ABSTRACT
In many regards the Information Center at the T.V. Tower in East Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was not so dierent from such information centers in other major European cities in the 1970s. Visitors could enter, nd maps of East Berlin, get assistance booking a room, purchase tickets to a concert, and pick up a souvenir before heading back out into the city. Similar to information centers in other places, sometimes known as visitor centers, East Berlin’s main information center was also located at the base of a major tourist attraction, in this case, the 1,198-foot tall T.V. Tower, or Fernsehturm (see Figure 11.1). Communist Party leader Walter Ulbricht inaugurated the tower, which was built in the heart of the city’s newly renovated downtown area, Alexanderplatz, days before the GDR’s twentieth anniversary on October 7, 1969.2 During the T.V. Tower’s rst years of operation BerlinInformation-the organization responsible for promoting the city in the GDR and abroad and for overseeing tourism in the capital-had sta on hand to assist tourists, give out information and sell souvenirs from a humble cart located in front of the tower.3 In 1972, when builders completed the second and nal phase of the tower’s construction, the Information Center nally opened its doors to the public. e center was comprised of several rooms: the main entrance, which held such pieces as a three-dimensional map of the new downtown, display
Figure 11.1 e East Berlin Information Center, with its winged roof, rests at the base of the Television Tower, the face of socialist modernity. In the background, to the le of the Tower, stands the newly constructed Hotel Stadt Berlin, another sign of socialist modernity: tourism
windows and mounted books, a movie theater, two discussion rooms, and nally a second level dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
