BERLIN CALENDAR: ELEPHANT, BEAR & Co. - THE OPENING OF TIERPARK BERLIN

Today in Berlin: 2 July, 1955

On July 2, 1955 East Berlin - or the Soviet Sector of occupied Berlin - celebrated the opening of its new zoo, Tierpark Friedrichsfelde. The city already had one zoological garden - one on the edge of Berlin-Mitte and almost in Charlottenburg - but the political situation in the city and the fact that its two halves were each drifting further and further apart, meant that East Berliners should be discouraged from going to the Western Sector.

In this case through affirmative action: by getting a zoo of their own.