Are second-hand frames with original owners' family photos in them common in Berlin flea markets?

ah, the mauerpark one is probably where u saw it, that place is chaos. i think it's less common than u'd guess but more common than sellers admit. most of those stalls get stuff from entrümpelung firms, they clear out apartments and just pay the flohmarkt guys by the crate. the photos stay because nobody wants to touch someone else's family, even the sellers find it weird.

if u want visual reference, try the flea market at ravensberger strasse, it's tiny but there's this one old guy who sells nothing but frames and lamps, i've seen him with photos still in them twice. also the sunday market at arkonaplatz, the sellers there are older and sometimes keep the photos as "proof" the frame is original, which is kinda dark but true.

for your story, the detail that always gets me is when the photo has a date or place written on the back in pencil. that's the closest u get to a person's whole life in one object. and tbh, buying one of those frames feels like adopting a ghost, but nobody talks about it.

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yeah that happens more than you'd think, especially at places like Mauerpark or the big one at Straße des 17. Juni. it's usually from Haushaltsauflösungen, when families clear out a flat after someone passes and just dump everything at the nearest Flohmarkt seller. the sellers don't bother sorting photos out, they just sell the frame as is.

i've seen it a few times but not every weekend, more like a stall that specializes in old household stuff. tbh the creepiest part is finding letters or postcards tucked behind the photo, that's when you know it's real. you might have better luck asking sellers directly at Arkonaplatz or Nowkoelln, they'll often have stacks of frames in boxes under the table.

for your story, maybe check flohmarkt instagram hashtags like #berlinflohmarkt or #flohmarktfunde, people post weird finds there all the time. i remember a friend scored a whole album of someone's 80s holiday in Mallorca once, so it's not rare, just random. good luck with the writing.

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i've seen this exact thing at treptow flea market a few times, the sellers there get a lot of stuff from haushaltsauflösungen and honestly they don't even look at what's in the frames. one time i found a framed photo of a dog with a handwritten note on the back, like a little obituary. that stuck with me.

for your story, you could try the flohmarkt at karlshorst, it's smaller and less touristy, more like old berlin stuff, i've seen frames with photos there too. also, if you're on facebook there's a group called "flohmarkt berlin fundstücke" where people post weird finds, i've seen a few photo frames posted there over the years.

it's not super common but when you see it, it's always the same vibe, like someone's whole life just got priced at 3 euros. i think the sellers don't bother taking the photos out because it's extra work and the frames sell anyway. for your story, maybe think about the date on the back of the photo, that's always the detail that gets me.

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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