Coke, cars, communism: Everyday symbols of German unity

That is what these boys seem to be saying in a photo taken in January 1990 in the East German region of Eichsfeld. However, official German unity had to wait until October. Thuringian citizens protested with national German flags against the power of the Socialist Unity Party before the final elections. The German Historical Museum provides photographic insights into everyday life from this era.

The country is not yet officially a union, and even during the summer of 1990 Deutsche Bank used a bus as a mobile branch in East German Mühlhausen. The West German bank was heavily involved in the process of reunification. For most people in the East, it meant a drastic change in currency from Ostmark to Deutschmark.

For many East Germans, western goods opened them up to a whole new world. Or did they? Following the official introduction of the Deutschmark from July 1, 1990, stores in East Germany were restocked overnight. But the western products were expensive, due to the unfavorable conversion of two Ostmarks to one Deutschmark.

The then six-year-old Katharina F. was in luck. Her parents already bought her this Barbie doll for Christmas in 1989 with part of their "welcome money," given to East Germans. However, not everyone was happy about the monetary union, in both the East and West. Then Chancellor Helmut Kohl, however, decided unilaterally that the two countries should be joined financially first, then politically.

Whether Barbie or Coca Cola, big US brands were the ultimate symbols of Western capitalism - an ideology the East German government frowned upon for more than 40 years, and hence symbols of freedom to many of its citizens. For many, however, it was no doubt a shock to witness Lenin posters suddenly giving way to Coke advertisments, such as in the famous scene in the film "Good Bye Lenin."

It wasn't only consumers who had to get used to the transition from state-owned enterprises to a market economy, but also producers. Many East German businesses quickly went bankrupt in the wake of reunification. The former state TV maker RFT tried to assert itself in a new and competitive marketplace with designer TVs like this. However, in 1998 Technisat took ownership of the company.

This device, however, is clearly designed for the political apparatus of the GDR - a circulation card index device type KG II, once the possession of the "Stasi" secret service. From the spring of 1991, it was used to verify whether an employee of the public service in the new German state had been a Stasi collaborator. By 1995 more than 1,389,000 people's files were viewed.

This scorched telephone also belongs to the "Wende" period (literally, turning), as the Germans refer to reunification. The number of crimes by right wing extremists rose sharply. In November 1992, three people were killed after an attack by right-wing extremists in Mölln. Candle vigils and demonstrations were held in many German cities, and the perpetrators were sentenced to long prison terms.

In retrospect, one can probably now laugh about some of the symbolic "culture clashes" during 1990-91, including this collision between an Eastern Trabant car - fondly known as a "Trabi" - and Western vehicle. The exhibition "Unification: German Society in Transition" runs until January 3, 2016, at the German Historical Museum in Berlin.