{{Oh snap! What a hot-button title! Don’t let it throw you off from actually reading the post!}}
I currently live in a city that used to be deep in former East Germany. I’ve seen pictures of rows on rows of historic buildings painted grey and brown, falling down in the 1980s. I’ve walked through the huge residential communist/brutalist-style neo-villages on the outskirts. And, I’ve made a few friends who grew up in the DDR and have a lot to say about what it was like then, now, and during the difficult transition.