Slesische Strasse October 1982. Near the corner with Cuvrystrasse.
 
A photographer named Chris John Dewitt has set up a fantastic Tumblr consisting almost entirely of pictures of various places. During the 1980s he took many, many photographs of East Berlin and West Berlin, and they are utterly fascinating. Sometimes he has photos of the same place both pre- and post-1989. We’ve got a generous selection of them here, but really, there are tons more over at his Tumblr.

As for context-setting, I’ll leave that to Dewitt himself:
 

A trip to the East was another step into the time-machine. The politics of the 1940s and 50s shaped everything around. Most crossing points were much like something out of an old movie, even up to the end in 1989. Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous of course, as it was the only street crossing point for foreigners, and it was built up into a full-scale border control shed in the final years, with jolly ‘Welcome to the DDR’ signs on it. The other, less well-known crossing points remained mostly the dreary forbidding places they were from the beginning. Each border-crossing was intended for particular people. Chausseestrasse, Invalidenstrasse, and Oberbaumbrücke were for West Berliners only.

-snip-

When I got there I began taking pictures, but was very quickly stopped by two young policemen. It took some while to work out what it was I shouldn’t have been photographing. It wasn’t the site of the Reich Chancellery, they replied to my questions, or even the wall. It was because in the distance, poking up from the other side of the wall, the Reichstag building could be seen. One mustn’t photograph buildings on the other side of the wall they said. The fact that I could go there on the Western side and take as many pictures of it as I liked made no difference. That was the rule which I must obey whilst on DDR soil.

 
Here are some of the pics, in roughly chronological order, with Dewitt’s captions:
 

The Berlin Wall at Wilhelmstraße 1980
 

The view from the platform at the end of Bernauer Straße in 1980.
 

Another Sunday, another protest. March 1981.
 

Protest march on the Ku’damm 1982.
 

The Berlin Wall. A viewing platform built by the West to allow West Berliners and tourists to look over into East Berlin.
 

Looking over the Berlin Wall from the viewing stand on Harzer Straße Treptow. 1982.
 

The East Berlin authorities were taking no chances with this building being so close to the wall. All the windows are barred, and a guard tower sits a few meters away, to prevent any escapes to the West. 1982.
 

The last building in West Berlin before Checkpoint Charlie. Friedrichstraße 1984.
 

Berlin Wall c1984
 

Berlin Wall c1984
 

The Berlin Wall 1980s
 

Potsdamerplatz June 1985
 

The crossing point for West Berliners going to East Berlin on Invalidenstraße 1985
 

The Berlin Wall at Heidelbergerstraße in 1985
 

Berlin Wall March 1986. Stresemannstraße.
 

Berlin Wall at Lindenstraße 1986.
 

Alexanderplatz 1990
 
via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
High Noon on Friedrichstrasse: The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall