My husband has fond memories of being thrown out of the Fernsehturm revolving restaurant along with some of his mates during a school trip to Berlin (back when the GDR still existed). They were thrown out for attempting to stay for more than one complete revolution, even though the place was more or less empty apart from them, and even though they offered to buy more drinks. Now that's Ostalgie for you!
 

My husband has fond memories of being thrown out of the Fernsehturm revolving restaurant along with some of his mates during a school trip to Berlin (back when the GDR still existed). They were thrown out for attempting to stay for more than one complete revolution, even though the place was more or less empty apart from them, and even though they offered to buy more drinks. Now that's Ostalgie for you!
 

That art work is great! Does the tower still have those fountains and sort of japanese fan looking things at the base?
 

I think the people in the cafe up there are still just as rude and unhelpful. Not sure about those fountains, but the Japanese fans are just the tips of some extra-stylish Communist architecture, best viewed from above.
 

I must share a memory from my pre-teen years: on a visit in 1984 my friend and I insisted on ordering cola in spite of multiple warnings not to. It was pretty awful: viscous, un-carbonated, distinctly un-coke-like. We didn't get thrown out, but they sure did glare at us a lot. They still do, if my experience from a few years ago remains representative. It felt to me like the one place in which the GDR service mentality has been preserved. That's kind of cool in its own right.
 

Oh, not the one place. The old stonewall-the-customer instinct is alive and well at the Staatsbibliothek, for example.
 

Well its certainly a place Id prefer to be thrown out of rather than be thrown off.

Just got back in Berlin this morning. What happened here? How did you all lose 15 degrees c in my absence?
 

Do you mean the "western" branch? I'd always considered that stonewalling at the Stabi to be an example of the rigidity of German libraries in general. It's not really part of the service industry as such; maybe the attitude there is more a case of trickle-down Beamtenmentalitaet? (If such a thing should exist. I don't want to make any sweeping generalizations here.)
 

No, I mean the eastern branch. They make it as difficult as possible to extract a book. I like "trickle-down Beamtenmentalitaet." But maybe that explains all eastern customer service?

@Andy: That nip in the weather is just a breath of fresh air from Russia.
 

Ah - I was only in there a few times, and it was only for periodicals which *gasp* were open stacks, so I didn't have to deal with anyone. But is this an East/West thing? I often think that over the twenty years I've been spending time in (any part of) Germany, the idea of "service" has changed dramatically, though maybe not so much in the libraries. I mean, it exists now, where it didn't before. Or is it just perception? I feel like you're more likely now to come across a friendly person working in a shop or bank or even at the Post. It's so American of me to demand surface pleasantries from those with whom I interact in public.