They have shaped the streets of East Berlin for decades and could soon disappear entirely: the RSL 1 street lamps have been illuminating the streets of the East since the 1960s, and 17,700 of them are in Berlin.
This emerges from the response of the traffic administration to a request from the Köpenick FDP MP Stefan Förster (41).
Many GDR lamps are crumbling. The concrete has flaked off many a mast, exposing the reinforcing steel.
“They are no longer up-to-date and consume far too much energy,” says Förster. “The yellowish light of the sodium vapor lamps suits a factory building more than a residential street.”
Each burner needs between 210 and 315 kilowatt hours per year. For comparison: An LED lantern is content with 147 to 193 kilowatt hours per year.
“That alone would be a reason to replace the dim light from the GDR with modern LED lighting,” says Förster. “There are no longer any 60-watt bulbs from VEB Narva in our living rooms.”
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The Senate is currently preparing to replace 400 of the 60-year-old lanterns. The rest is to be replaced by LED lights in the long term.
Förster calls for a speedy replacement program for these “luminous dinosaurs” and an installation of LED lights that look similar to the RSL 1.
