Berlin (AFP)
Thirty years after its fall, the Berlin Wall is reborn in virtual reality thanks to a German start-up that offers tourists to go back in time for a trip to East Berlin.
The bus approaches Checkpoint Charlie, once the most famous crossing point between West Berlin and East Berlin. Impassive, East German soldiers converse in a low voice: will they interrogate passengers or let them pass unhindered?
After a few minutes of tension, the vehicle starts again. The travelers then enter the gray East Berlin whose buildings covered with soot disappear partly in the fog. Welcome to the capital of a state that no longer exists!
The startup TimeRide, which offers this virtual journey of about an hour, started at the end of August, before the celebrations that will mark on November 9 the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"Our idea is that if we can not go back in time, let's try to create a perfect illusion" of the past, told AFP the founder of TimeRide, Jonas Rothe, 33 years old.
- Immersive tourism -
"It's not a museum, nor do we want to be a museum, but we want you to feel like you're a part of history," he says.
His project responds, he explains, to a growing demand for "authentic", interactive and immersive tourism, particularly in Berlin, whose face has been profoundly disrupted since 9 November 1989, according to Rothe.
The many tourists who visit the German capital every year are often disappointed when they see so few traces of this "wall of shame" that has divided the city in two for more than 28 years.
In the euphoria of the fall of the communist regime, the concrete enclosure has almost disappeared from the urban landscape, Berliners seeking to forget the painful symbol that has long disfigured their city.
The visit starts with a quick historical introduction recalling the post-war context, when Germany was divided into four sectors. In 1961, the Wall was built overnight, with the East German authorities seeking to stem a mass exodus to the West.
- Surveillance and shortages -
Three virtual characters - a punk, a craftsman and an architect in search of truth - then present themselves to the public who must select one to serve as a tour guide.
Then they put on glasses of virtual reality and then they went through the avenues of East Berlin, Friedrichstrasse first and then Leipziger Strasse, where are aligned bars typical buildings of the time.
In cars without license plates, Stasi agents monitor East Germans while long queues in front of shops always running out of food and fresh produce. Megaphones spew propaganda of the communist state.
The illusion is almost perfect. All that's missing is the nauseating and peculiar smell of the queasy East German cars, the Trabants.
"Of course, it's the odors that wake up the most memory but it's difficult to restore without giving headaches to people," jokes the founder of the start-up.
The bus tour ends in front of the Palace of the Republic, where notably the East German Parliament, destroyed in 2008, followed the scenes of jubilation after the opening of the Berlin Wall when the Germans found themselves.
"These images never fail to move people, it's a decisive moment in the history of Germany, Europe and the world," said Rothe.
- Transmit to the youngest -
Visitors seem convinced by this virtual journey. "I like this kind of melancholy in old spy movies, these big places crossed by only two people," says Colin MacLean, 47, a Scotsman who wants to learn more about East Germany, his woman who grew up under communism.
"The way they show the crossing of the border really corresponds to reality," said Robert Meyer, a 55-year-old West German who regularly visited his family in the East.
The virtual journey, however, ignores the escapes and attempts of those seeking to flee the GDR. Some 327 people have died trying to cross the border between the two Germanys, according to a study commissioned by the government but whose conclusions remain controversial.
For the youngest, virtual reality can make it possible to apprehend a page of History that they did not know, judge Anna Kaminisky, leader of the Foundation for the study of the communist dictatorship in GDR.
"It is essential to use the new technologies to teach this period to new generations and to feel a little what it was like to live behind the Wall," she says.
© 2019 AFP