Youth

Sofia Sepulveda-Pizarro (East Brunswick High School, NJ) Luiza Vazquez (Mt. Lebanon HS, Pittsburgh), Fox Rifenberg- Stempel (Shaker HS, NY) and Bert Mocklebust (Mahopac High School, NY) engage in a vivid conversation with Diana Erinna and Natalie Bormann about their experiences growing up around the same time, but on different sides of the border.

David Gill, German Consul General in NY, discusses with Sofia Sepulveda-Pizarro (East Brunswick HS, NJ), Anna Mares (Mt. Lebanon HS, Pittsburgh, PA), Jack Schneider (Shaker HS, NY) and Donald Zoffel (Mt. Lebanon HS, Pittsburgh PA) the East German educational system, religion, peaceful demonstrations, fake news and obstacles in unifying East and West.

Sofia Sepulveda-Pizarro, East Brunswick HS in NJ asks German General Consul David Gill: Should young people be actively involved in politics and current issues? What role should the government play in encouraging teen activism?

Mario Röllig, born 1967 in East Berlin, takes you on a tour of his childhood and teenage years in the GDR. In German with English subtitles. 

Memories of a young girl on summer vacation just outside Berlin, in the GDR. The girl, now a woman, reflects on her past life. In German with English subtitles. 

According to GDR propaganda, East Germany was a state for young people. The balance between allowing them some freedoms, while restricting others, proved tricky. Though basic needs like food, shelter and clothing were met, the GDR youth had to negotiate the space for all other extras that make life fun, like music and fashion and often applied coded language and subversive messages to address these.

The GDR state labelled "negative decadence" those youth cultures that it thought were vestiges of Capitalism that had not been expunged. Skinheads were literally a punch in the face of a state that called itself anti-fascist. 

 

The restriction of freedom of speech is taken for granted in the case of East Germany, but what about West Germany?

How did young people in East Germany's shortage economy get the latest in cool clothing and music?

How did young people in the GDR negotiate their place within GDR's society? 

Do young Germans nowadays still self- identify as East- German or West German? In German with English subtitles.