IMAG0470
As jann_on has faved this, I'll explain - the old notice at the upper left says that posting bills on this structure is forbidden, by order of the Reichsbahndirektion ("Imperial Railways Regional Directorate") for the S-Bahn Berlin. So what empire was that then?
The answer is that East Germany's railways continued to call themselves the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Imperial Railways) - although East Germany wasn't an empire and as a communist state thought of itself as being in a state of revolutionary war against empires in general.
The reason for this is that the Allied Control Commission, in 1945, confirmed that the DR directorate for the Berlin region could keep running the S-Bahn network as before. This got important when Germany was divided, as much of the network is located in West Berlin. The East Germans were very keen to keep it, and wouldn't risk changing the name for fear of a western power-grab.
So, even after the Wall went up, you could still travel around West Berlin on an East German train although the crew would be West Berliners working for the Eastern railways' western subsidiary company. But you might be encouraged not to, as the West Berlin city council wasn't best pleased with its citizens giving the East Germans money every time they got on the S-Bahn. And it wouldn't be much fun, as the East Germans were very much not keen to invest in the system and it rapidly got run down.
On the other hand, as a West Berliner you could travel on a western train in the U-Bahn system and even pass beneath parts of East Berlin - the whole U-Bahn was run by the Berlin city council transport department and when the council chose to go west, it went west too. All clear so far? And that poster has survived since 1991 at the latest.
The newer sticker with Laye-Alama Conde's name and date is part of a campaign to memorialise the victims of modern extreme-right violence.
IMAG0470
As jann_on has faved this, I'll explain - the old notice at the upper left says that posting bills on this structure is forbidden, by order of the Reichsbahndirektion ("Imperial Railways Regional Directorate") for the S-Bahn Berlin. So what empire was that then?
The answer is that East Germany's railways continued to call themselves the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Imperial Railways) - although East Germany wasn't an empire and as a communist state thought of itself as being in a state of revolutionary war against empires in general.
The reason for this is that the Allied Control Commission, in 1945, confirmed that the DR directorate for the Berlin region could keep running the S-Bahn network as before. This got important when Germany was divided, as much of the network is located in West Berlin. The East Germans were very keen to keep it, and wouldn't risk changing the name for fear of a western power-grab.
So, even after the Wall went up, you could still travel around West Berlin on an East German train although the crew would be West Berliners working for the Eastern railways' western subsidiary company. But you might be encouraged not to, as the West Berlin city council wasn't best pleased with its citizens giving the East Germans money every time they got on the S-Bahn. And it wouldn't be much fun, as the East Germans were very much not keen to invest in the system and it rapidly got run down.
On the other hand, as a West Berliner you could travel on a western train in the U-Bahn system and even pass beneath parts of East Berlin - the whole U-Bahn was run by the Berlin city council transport department and when the council chose to go west, it went west too. All clear so far? And that poster has survived since 1991 at the latest.
The newer sticker with Laye-Alama Conde's name and date is part of a campaign to memorialise the victims of modern extreme-right violence.