A World That Will Never Recur.

Then & Now

While traveling around East Germany, photographer Stefan Koppelkamm captured a world that will never recur. It was in the first years of the 90s—right after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before The German Reunification.

Then & Now: The buildings, streets, and squares Stefan Koppelkamm photographed in the first years of the 90s, look as though time had stood still, conveying an idea of how Germany might have looked before the Second World War. Ten or twelve years later, Koppelkamm sought all these places out again and photographed them for a second time, from exactly the same viewpoints. Changes in the condition of the buildings and even in the most trivial minor features reflect the dramatic social and economic transformation that took place within only ten to twelve years of European history.

The German Reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) became part of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) to form the reunited nation of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity (German: Deutsche Einheit), celebrated on 3 October (German Unity Day).

Recommended Reading: Interview with Stefan Koppelkamm

Recommended Reading: Abandoned Border Checkpoints

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