946 - Germany - Berlin - BVG. Album for Max Reutter, Deputy Mayor of (East) Berlin, on the occasion of his being awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver. Contains approximately 135 original photographs. Vintage. Silver gelatin prints. Mounted. (East Berlin, 1964). Title page, 23 leaves, 31 x 42 cm. Original imitation leather binding with title on the cover (slightly scuffed).

Germany - Berlin - BVG. Album for Max Reutter, Deputy Mayor of (East) Berlin, on the occasion of his being awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver. Contains approximately 135 original photographs. Vintage. Silver gelatin prints. Mounted. (East Berlin, 1964). Title page, 23 leaves, 31 x 42 cm. Original imitation leather binding with title on the cover (slightly scuffed). Certainly a one-of-a-kind item; originally included a handwritten dedication page with autographs by three high-ranking BVG officials. Reutter (1920–1988, with a double “t”—thus not related) had been responsible for transportation, road construction, and water management since 1963. The album comprehensively documents the reconstruction of the BVG in East Berlin, ranging from images of the destruction (such as one of the Behrens buildings at Alexanderplatz) to the reconstruction and new construction of tram and subway lines (Thälmann-Platz) and the depots, as well as covering social services in detail: child welfare, medical care, continuing education, and even the “BVG mobile library” in a converted streetcar car. Interwoven throughout are 8 hectographed text sheets containing heavily propagandistic texts. Reutter did not live to see the end of it all. — Clean inside, in good overall condition. #