In 2009, on this day workers on an East German apartment block refurbishment discovered an abandoned flat which had been preserved and left untouched since the end of the GDR era. The 40-square-metre two-bedroom flat on Crottendorfer Strasse in the Reudnizt district of Leipzig appears to have been abandoned in a hurry towards the end of 1989.

Abandoned GDR era flat in LeipzigThe calendar on the wall reads "August 1988" and the furniture, fittings, groceries and personal objects provide a fascinating insight into everyday life in East Germany twenty years ago. The shelves were stacked with East German brands such as "Vita" cola, "Marella" margarine, "Juwel" cigarettes and "Kristall" vodka and stale bread rolls, dirty plates and left-over food were found in the kitchen. A zinc bath was found against one of the walls and the flat was not equipped with a toilet. The only western product in the flat was a bottle of "Henkel" deodorant, which was most likely smuggled over from West Germany.

Aretz described to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper how "When we opened the door we felt like Howard Carter when he found the grave of Tutankhamen ... Everything was a mess but it was like a historic treasure trove, a portal into an age long gone".

It is a mystery, however, why the flat, built at the end of the 19th century, had not been renovated like the others in the building. The German news agency DDP also reported the Leipzig city water provider's confirmation that the water bills for the flat had been paid up to 1992 by the Walt Disney Company. The story of the occupier of the flat also remains a mystery. Apart from a single clue - cartoons of the characters Bashful and Doc from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, signed A.H.