VEB NARVA LEIPZIG GDR 

(Manufactured 1960s - 70s)

When I came to Leipzig in 2002 there were still many of the huge fibreglass street lamps in use in the city which were produced in the 1960s. On a cold damp foggy night the street scene reminded me of East Germany during the cold war - giving me a sense of the sinister and foreboding.

Years later I met Herr Müller in Büschingstr Berlin where I was living. He along with a colleague was busy removing the lamps on our street and replacing them with the modern LED lamps.
We were talking for a while about their work and I was asking what happens to the old lamps that are no longer in use. He said:  Müll. Rubbish.
Later he invited me to come out to his place the following Saturday. He would collect me at the railway station. So I got the train to Bernau a town circa 30 minutes north of Berlin, where he was waiting. We drove for about twenty minutes out into the countryside until we came to a small village, where we went straight to his small allotment or Kleingarten (small garden). There lying on the grass was an assortment of 20 lamps, different types for me to look at, and I liked them all. To seal the deal, he went into his little shed and came out with a box full of tiny Schnaps bottles, known in German as „Schlucki“ (ha ha, a slug of something as we would say in English). He was one of those tough Berlin characters, but likeable, and we had a good laugh. A few days later he delivered the lamps to me in his car trailer.