As an Army brat, I had an occasion to take a tour into East Berlin (they were allowed then, for some reason ... no pictures allowed) in either 1960 or 1961 (I was 15 at the time) and found the place very depressing and desolate.
you should see the pictures of Warsaw after the war (the Nazis first destroyed 30% of it in 1939 and then levelled the rest in 1944. The entire city was pure rubble, except the former Jewish ghetto which the Nazis burned to the ground (literally)