No, it's genuinely just "bad country bad" is that deeply ingrained (well and picking photos that match their expectations). they'll see pictures of pyongyang decked out in pastels (maybe the photo will be a little undersaturated but still with colors visible) and say the same shit all the comments about the GDR said on this post, "oh its so gray and depressing", "oh there's hardly any people in the streets" (there's probably dozens of pedestrians but only a few cars)

And you pic from the 60s has way higher saturation too.

No, it doesn't. Look at the yellow train and the blue clothing people are wearing in the OP, the colors pop pretty well. The difference is primarily that it's winter in one and not the other, so the the trees don't have leaves and there is more coal smoke in the air/overcast weather

I'm pretty sure this particular intersection is still pretty green-less today.

its about the same as it was in the 80s, maybe a bit better. There are trees, although not too many immediately in and around the station area. Some added along Eberswalder st, but some along Pappelallee, planted in the 50s or 60s, seem to have gotten too big and have actually been removed. It seems like a nice area, and its silly to pretend like it just flipped from horrible and depressing to great and modern sometime in the 90s, when the bones of the neighborhood are the same.

Anywhere at this latitude would look bad if you took a photo like this at the wrong time of year. For example: