Ever Changing Interior

As we acquire more furniture, the arrangement in the store changes - and hopefully starts to look more and more welcoming. We still need more chairs, and a few tables wouldn't hurt either.






This classic GDR wall cabinet came from the upstairs neighbors, who bought it new back in the 1980s. It offers us a lot more "exhibition" space, while also being a much more typical example of GDR furniture than the older cabinet.

Opening Day/Night - Eröffnungsfeier

The opening was a long but fun day, with many visitors and much conversation and food.
The main topic was whether one can really speak of a cuisine belonging only to the GDR, or whether it was just a reflection or updating of regional cuisine. It seems like a theme we can come back to for more formal discussion in the future.
In the meantime, the front window displays our informal research of what people think of when they hear "DDR-Küche."










Der Abend war sehr schön. Die Tafel reich bestückt mit leckeren Sachen. So gab es z.B. Grießbrei mit Pflaumen, später Kartoffelsuppe mit Würstchen und und und.

An der Wand hing ein riesen Plakat. Am Anfang noch leer fühlte es sich den Abend mit all den Dingen, die den Besuchern zum Thema DDR-Gerichte einfielen. Jetzt ist im Fenster zu bestaunen.

Einer der schönen Momente des Abends waren die zufällig entstandenen Gespräche und eine daraus folgende weitere Zusammenarbeit. So kam ein Frau mit Kind, eigentlich nur um einen Schrank aus DDR Zeiten ihrem Sohn zu zeigen. Am Ende blieben sie und nahmen teil am dem geselligen Abend...

Intangible Work

The work in the last few days is unfortunately not visible and thus feels like there hasn't been much progress. Mostly the focus has shifted to preparing for the opening - distributing flyers, sending emails, designing activities. But before the opening, we have to at least temporarily secure the heating pipes, so that will be a job for next week.

The Battle Continues

Today we finally had good enough weather to put together the scaffolding and try to clean the facade and sign. It's not so obvious from this angle, but the scaffolding leans away from the facade at about a 20 degree angle, making it too dangerous to add the second level. Cleaning required the use of telescoping poles to reach the top of the sign.

It is still up in the air how we can actually change the sign. Most obvious solutions are prohibited either by cost or by the crazy construction of the facade, but cleaning the front of the building seemed like a good step and improves the general outside appearance.





In the end, the results are noticeable:

We found this photo of Georg-Schwarz-Str. in a book at the offices of the Haushalten e.V. The book was dated early 1993, so perhaps the "Modekiste" was the first post-Wende incarnation of the store.


Hierzu können wir gleich einen Aufruf starten. Wer hat noch Fotos von der Georg Schwarz Straße?
Weiss jemand näheres über die Geschichte über das Haus Nr. 14 in der Straße?

Wir wissen; es war ein Schlüsseladen, ein Blumenladen und ein Modegeschäft unter dieser Adresse ansässig.

The Facade from Hell

We've reached a plateau with the paint removal from the front. No matter what, there are still traces of the old paint left on the facade.
Moving our attention to the sign, we figured out that the material above the doorway was the same as the sign, and would be easy to remove for inspection.


I'm not sure why I would expect the outside to be built any more sensibly than the inside, but I was still somewhat shocked when we took down this piece of what turned out to be plexiglass from above the doorway and about 5lbs. of brick fragments came bouncing out.
It is difficult to describe what it is you can see through the space, but simply put - I am amazed the whole facade hasn't fallen off and landed in the street already.

All of this means that it is time to re-evaluate the options for creating signage and redesigning the exterior of the store.


Wir wollten wissen, was hinter der Wand liegt. nein, eigentlich wollten wir ein Stück Aussenfassade abmontieren, um Farbtests durchzuführen. Das Stück über der Eingangstür war gut erreichbar und schnell abgeschraubt. Nur was wir nicht ahnten, der darunter liegende Putz wollte auch ans Licht. Es gab einen lauten Knall. Es stiebte und eine Staubwolke umhüllte uns.

Vorsichtig entfernten wir den Rest an Geröll und machten erstmal wieder "sauber". Es nimmt wieder Zeit in Anspruch, aber erstmal müssen die Vorbereitung für die Eröffnungsfeier erledigt werden.

Inside and...

Before this project, I don't think I've ever cleaned an entire floor on hands and knees before. Now I can't even count how many times we've done it in the vain hope of trying to get what is potentially 20 years of dirt out of these tiles. Today we finally found the solution - baking soda.














Only 300 square feet to go!












Luckily, the new volunteers started working today, too. Each tile is one square foot. This is close to the end - maybe only 50 square feet left.