The capital of the GDR exists only in memories but it is still present everywhere in today’s Berlin. At every corner, pictures and mysterious symbols hide, which show through every now and then like whitewashed graffiti on houses. Stefan Wolle, who had lived and worked most of his life in East Berlin, is strolling through time and space and is visiting central places: the Alexanderplatz, the street Unter den Linden, and the Brandenburg Gate, centres of political power as well as spots where subculture came to life.
This biography of a city is told along historical events from the surrender of the Nazi-Germany in 1945 to the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. The author describes everyday life, buying groceries, weekend trips, and flat-hunting. He links quotations from official files, from literature, and from song lyrics to a many-voiced text.