Mediaboss Marketing

In the Hollywood hit comedy starring Daniel Brhl, a son goes to extraordinary lengths to try to convince his sick mother that she is still living in the hardline socialist state - despite the fact that the Berlin Wall has fallen and the regime is no more.

At the Alexa-Senioren-Residenz in Dresden the same principle applies. And dementia sufferers have shown progress in remembering things - and generally enjoying life more - in a part of the home given over to the German Democratic Republic.

There is a shop there selling products from the lost socialist Atlantis. Films and TV shows from the time when it was Soviet Russia's closest ally are screened in a room where pictures of former DDR rulers are on display.

GETTY

When home director Gunter Wolfram saw people "remembering things from the past when they couldn't remember their own name" he expanded the experiment.

Old objects from East Germany - such as a bread slicer, original wall hangings, a Communist-manufactured tape recorder and piles of old newspapers and magazines - now give those who grew up under Communism and grew old under capitalism a boost that no drugs can achieve.

GETTY

We got the idea to set up an area of the home in the style of the GDR

Gunter Wolfram

One carer at the home said: "Suddenly, amazing things are happening. Residents who barely could remember their names suddenly began talking about the brands of toothpaste from their youth, the petrol they put in their mopeds and the sorts of gherkins they used to buy."

Director Wolfram went on: "We got the idea to set up an area of the home in the style of the GDR. There is now, thanks to flea markets and e-Bay, an electric mixer from the GDR, GDR furniture, GDR cleaning fluids and much else besides.

"Since we started this therapy space, the number of applications for people to come and live here has rocketed."

Therapist Alicia Schppe and her team oversee the residents in this recreated piece of East Germany.

"Since it started, many have started to feed themselves again for the first time, can go to the loo unaided again and no longer lie around in bed all day."

View original post here:
Care home experiments has OAPs believe they are still living in Communist East Germany - Express.co.uk