Viewing the Stalinallee > Viewing the Stalinallee
Produced by the VEB Rathenower Optische Werke, these transparencies show scenes along the newly constructed Stalinallee, now known as the Karl-Marx-Allee, the boulevard through East Berlin that was constructed as a showpiece of postwar socialist reconstruction efforts. When seen through the accompanying viewfinder, the images on the transparencies appear three-dimensional. Although the scenes include gardeners tending to blooming flower beds and restaurant-goers on a shaded terrace, the focus is on the architecture, from the hulking white apartment buildings that line the boulevard to the pavilions and fountains in the parks. In addition to this viewfinder and images, the Avery Classics collection also has Gerhard Puhlmann's Die Stalinallee: nationales Aufbauprogramm. This propagandist photo survey of 1952 documents the construction of the boulevard as well as daily life in East Berlin.