1975 Fabric bales, shop windows, and a saw

After the end of the Second World War, Lychen initially belonged to the Soviet occupation zone, and then from 1949 to 1989 to the socialist state of the GDR. Visitors from the West hardly ever came here during these years, but people from the districts of Erfurt or Karl-Marx-Stadt did: several GDR businesses maintained vacation homes and company holiday camps in the Seven Lakes City.

At that time, the SOMMERFRISCHE store housed a so-called "Konsum" for clothing from the GDR retail chain of the same name; around 1960, the shop windows were built into the façade. At the front of the store there were top jerseys and off-the-peg lingerie, further back there were huge bales of fabric. On the second floor (where the smallest of our apartments is located) sat a seamstress at the sewing machine and shortened pants or changed cuffs.

Around 1975 the whole building was renovated. During the work, ammunition remains from the war were found in the inner courtyard. And in the attic of the street house, a Lychener set up an apartment for his family. When we walked through the house with him many years later, he explained how the apartment grew with the family: "When the two rooms became too narrow for us, I sawed a hole in the ceiling and we installed a second bedroom under the roof."