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A Barbie for the dollhouse, a pink miniskirt instead of a school uniform ... young people think of simple and personal stories. For the competition 89 – war da was? German and Russian young people reminisced. The winner has been chosen: Avaz Tašhodžaev persuaded the jury with a video about his parents’ fate. By Julia Amberger

A man wearing a suit leads his bride through the park. Her eyes are covered by a veil. She lifts her skirts with her fingers to keep from stumbling. The newlywed bride carries red lilies in her arms; the groom is holding a bouquet of red carnations in his hands. The young couple bows in front of a stone to lay down their flowers. Laying flowers, the moment is almost like a burial. As contrary as the ideas that the film awakens are, this is exactly what 17-year-old student Avaz Tašhodžaev from Ukraine associates with the year the Iron Curtain fell. In a video, he tells his parents’ love story to win the 89 – war da was? contest, a project by the German-Russian youth portal to4ka Treff.



The aim of this contest is not to reiterate what already is in the history books, but to look at the personal experiences of young people in Russia and Germany or at stories they think of when they hear the name of the year 1989. For Avaz, 1989 is the year that his parents met. They married and Avaz was born. Yet, nine years later, in 1998, a car accident ripped the young family apart; his father died. At one time, Avaz wanted to be like him and carry on the life of his father. Now, however, he has come to understand that every person’s fate is unique. His conclusion: “We can do no more than to be worthy of our parents.” In Avaz’s memories, both live on; the film ends with photos documenting the family’s happiness.

Change of scene: School life in the USSR. Girls wearing dark brown frocks with white and black pinafores are writing at their desks. Their innermost desire is to come to class in a bright pink miniskirt from the “magical land of Poland.” One clear winter day, for the semi-annual school assembly, the wish comes true: the head teacher gets rid of the compulsory uniforms. In her story, Karina Geipel describes her mother’s experiences, which she, too, associates with the year 1989. There was no thinking of sleep when, in the early hours of 11 November 1989, Christine Paechnatz drove to the west with her parents instead of going to school. Here dream also would come true: a Barbie doll in a shiny pink gown. When Marina Gubina thinks of 1989, she thinks of the end of the war in Afghanistan. A friend of her mother fought there on the front and Marina often heard him tell of his experiences. In 2003, the soldier died from his war injuries. “Perhaps this story can connect only the year 1989 to Afghanistan for me,” she writes.

In over 70 videos, photos and articles, young people from Germany and Russia tell their stories. In early November, a jury of six, made up of the to4ka project coordinators Anastasia Gorochova and Daniela Hannemann, representatives of the Goethe-Institut Moscow and two external advisors chose the grand prizes and honourable mentions. Avaz touched the jury with his video. Impressed by his adaptation of the tragic fate of his parents, it granted him the grand prize, a language course in Germany. When he tells his parents’ story, when we see the images of the wedding, it becomes clear that 1989 bears its own meaning for him; a very personal one that lives on in his thoughts after he closes the history book.