Yes, Jurek7, part of it is true. It was a very odd situation: a divided city, in which a part of the residents (in the Eastern Sector) could no longer visit its zoo. The GDR decided to establish a zoo, the Tierpark Friedrichsfelde, in 1954. While the West Berlin Zoo that was known before WW2 as one of the major zoos worldwide with an immense collection of species (among them Mountain Nyala, Giant Armadillo, Emperor Penguins...) was crippled by the bombing and slowly rebuilt itself in a rather limited urban area, the East German government wanted the Tierpark to be right from the start somehow polar to it: features like a large, park-like scenario with herds of ungulates instead of singular specimen like in the Zoo, rare species from the Sowject Union and its allies the western zoos couldn't get (however, the Tierpark soon established good business connections with the San Diego and other American zoos) and huge animal buildings like the Alfred-Brehm-Haus for carnivores and especially the Pachyderm House, built in 1989(!), were supposed to illustrate the progressiveness, power and wealth of the GDR system in comparison to the unprogressive capitalistic Western system. The GDR also tried to embed the Tierpark into its political propangada, by forcing every resident of the GDR (even children and kids) to contribute to the founding costs of the Tierpark to make it a "zoo for the common people, by the common people"; You can still see a reminder of that at the old Bobcat exhibit.
Some directors of the Berlin Zoo, like Heinz-Georg Klös, did indeed report that the GDR created some annoying & needless hindrances for the Zoo on its way back to its former glory (f.e. the transportation of animal food or new animals) while privileging the Tierpark; however, this was a rather common move of the GDR system when dealing with the "West", and the zoo directors of the Zoo and the Tierpark respectively usually, according to their own testimony, behaved more or less like a good colleague to each other.
Zoo Director Heinrich Dathe "reigned" the Tierpark from 1954-1990 and thus hugely influenced the design and look of the Tierpark we can still see today; the current director of both Berlin zoos, Dr. Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, introduced and introduces changes only gradually and often stubbornly insists on his ideas; some of the buildings built during his current period of service, like the mentioned monkey building, are criticised by both zoofans and zoo pro's due to several reasons, while other criticism, like on the Alfred-Brehm-Haus, emanates from old buildings as cost-intensive "Dathe-inheritances" that no longer fulfil modern zoo husbandry and representation standards (even though the situation isn't better in some zoos, but maybe better hidden and thus less obvious to the public).
All in all the Tierpark is still worth a visit, even though the current situation in a reunited and pretty financially weak city makes it questionable whether Berlin can afford two zoos at the same time; however, the recent cash-flow due to cash cow (or rather "bear") "Knut" might change the situation for the better-at least for a while.
What still remains is the often observed fact that Berlin residents from the former Eastern Sector still tend to prefer visiting the Tierpark, while the "West Berlin" folks consider "their" Zoo the one and only.
There is a little "secret" or rather, a nice little hint in regard to the Tierpark if You're looking for a nice souvenir: go the children zoo and there to the carrousel and the kiosk; next to it is a little shop, which is usually opened on the weekends from April till October. The nice old ladies and gentlemen in it are members of a non-profit organisation supporting the Tierpark and sell a huge array of zoo-memorabilia (also from other zoos worldwide), may it be antique zoo guides, books or an interesting collection of beautifully painted zoo posters, among them motives of rarely depicted species like Takins, Muskox, Arabian Oryx or Lionfish for often laughable low prices. The nice old folks usually don't speak a lot of English, but are usually very friendly and helpful. Hope this info will benefit You in the case You visit the Tierpark.
