Nationality restaurant
In the former GDR, the term nationality restaurant described a restaurant with foreign dishes. This was a peculiarity, as there were hardly any restaurants with foreign cuisine in the public cityscape. The few nationality restaurants were primarily housed in special hotels and restaurants with high standards. In the restaurants , typical cuisine and various events should give guests an insight into the culinary and cultural customs of the respective countries. The nationality restaurants enjoyed great popularity and, with their extraordinary range of dishes and high prices, were among the best addresses in the gastronomy of the GDR. The prices in the restaurants were in the “S” price level, the highest price category awarded in the GDR, which was nevertheless subsidized by the state . Until 1958, food stamps had to be handed in when visiting restaurants . The nationality restaurants were also popular with West Berliners because of the low price level for them . In order to ensure the supply of the GDR population with food, a shopping ban for West Berliners in the GDR was issued at Christmas 1954, which also included visiting restaurants. Some of the service staff in the Café Warsaw and in the neighboring house in Budapest were dismissed in the winter of 1954/55. All restaurants were closed after the political change .
List of nationality restaurants
The nationally owned trade organization of the HO (in Berlin: VEB HO Gaststätten Berlin ) has operated seven nationality restaurants in Berlin since the 1950s:
- Café Moscow (Karl-Marx-Allee 34) - the only house to be continued under the old name
- Budapest House (opened in 1954, Karl-Marx-Allee 91)
- Warsaw House (Karl-Marx-Allee 93a) - location of the Computer Games Museum Berlin , the upper floor is used by the Arbeiterwohlfahrt
- Bucharest House (opened on December 18, 1956 at Rathausstrasse 33 , moved out in 1967 and reopened on May 1, 1969 at Frankfurter Allee 13)
- Sofia ( Friedrichstrasse 134, later: Leipziger Strasse 46/47)
- Praha (Leipziger Strasse 48)
- Morava ( Town Hall Passages )
In Potsdam:
Individual evidence
- ^ Restaurants and pubs in the GDR . Publishing house Die Wirtschaft, Berlin 1990
- ↑ Stalinallee . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1955, pp. 12 ( online ).
- ^ New Germany , December 19, 1956, p. 8
- ↑ Neues Deutschland , May 1, 1969, p. 2