I have to admit that I'm finding it hard to stick to a particular schedule when blogging so from now one the posts are going to be as and when rather than sticking to various places on various days.
I was reading in the newspaper today about plans to rename all the streets, avenues, squares etc. in the former East Germany which had been named after Karl Marx. This made me wonder how many cards I have of such places.
During my, still ongoing, search I found this.
I did mention in my introduction to the blog that name change places will feature in the blog, especially with post marks which no longer exist.
The card was sent almost exactly 40 years ago, again a coincidence, from Karl- Marx-Stadt in the DDR to Hannover in the BRD.
Karl-Marx-Stadt was the name given to Chemnitz on 10th May 1953, the town centre had been heavily bombed in WWII and the rebuilding and the new name were meant to symbolise urban development under socialism.
I'm not going to go into a history of the fall of Communism and the changes in Europe at the time, but suffice to say Germany was reunified on 3rd October 1990.
The change of name back to Chemnitz had actually taken place a few months before with 76% of the town inhabitants voting in favour of reverting back to Chemnitz in a referendum held in April that year.
I'm trying to find out which of the places feature on the card still exist. I know the petrified forest still does and Strasse der Nationen has kept its name.
I can't find any info on the fountains. They are very of their time so they may have been destroyed but they are quite innocuous looking so maybe they still stand.
The other building on the card is the Interhotel Moskau. From what I can gather the building still stands but has changed its name to Hotel an der Oper.
Interhotels had a reputation for being used by the Stasi to spy on Western Tourists. You can't help but wonder if the sender of this card was subject to such surveillance.
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