Take your garbage and rubble elsewhere in Diesdorf, August 14, 2009

Take your garbage and rubble elsewhere in Diesdorf, August 14, 2009

Many things in the former "German Democratic Republic" were unbelievably primitive, despite all the propaganda about it being an "advanced socialist society". This sign, prohibiting the dumping of garbage and rubble on pain of a fine, can be found (or at least could be found a few years ago) round the back of the former railway station in Diesdorf. It seems to have been cobbled together by some schoolboy.

Diesdorf is a village in the Altmark region of Sachsen-Anhalt in Germany. It lies about six kilometres from the former GDR border and for this reason went into a long sleep after the war. After 1989 however things changed - the road from Wittingen in Lower Saxony was reopened and was discovered by hundreds of cars and - even worse - trucks overstraining the local infrastructure. Where they are all headed for in this region which is mainly full of little villages is anyone's guess.