A series of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall will be held on campus Nov. 5-11.
“1989–End or Beginning? The 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Revolutions in Eastern Europe” will feature scholars from UGA and other universities and will include a companion film festival at Ciné, a movie theater in downtown Athens.
The events below are sponsored by the department of Germanic and Slavic studies, which is part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and Ideas for Creative Exploration also sponsored the events. Support for the film festival, which presents films from Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic, was provided by the President’s Venture Fund.
Thursday, Nov. 5
302 Caldwell Hall
4-5:30 p.m. “End or Beginning? The Revolutions of 1989.”
A roundtable discussion moderated by Gary Bertsch, founding director of the UGA Center for International Trade and Security, with Christopher Allen (UGA), Jaroslav Tir (UGA), Hubert Tworzecki (Emory University) and German Consul General Lutz Hermann Görgens (Atlanta).
Friday, Nov. 6
150 Miller Learning Center
4-5 p.m. “Wendekino—Cinema of Change”
A presentation on the revolution of 1989 and its aftermath in German film by Christine Haase, Germanic and Slavic studies, and Antje Ascheid, department of theatre and film studies. Richard Neupert, theatre and film studies, moderates.
Friday, Nov. 6– Sunday, Nov. 8
Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave.
Wendekino Film Festival
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolutions of 1989 in German and Eastern European Film are depicted.
The lineup includes Kolya (Czech Republic, 1996), Winter Ade (East Germany, 1988), Berlin is in Germany (Germany, 2001), 12:08 East of Bucharest (Romania, 2006) and
The Legend of Rita (Germany, 2000).
Monday, Nov. 9
Tate Plaza and Joseph Brown Hall
8 a.m.-noon. “Checkpoint!”
A collaborative art project that explores historic and contemporary barriers in a series of installations throughout the Athens community during the week leading up to Nov. 9. The project will culminate in a participatory event at Tate Plaza with video projections of art and archival footage on a scale replica of a section of the Berlin Wall. Tate Plaza.
4:30-6:30 p.m. “Remembering
Nov. 9, 1989”
Brechtje Beuker and Brigitte Rossbacher, Germanic and Slavic studies, lead “Mauer, Music, Memories: A Celebration of the Fall of the Wall.” Lobby, Joseph Brown Hall.
Wednesday, Nov. 11
Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave.
7 p.m. Special screening: Silent Country (Germany, 1992).
The film was the winner of the 1993 German Critics’ Award and directed by one of Germany’s most successful contemporary directors, Andreas Dresen. It features the fall of the Berlin Wall as experienced by a small-town East German theater group engaged in the production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Christine Haase, Germanic and Slavic studies, gives the introduction.
