Take the hobby to Berlin!

[Ingsoc75]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...619228,00.html

[uscob]

What f....ing concerns of Berlin Politicians? These Idiots sold the Permit to them, that allowes them to stand there in Uniforms. And if the tourists give them Money, the do it on their free will. There's nobody standing with an M16, telling them "pay or die". It's just a great idea to make some money, also for me, because i sold most of the Uniforms etc. to them. Better to do this for a actors student to make some money for livind as to go to the social office, collecting money from the government. Every time I hear this sh.. from politicians, my neck blows up like a cobra. It's only a way for unknown ones to get it into the Newspapers. It's a 50 Years Period of the Berlin History and the tourists like it. I never saw them spitting out in front of them, but on the other group guy's standing there in NVA and Borders Uniforms. just to tell, most of the complaints coming from PDS, Die Linke and others, but never you read complaints about the Warsaw Pact Uniforms, only Nato States. Is there a political reason? It's maybe a day filling discussion but I have to go to work now to fill up my new Storage with Nato and Warsaw Pact Stuff.

[Ralph P]

Interesting article..."It's inappropriate and out of place," according ot the Berlin city official. Maybe he would rather have the Wall back up and real soldiers standing there instead of a few actors...

[Jeff Mack]

First the Palast der Republik and now the re-enactors? I'm surprised the BRD even wants to mark the 20th anniversary of die Wende! I wonder how the celebratory events will play out in eastern Germany.

[grossmacht]

I can't post fotos here, but I've got a couple of a guy wearing a Grenztruppen Uniform spray-painted with silver paint...of course he is also wearing silver make-up..e like a living statue. I think they suck too, but the last think Berliner Politiker should be complaining about is something that is entertaining for tourists. Do i think it is tacky? Yes, but just as tacky as the DDR-Museum behind the Berliner Dom. The are around Checkpoint Charlie has also changed qite a bit, but then again so has much of the city.

[Mike G.]

If the politicians really want to talk "Tacky" .....

tacky was removing the real Checkpoint Charlie, and then replacing it with a fake Checkpoint Charlie.

As for the comment that soldiers (Russian and American) never stood in front of Brandenburg Gate ..... well that shows how short their memory is. At war's end, Soviet, American and British soldiers and officers stood about in front of Brandenburg Gate often. And then things got heated up and interesting.

Personally, I see the remarks as more sweeping of history under the carpet.

[MaxxBrunn1938]

It could be even worse! Actors wearing Brownshirts

[Kartofelpreußer]

"Such soldiers never stood there," he told the paper. "It's a falsification of history."

"It's turning [the place into Disneyland."

"[It has become a] tacky tourist trap unworthy of its historical significance."

You could say the exact same things about the "Roman centurions" posing for pictures outside the Colliseum in Rome, the would-be colonial troops in Colonial Williamsburg, or any number of other re-enactors-- be they of high or apallingly low quality-- at a dozen other places throughout the world. Frankly, so what? I think it's all very silly, but it's part of the dynamism of these places and it's fun to see. The only difference seems to be that more time has passed in most of the other cases... so what.

[Ingsoc75]

tacky was removing the real Checkpoint Charlie, and then replacing it with a fake Checkpoint Charlie.

Most tourists probably don't even know this.