Fall of the Berlin Wall – 20th Anniversary – links for 26 Oct 2009

Bill Dawson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:59:10 +0000

Here are links for 26 October 2009 concerning that very important moment in German History (and world history), the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 20th anniversary of that momentous event is coming up on 09 November 2009.

If you missed them, consider reviewing other recent entries containing links regarding the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. And don’t forget our special page dedicated wholly to Fall of the Berlin Wall Resources.

And now to today’s links:

Here is another link from Guardian.co.uk: an interactive map of 5 points along the Berlin Wall. It’s a bit quirky, in the sense that when you click on one of the 5 points you get one of the series of 5 videos that the Guardian produced for the anniversary, and the video is not necessarily related to the point you just clicked on. But have a look anyway, as it’s a good page to find all of those five videos in one go.
Our second link for today is to an AFP article about The Scorpions and their hit song, “Wind of Change.” One of our Fall of the Berlin Wall link entries last week featured this song as a kind of soundtrack to what I believe is a home-made video about the Wall. Now you can learn more about that song — and The Scorpions — in the AFP article.

Today’s video is from Sony Pictures Classics’ account at YouTube and features the trailer for the film “The Lives of Others” (Das Leben der Anderen), a German film concerning the Stasi and how it spied on East German citizens, particularly (as in the film) prominent authors or other artists who were seen as politically unreliable or even subversive.

Fall of the Berlin Wall – 20th Anniversary – links for 22 Oct 2009

Bill Dawson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:59:24 +0000

Here are links for 22 October 2009 concerning that very important moment in German History (and world history), the fall of the Berlin Wall.

If you missed them, consider reviewing other recent entries containing Berlin Wall / GDR links. And don’t forget the Berlin Wall Resources page.

At CNET News, Tim Leberecht praises the Berlin Twitter Wall. I tweeted to #fotw, did you?
Marcus Walker of the Wall Street Journal Online addresses the doubts about which reporter elicited the history-changing response from Günter Schabowski at the press conference (see lead photo of this blog post) on 09 November 1989. Today’s video (see below) shows this press conference and gives you the background of what I’m talking about. Was it, in fact, Italian reporter Riccardo Ehrman? He received Germany’s highest honor for doing so, but a West German reporter is claiming it was he, not Ehrman, who opened the Berlin Wall. A fight for journalistic honor!

Today’s video is another in the Guardian’s series, “Berlin Wall: 20 Years On.” Unfortunately, the Guardian does not provide any embed code for this video, so you will actually have to visit that link to see it. This part — part four — of the series recalls 09 November 1989 itself. It includes a bit of trivia that I think a lot of people don’t know about: Günter Schabowski‘s mistaken belief — which he uttered aloud at a press conference — that the checkpoints were to be opened immediately. This was not, in fact, what the East German government had intended.

The transcript of Schabowski’s screw up can be seen at this PDF link from wilsoncenter.org. The critical part:

Schabowski: (um…)(reads:) “Permanent exit is possible via all GDR border crossings to the FRG. These changes replace the temporary practice of issuing [travel] authorizations through GDR consulates and permanent exit with a GDR personal identity card via third countries.”
(Looks up) (um) I cannot answer the question about passports at this point.
(Looks questioningly at Labs and Banaschak.) That is also a technical question. I don’t know, the passports have to … so that everyone has a passport, they first have to be distributed. But we want to…

Banaschak: The substance of the announcement is decisive…

Schabowski: … is the …

Question: When does it come into effect?

Schabowski: (Looks through his papers…) That comes into effect, according to my information, immediately, without delay (looking through his papers further).

Labs: (quietly) …without delay.

Beil: (quietly) That has to be decided by the Council of Ministers.

Question: (…Many voices…) You only said the FRG, is the regulation also valid for West Berlin?

Schabowski: (reading aloud quickly) “As the Press Office of the Ministry … the Council of Ministers decided that until the Volkskammer implements a corresponding law, this transition regulation will be in effect.”

And that, as they say, was that.

Until next time,

Bill Dawson

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Fall of the Berlin Wall – 20th Anniversary – links for 26 Oct 2009

Fall of the Berlin Wall – 20th Anniversary – links for 22 Oct 2009