Recommended Viewing: Turning Points – How Reunification Changed German Lives
One of the couples for whom the fall of the wall meant celebrating their own unification (Copyright: MDR/LOOKS Film)
12 September 2010
Damals nach der DDR (After the GDR): Nothing was ever the same
The Iron Curtain falls. Boundless elation on both sides – and yet, two worlds collided. Did the formula “Freedom for the East, Revenue for the West” add up?
Sweethearts reunite, while others are faced with ruin. The first thing Heidrun Kruse, a former leader of the Pioneers in the SED, feels is existential fear. And while so-called Ostalgie parties are guaranteed to bring in the profits, the reconstruction helpers at the trust company perceive the resentment of those affected.
The fall of the wall in 1989 and reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 are major events of world history – especially because they radically changed the lives of many individual Germans. For its four-part television documentary Damals nach der DDR, the ARD compiled reports by over 1,000 contemporary witnesses. They tell of liberation and recovery, of consolidation and growth, yet also of disillusionment and helplessness, of disappointment and rage on both sides of the former border.
Borne out with historical background information, the biographies reveal the fissure that reunification means in the lives of Germans.
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Trailer: The four-part ARD series Damals nach der DDR combines special personal stories and historical facts in a documentary about the effects of the fall of the wall and German reunification on the lives of Germans (Video: MDR).
From Monday, 13 September, ARD will broadcast one weekly episode of the four-part series Damals nach der DDR (After the GDR) every Monday at nine o’clock PM:
Part 1 “Liberation and Dissolution”: 13 September 2010
Part 2 “Beginnings and Farewells”: 20 September 2010
Part 3 “The Honeymoon is Over”: 27 September 2010
Part 4 “Unification: Frustration and Delight”: 4 October 2010
The network of Goethe-Instituts is giving a worldwide audience the opportunity to experience the documentary, for it has equipped 150 international locations with the DVD. “Coming to terms with and reflecting on division and reunification has top priority in the work of the Goethe-Instituts,” said Hans-Georg Knopp, the secretary-general of the Goethe-Institut, in reference to the cooperation. “We have had programmes and projects running for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall and of reunification from New York to New Zealand. The many-voiced testimonies of the documentary Damals nach der DDR are an important element of this overall programme as they enable us to depict the complicated historic events in all their complexity.”
The series is accompanied by an Internet platform, a radio feature as well as a book and DVD.
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