Achtung! Let’s go back to the GDR

STOPH OF MEMORY: A room in the style of the former East Germany, with a picture of Willi Stoph, premier for two terms A RETIREMENT home in Dresden has recreated a corner of the former communist East Germany in a bid to help residents with Alzheimer’s.

Several rooms at the Alexa Seniors’ Residence have been redecorated with ’70s wallpaper and furniture from the German Democratic Republic.

The home’s management have scoured flea markets and eBay for communist-era bric-a-brac, including unwieldy portable cassette players, outdated stoves and a giant bread slicer.

The home even runs a small shop, selling residents everyday products from the era, while a photograph of Erich Honecker, the general secretary of the East German communist party, looks on.

The retro look is there for a serious reason: it helps residents with dementia recover some of their memory and identity, according to the management.

Many of them have started eating independently again, they go to the toilet on their own, even some who were bedridden have got up. It all started by accident, said the home’s director. “We wanted to set up a projector room to show old films, and we got hold of a GD-era scooter as a prop,” Gunther Wolfram told Bild newspaper.

Suddenly, many of the residents with dementia seemed to come to life. They knew the workings of the scooter and how to fill it with petrol, and could remember their first rides. Emboldened by this, Wolfram and his colleagues came up with the idea of recreating a part of the elderly residents’ past to see if it would help bring back their memories.

The results were remarkable, according to Alicia Schöppe, an occupational therapist at the home. The move has been a success for the home as well. “Our registrations have gone up,” Wolfram said. —