East German modern architecture is the best

We borrowed a guide book from Jonathan and Flavia (our gracious hosts in Berlin). The book has been nice to have with us, pointing us to interesting sites and giving historical background info that makes the sites more memorable and enjoying.

After a few days, however, I detected a huge disconnect between the guide's view on architecture and mine. The neoclassical buildings (think domes, arches, and lots of 'frills') gets lots of praise. All the modern architecture gets derision or they skip it entirely. Much of the modern architecture here comes from the DDR (east Germany), so this could be a political thing, but I suspect many of you also dislike modern buildings (feel free to comment), even in less politically charged origins (think the UCSD campus). In Potsdam, we saw a palace (background) juxtaposed with a 2-story DDR era building (foreground). The DDR building looked in poor repair, and frankly I wonder if the plan was to tear it down in the near future. But of the two buildings I found it much more interesting than the generic dome, which we've seen all over Germany. I will admit, however, that the DDR building wasn't particularly pretty, but I would submit that the dome wasn't either.

Another DDR building we saw had a tile mosaic, which I would go so far as to call aesthetically pleasing. The rest of the building wasn't bad either, but I'll spare you the pain of viewing a fourth photo.

For those of you worried about my sanity, rest assured that Jymm, at least, does not seem to share my fascination  though she tolerates it sweetly.