Stairs Illustrate the Transformation of Berlin
It is red and impossible to miss: a striking staircase at Potsdamer Platz informs visitors about the 2009 theme year. In addition to interesting views from the roof, it offers information about the tour of a mobile exhibition that will be reporting on the transformation of Berlin since 1989 at various locations. www.mauerfall09.de
Open-Air Exhibition Commemorates the Peaceful Revolution
An open-air exhibition on the peaceful revolution will be on display at Alexanderplatz in Berlin from 7 May until 14 November. In both German and English, it documents the political and social developments in the GDR that led to the fall of the Wall. www.havemann-gesellschaft.de
The Year 1989: Images of a Turning Point in History
The photographic exhibition at the German Historical Museum in Berlin (30 May until 30 August) documents the collapse of the GDR. The exhibition creates a panorama of the years 1989 and 1990 in four theme-based areas. It begins with a review of the 1980s, then presents a chronology of the political events of 1989 and shows the peaceful revolution and the west’s view of events. www.dhm.de
Art and the Cold War: German Positions 1945–1989
Art from eastern and western Germany in the context of the East-West conflict is the subject of the exhibition on “Art and the Cold War” that will be presented at the German National Museum in Nuremberg (27 May until 6 September) and at the German Historical Museum in Berlin (3 October until 10 January 2010). The exhibition encompasses some 300 works by 120 artists. It raises the question of whether there was continuity or a new beginning in art after 1945, illustrates the dispute about the image of humanity during the 1950s and shows artists’ treatment of the trauma of the past during the 1960s. Other themes include the art of the economic miracle as well as non-conformist GDR art. www.dhm.de
Puppet Performance: Giant Spectacle in Berlin
The Berliner Festspiele will be presenting a huge open-air theatre spectacle free of charge from 1 to 4 October as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. The legendary French street theatre company Royal de Luxe will use up to 13-metre-tall puppets to perform a fairy tale about a reunion following a long separation at Unter den Linden, Strasse des 17. Juni and the Brandenburg Gate. www.berlinerfestspiele.de
Suburban Train to the West: Theatre on Line 2
”Mit der S-Bahn in den Westen” is the name of a Berlin exhibition and theatre project that will run from 1 September to 30 November. Short plays based on GDR eye-witness reports will be performed in Line 2 S-Bahn trains. www.notaufnahmelager-berlin.de
History Forum and Festival: Focus on the Peaceful Revolution
“Europe between Division and New Beginnings” is the title of the international event being held in Berlin from 28 to 31 May and organized by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the German Federal Cultural Foundation and other partner institutions. Discussion on the revolutionary year 1989 is complemented by three other key themes: the history of communist dictatorships in Germany and central and eastern Europe, the history of the two Germanys and their relations, and the development of Germany and Europe since 1989. www.geschichtsforum09.de
After the Fall: Goethe-Institut Theatre Project
Goethe-Institut is organizing some 60 events on the fall of the Wall during the anniversary year. For example, 17 dramatists from 15 European countries are taking part in the major theatre project “After the Fall – Europe after 1989”. 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, their plays examine the transformation of Germany and Europe. The performances will be shown in theatres throughout Europe. At the conclusion of the project, Staatsschauspiel Dresden and Theaterbüro Mülheim an der Ruhr will invite a selection of the plays to be performed in Germany during November 2009. www.goethe.de
“Wall Journey” Promotes Crossborder Interchange
Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, Yemen and Korea are the stops of a special “wall journey” that begins in May in Berlin. At the invitation of Goethe-Institut, artists, intellectuals and young people from the named countries will artistically project their experiences of separation and division onto 20 symbolic “wall stones” that will be sent to their countries from Berlin. In October the stones will return to Berlin, where, during the Festival of Freedom at the Brandenburg Gate from 7 to 9 November, they will join over a thousand other stones with designs from Germany before being brought down in a “symbolic fall“. www.goethe.de
Crossing Boundaries: Film Competition
Goethe-Institut and the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” have launched their third International Short Film Competition on “Crossing Boundaries”. Young filmmakers have been asked to submit their cinematic ideas on the geographical and sociocultural “boundary crossings” of 1939 – the beginning of the Second World War – and the social consequences of 1989. The prize winners will be selected from 33 short films and announced in July. www.goethe.de
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
20 Years of Freedom. Germany Says Thank You! – Celebration with Eastern European Neighbours
Germany is presenting a series of events in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to celebrate the fall of the Wall and the Iron Curtain with its eastern European neighbours. The programme of “20 Years of Freedom. Germany Says Thank You!” includes films, concerts, performances, photographic competitions, discussions and information on the events of 1989 in Germany and eastern Europe. Organized by the Federal Foreign Office and its missions abroad, the tour will be travelling to Prague (29 May to 1 June), Warsaw (6 to 8 June), Gdansk (13 to 14 June), Bratislava (19 to 21 June) and Budapest (25 to 27 June). www.auswaertiges-amt.de/20JahreFreiheit
Freedom Without Walls: Photographic Exhibition at the German Embassy in Washington
The German Information Center (GIC) of the German Embassy in Washington is remembering the fall of the Wall and the Iron Curtain 20 years ago under the heading “Freedom Without Walls”. Events include the photographic exhibition “Berlin Kreuzberg SO36 – Before and After the Fall of the Wall” by Peter Frischmuth. The photographer presents images from Berlin-Kreuzberg, the central district that suddenly found itself on the fringe when the Wall was built. 25 years after a visit in 1982 Frischmuth returned to re-photograph places and people. The photographs will be on display at the Goethe Institute in Washington until 22 May. They will then be exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Miami. www.germany.info
Remembering the Monday Demonstrations: Leipzig Week at the German Embassy in London
This year the German Embassy in London is remembering the fall of the Wall with photographic exhibitions, film screenings, concerts and conferences. During “Leipzig Week”, from 7 to 11 September, the Embassy will be organizing a symposium on the Monday demonstrations and welcoming famous Leipzigers to London: the Gewandhaus Orchestra and painter Neo Rauch. www.london.diplo.de
Federal Foundation Organizes International Exhibition
The path “From the Peaceful Revolution to German Unity” is described in an exhibition organized by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship and the Hertie Foundation. With support from the Federal Foreign Office, the exhibition will be shown in more than 100 German embassies, consulates, schools and Goethe Institutes; the relevant texts will be translated into 15 languages. www.stiftung-aufarbeitung.de/ausstellung89
Two German Architectures: Exhibition Goes to Zaragoza
In cooperation with Goethe-Institut and the German Embassy in Madrid, the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) has organized an exhibition that presents a review of architecture in divided Germany. It will be on show in Zaragoza, Spain, from 18 June to 31 August. The exhibition focuses on the differences and similarities of apparently separate architectural discourses and outlines the cultural and political-economic context of both architectural developments. www.ifa.de
Insights in Black and White: “Helldunkel” Shows Photographs from Germany
The ifa photographic exhibition will go on display at the History Meeting House in Warsaw from 16 April and then at Muzeum Narodowe in Gdansk. The 126 black and white photographs by Barbara Klemm were produced before and after German unification. They include images of dangerous and everyday situations, demonstrations, cultural events and city and country life. www.ifa.de
Focus on Germany: How Foreign Photo Journalists See the Country
31 photo journalists from Europe, the USA and Japan present their views of Germany. At the invitation of the German National Tourist Board (DZT), they travelled through Germany, visiting Berlin and the Länder that bordered on the Iron Curtain until 1989/1990, as part of the photographic competition “20 Years since the Fall of the Wall – Germany, a Fascinating Tourist Destination”. The prize-winning photographs will be announced in May. They will be presented in an exhibition in Hamburg from mid-June before touring outside Germany – for example, in DZT offices abroad. www.deutschland-tourismus.de
Iron Curtain Trail: Experiencing Europe’s Common History
The Iron Curtain divided Europe for almost half a century. The former frontier is now being transformed into a unique cycling and hiking route. The Iron Curtain Trail stretches from the Barents Sea, on the Norwegian-Russian border, to the Black Sea, a 6,800-kilometre route along the former border strip. 20 countries, including 14 EU member states, are participating in the project. Following the example of the Berlin Wall Path and the German-German Border Trail, the Iron Curtain Trail aims to enable travellers to experience and retrace a common European history. www.ironcurtaintrail.eu
