From the TG archive
SOMETIMES PEOPLE WANT TO BE IN A GIANT TRAFFIC JAM
1. WHO
Happy Germans
2. WHAT 3. WHERE 4. WHEN
Stuck in trafc
Berlin
November 1989 his is a fairly famous photograph of the Brandenburg Gate, which – according to the ofcial captions – was taken on 11 November 1989, two days after the Berlin Wall came down. So you might frst assume that we’re seeing a mass exodus from east to west, as people fed life behind the Iron Curtain for a more prosperous existence on the other side.
But closer inspection suggests otherwise. The image was in fact taken in the west, looking east. These were western cars, some of them even with British plates. Perhaps then, these were relatives of people in the east, going to visit or collect long-lost friends. People in the poorer east generally couldn’t aford cars – and when they could, even the Trabant had a decade-long waiting list – so westerners came to them.
But although that’s eventually what happened, it probably isn’t what’s going on here. Because the Berlin Wall, or what was left of it, actually lay 80 metres in front of the arch, and was still being guarded. An iconic symbol of the east/ west divide, the Brandenburg Gate itself was actually trapped between two sections of the Wall, and when the partition came down it didn’t become an ofcial crossing point until 22 December.
And look – the trafc is actually going both ways. People were driving up to see what was going on, turning around and driving back again. Remember, after 45 years of the Cold War, this was a time to celebrate. People just wanted to be there to witness the demolition, to let out their frustrations with a sledgehammer, and maybe grab a brick or two for posterity.
TThings were a lot squarer in the Seventies. Just look at this Maserati. It’s called the Boomerang, and, as you can see, it has many straight edges. Giorgetto
Giugiaro may actually have designed it with a ruler. If he didn’t, he certainly had very steady hands. The Boomerang was frst unveiled at the 1971 Turin motor show. It was a husk of a thing, with no running gear to speak of, as concepts so often are and so often remain. But by its second coming, at the ’72 Geneva show, Maserati had transformed the Boomerang into a working car. Based on the Bora, it supposedly has around 300bhp and can hit 186mph. And here’s the thing – it’s fully roadlegal. Up for auction in France, it could sell for as much as €4m.