Photo: Doratagold

Berlin's position as Germany's capital has been the source of much difficulty down the decades, as every new regime attempts to remake the city after its own ideological design. The 19th century Kaisers with their proliferating palaces and Hitler & Speer's grotesque 'Germania' - a megalomaniacal reimagining of Berlin in the style of fascist monumentalism, are but two examples of the compulsion which seizes those who take up the reins of power. After WWII Berlin saw another episode of this regime rebuilding when the East German authorities, following cues from Moscow, decided to clear away acres of war-ruined 19th century housing and build a tribute to their new dictatorship of the proletariat.

To be fair, the construction was necessary measure to provide housing for Berlin’s bombed out citizens and similar projects were undertaken in the city’s western sectors.  But it was here, on the newly christened Stalinallee (renamed Karl-Marx-Allee in 1961), that East Germany’s propaganda machinery took full advantage of the reconstruction in an attempt to demonstrate the superiority of the young socialist regime.

Beginning at Strausberger Platz, home to a fine bust of Karl Marx, down to the twin domes of Frankfurter Tor and back, I walked the wide boulevard this past weekend, taken with the fanciful eight storey 'worker’s palaces', shining examples of Stalinist socialist classicism.