Although probably all of the east) is a strange. I spent a week in Schneeberg/Aue (south of of Dreseden and Leipzig) and the number of NPD bumper stickers and graffiti was a bit off-putting. The highlight of the trip was probably finding a kebab shop run by a Lebanese guy and being able to speak French with him (I'm exagerating a bit - met some really nice people, and went on some lovely hikes).

One of the problems (apparently - this is a German professor of mine's story) in the East is that you have an emigration West of people who have achieved a decent level of education and/or are women. So you're left with a bunch of young, unsatisfied, and under-educated men.

East Germany was not given any chance in the utterly mismanaged, botched, rushed, bungled, unconstitutional, and corrupt 're-unification' (more like an annexation). Immense social problems persist. NPD presence is just one of the symptoms. It will recover, but it will still take some considerable time, and much of East Germany is still very weak socio-economically.

True, there are problems, but there's a lot to say for Leipzig. I admit that if I had grown up there I may feel differently, and there are a lot of social problems caused by the movement of educated people out of the city.

yeah i read that story, liepzig is probably my favorite part of germany, so many empty places to explore and a really good art/photogarphy scene. plus loads of really cool second hand shops everywhere, especially the one in the old school house.

yeah horatio, i know what your saying about the npd being all over the old east, but liepzig is different because they have a really good antifa there so theres hardly any neo-nazis about.

I only spent a day in Leipzig. And it was pouring rain. The old part of the city was lovely. Nice arcades to escape from the rain into (bit like Paris). The train station was crazy though. It's actually a mall. What's up with that? Wicked fountain there though!