Monday 9 November 2009

Celebrating the Fall of the Berlin Wall

by Kathryn Hadley
World leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Gordon Brown, are gathered in Berlin today to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is an article reporting on today’s commemorative events on the website of Bloomberg.
A video of Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, in which she recalls her memories of time, was also posted on the website of the German Chancellery two days ago.

Here is a selection of some of the events organised in London today and over the coming week to celebrate the anniversary.

1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall
November 9th, 7pm

Frontline Club
13 Norfolk Place
London W2 1QJ
Telephone: 020 7479 8950
http://www.frontlineclub.com/
Journalists who were in Berlin at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall will discuss their experiences of the time. Speakers include Sky News political correspondent Glen Oglaza, BBC correspondent Nick Thorpe, Ann Leslie of the Daily Mail and Peter Millar, author of 1989 The Berlin Wall: My Part in Its Downfall.

Ice Wall in London
November 9th, until 8pm
Outside the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany
23 Belgrave Square
London SW1X 8PZ
A 11.5 ft Ice Wall art installation commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is on display outside the German Embassy. It consists of a frozen fragment of a wall made out of ice which looks as though it is about to crumble and fall down.

The Goethe-Institut in London is also hosting various events.
Goethe-Institut London
50 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2PH
Telephone: 020 7596 4000
www.goethe.de/london

DJ Ben Klock
November 9th, 11pm – 2am
Soon after the collapse of the Berlin Wall young people from East Berlin celebrated at Techno parties in the West and a few months later the first Techno clubs opened in former East Berlin. DJ Ben Klock from the Techno club Berghain, located close to the former no-man’s land around the Berlin Wal,l will recreate soundtracks which were played twenty years ago.

November Days: Live TV Coverage
November 9th, until 5pm

A video installation showing a collage of some of the best pictures broadcast on television channels in Paris, London, New York and Moscow at the time. The videos are accompanied by recent interviews with the journalists who posted the original reports.

Harlan: In the Shadow of the Jew Sϋss
November 12th, 7.30pm
Veit Harlan was one of the Third Reich’s most prominent filmmakers. He made various films under the supervision of Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry, which included an anti-Semitic reworking of Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel Jud Süß, released in Germany in 1940. However, during the post-war De-Nazification trials he was twice cleared of wrongdoing.
This documentary by Felix Moeller explores Harlan’s complicity in mass murder through interviews with members of his extensive family. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Felix Moeller, Jessica Jacoby, grand-daughter of Veit Harlan, as well as film historian, Professor Erica Carter (Warwick University), a specialist in German and Nazi cinema.

A Borderline Case – The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Until December 18th

A display of photographs by Norbert Enker who photographed the changes along the former border between East and West Germany from December 1989 to March 1992.

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