Protest against visual vandalism

[Ian Boys UK]

Let me start by saying that I will buy this map immediately. I grew up in Cold War Germany. My dad was a British artillery officer and my grandfather was a NATO German tank CO. So I really want this map and it matters to me.

 I have just watched the Leipzig driving video here:

It's all so good.

The only discordant thing I see in many of the screenshots and vids is Russian text in public - here, the building at 0:35 labelled Ogneopasno (should be "Brandgefahr"), the Water Dispenser labelled in Russian at 2:36 and the Pravda newspaper placards. The government in the DDR were very careful not to look like a Soviet colony and public cyrillic wasn't really a thing. In other shots there is quite a lot of cyrillic, which was only actually visible inside Soviet army bases. 

BUT !!! .....  could also really do without the DCS and Syria adverts. Remember how that really messed up the Syria map? Why spoil the immersion here? There wasn't a stack of advertising in the DDR anyway. The Mercedes and VW are similarly out of place. And as well as the Syria and Normandy adverts, you have one for the AH-64D??? What on earth are you thinking? 

And of course - Ugra on the market, buses, boats ...

[gulredrel]

1 hour ago, Ian Boys UK said:

The only discordant thing I see in many of the screenshots and vids is Russian text in public - here, the building at 0:35 labelled Ogneopasno (should be "Brandgefahr"), the Water Dispenser labelled in Russian at 2:36 and the Pravda newspaper placards. The government in the DDR were very careful not to look like a Soviet colony and public cyrillic wasn't really a thing. In other shots there is quite a lot of yrillic, which was only actually visible inside Soviet army bases.

Thanks for pointing that out. Grown up in the GDR I can't remember seeing Cyrillic labels such excessive. Just some dual language signs near military installation. Or Cyrillic lettering / inscriptions in monuments or near cemeteries for the fallen soviet soldiers of WW2.

Documentation about some photographers working in the GDR showing some old films or images of daily life and so on (available with English subtitle)

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/118179-000-A/fotoshooting-ddr-bilder-zwischen-propaganda-und-alltag/

PS: Nevertheless. German cold war map is a must have for me too.

[Burning Bridges]

You are correct about the Cyrillic, it was something that bothered me right away. The only Russians you saw were "CA" trucks with very unhappy looking Soviet soldiers and a terrible smell of Russian Diesel. Soviet soldiers were striclty forbidden to talk to East-Germans.

But there was advertisement, for example on the Autobahn. ironically often for things you couldn't buy anywhere.

here you find many photos: https://www.schnitzler-aachen.de/Sammlungen/DDR/Werbung/Autobahn.htm

(the images seem to be from 1990 or from the transition phase. But there were ads for East German trade brands like ORWO or Pneumant on bridges during the socialist era I just cant find pictures of them)

Edited April 4 by Burning Bridges

[Burning Bridges]

Something that perhaps isn't obvious is that East Germans were totally used to advertisement because most of them watched West German TV all day. As kids we were told that we must not sing the songs from those ads if the head of the school could hear it.

I think the ads were for party members to show them that the GDR had something of their own. It also was promoting tourism and other products to West Germans who passed on the A2 from from Braunschweig to Berlin. This was the motorway West Germans took to get to West Berlin and the best Autobahn, because the West had paid for it.

There wasn't really a point in advertising because there was no competition but I think it was the result of cultural influence, just like you saw western clothes and fashion, everyone who could afford them liked to show off with it.

I remember seeing ads for cars but this was a bit of a joke, because if you applied for one you had to wait 16 years. That's why my parents ordered a car for me when I was born (this is no joke) and it would have been ready some time in the early 90s

 

On 3/22/2025 at 3:15 PM, gulredrel said:

Thanks for pointing that out. Grown up in the GDR I can't remember seeing Cyrillic labels such excessive. Just some dual language signs near military installation. Or Cyrillic lettering / inscriptions in monuments or near cemeteries for the fallen soviet soldiers of WW2.

Documentation about some photographers working in the GDR showing some old films or images of daily life and so on (available with English subtitle)

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/118179-000-A/fotoshooting-ddr-bilder-zwischen-propaganda-und-alltag/

PS: Nevertheless. German cold war map is a must have for me too.

We once had a visitor group from our partner school in the USSR and we were stricly not allowed to talk to them. I think I gave the reasons above, they probably were told we were diligently learning Russian and striving to be great communists but the truth is that we would have culturally poisoned them.

 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

On 3/22/2025 at 1:37 PM, Ian Boys UK said:

could also really do without the DCS and Syria adverts. Remember how that really messed up the Syria map?

Absolutely. All of the "Normandy 1944" billboards in Syria really put a bad taste in my mouth and even kept me from flying there for a good while.

P.S. I have always owned the Normandy 1944 and Normandy 2 maps.

[Deimos]

Am 22.3.2025 um 13:37 schrieb Ian Boys UK:

Let me start by saying that I will buy this map immediately. I grew up in Cold War Germany. My dad was a British artillery officer and my grandfather was a NATO German tank CO. So I really want this map and it matters to me.

 I have just watched the Leipzig driving video here:

It's all so good.

The only discordant thing I see in many of the screenshots and vids is Russian text in public - here, the building at 0:35 labelled Ogneopasno (should be "Brandgefahr"), the Water Dispenser labelled in Russian at 2:36 and the Pravda newspaper placards. The government in the DDR were very careful not to look like a Soviet colony and public cyrillic wasn't really a thing. In other shots there is quite a lot of cyrillic, which was only actually visible inside Soviet army bases. 

BUT !!! .....  could also really do without the DCS and Syria adverts. Remember how that really messed up the Syria map? Why spoil the immersion here? There wasn't a stack of advertising in the DDR anyway. The Mercedes and VW are similarly out of place. And as well as the Syria and Normandy adverts, you have one for the AH-64D??? What on earth are you thinking? 

And of course - Ugra on the market, buses, boats ...

Have you noticed those constructions that look like a "MM"-logo ? its the "Muster Messe" in Leipzig. An international exebition. Thats why you see stands from western companies here and a UdSSR building .

Edited April 5 by Deimos

[Burning Bridges]

that makes sense, the Messe in Leipzig is probably the least typical place in East Germany.

Those are however no East German buses, they look like West-Berlin model. GDR Buses were Ikarus or Robur (Ello). The DDR Leitkegel also looked different, but that is pedantic

The Litfassäule on the right is more like the real deal.

 

 

null

[portman]

And again... please replace this horrible unrealistic Trabant police car at the German border by a Trabant Kuebel.

[draconus]

43 minutes ago, portman said:

[Rongor]

On 4/10/2025 at 12:59 AM, Burning Bridges said:

that makes sense, the Messe in Leipzig is probably the least typical place in East Germany.

Those are however no East German buses, they look like West-Berlin model. GDR Buses were Ikarus or Robur (Ello). The DDR Leitkegel also looked different, but that is pedantic

The Litfassäule on the right is more like the real deal.

 

 

null

these are indeed 80s West Berlin's MAN Busses of the BVG

[draconus]

16 hours ago, Rongor said:

these are indeed 80s West Berlin's MAN Busses of the BVG

Yep, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAN_SD_200

[mazex]

I have not noticed the DCS/Ugra product ads in the Syria map but it sounds like a truly awful idea, spending so much good effort on getting the right atmosphere... But I mostly fly jets at higher altitude.

I was locked away for 3 hours in Checkpoint Charlie as an 18 year old, drinking my visa away in the spring of 1989 on a school trip to Berlin... It really would kill the immersion seeing an Ugra ad instead of raw grey concrete there, as I plan to revisit it with a rocket armed chopper or an M48 tank in combined arms, to pay back for the lost 3 hours of my life

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

I saw a “DCS department store” (paraphrasing) with a large billboard at the parking lot showing various modules, and I saw Ugra oil barrels inside a hangar but thus far nothing immersion breaking as the “Normandy 1944” spam Syria used to have.

It was all pretty subtle (as far a I’ve seen).