The department of German and Slavic studies has organized a series of events to mark the 20 Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, including eye-witness accounts and a photographic exhibit.

While traveling around East Germany in 1990-after the fall of the Wall but before reunification-Stefan Koppelkamm found himself wanting to take photographs that would capture a state of affairs he assumed would never recur. The buildings, streets and squares he photographed often looked as though time had stood still, together conveying an idea of how Germany might have looked before the Second World War. Ten or twelve years later, Koppelkamm sought all these places out again and photographed them for a second time, from exactly the same viewpoints. Changes in the condition of the buildings and even in the most trivial minor features reflect the dramatic social and economic transformation that came about between the first and the second set of photographs.

An exhibit of Koppelhamm’s photographs, titled: Ortszeit / Local Time: Berlin 1990 and After, will open on November 10, 2009, in the Cross Common Room, 108 St. John’s College.

That evening, on Tuesday, November 10, 2009, at 7:00 p.m., in the Cross Common Room, 108 St. John’s College, panellists will offer eye-witness accounts (in English) of the events of November 1989 from Eastern and Western perspectives. A reception will follow.

The following week, on Thursday, November 19, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. in 136 Isbister, German film students will present (in German) “Representing the Berlin Wall in Documentary and Feature Films.” Students will examine the international representation of the German/German border from 1961 to the present day.

For more information, please contact: Dr. Cheryl Dueck, German and Slavic Studies, at: 204-474-9151