The Berlin Wall cut Berlin in half for more than 28 years. Built to preserve the GDR and stem immigration to the west, the «wall of shame» was destroyed on 9 November 1989, paving the way for German reunification
The first anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall was marked in the West by popular demonstrations that took place along this murderous border. Report illustrating these demonstrations of anger as well as the tribute paid by Willy BRANDT (Mayor of West Berlin) to the victims of the GDR policy.
Report devoted to the testimony of Claudia RUSCH, German writer, having lived, fifteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Comment on factual images, archives and photographs.
On 7 May, a fire broke out in a subway station in East Berlin. The West German press reveals that this was not just an accident, a dozen East German citizens would have confiscated an empty trainset to gain the Western network. The way being blocked, the Vopos (guardians of the Wall) reportedly intervened, and as a result of exchanges of gunshots, there would be no survivors today. Comment on illustration images.
Berlin: Five years ago, the wall said "wall of shame", fell. Etienne LEENHARDT, in former East Germany, shows us a piece of the wall preserved and redecorated. Commentary on factual and archival images and tray in situation.
The ceremonies commemorating the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall do not forget that 500,000 people, one way or another, had collaborated with the political police in the GDR, STASI. The archives that consolidate the list of these "East German moles" will soon return to Berlin. Comment on factual images and interview Hubertus KNABE (historian).
The Berlin Wall and the Stasi: 46 years after the construction of the Berlin Wall, lively emotion in Germany. Everyone still remembers the separation of the city but especially, on the occasion of this anniversary, a document proves that the Stasi, the secret police of the former GDR, had received the order to shoot those who tried to flee, including the children, of course. Comment on factual and archival images and interview Jorg STOYE (director of the archives of the Stasi in Magdeburg).
Report on the commemorations of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The former Soviet leader Mikhail GORBATCHEV, present, was ovationated at length. Comment on factual images alternating with the interview of Berlinois, a former American soldier stationed at Checkpoint Charlie, William GUENTHER, and a statement by German Chancellor Angela MERKEL on the occasion of the inauguration of an exhibition dedicated to the wall. .
While preparations are being made in Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with the establishment of works commissioned from artists from all over the world, German Chancellor Angela MERKEL recounts her experience of the fall of the wall and how she went west like thousands of East Germans on the evening of November 9, 1989. Comment on factual images (installations of works of art) and archival images alternating with interviews with Gérald PONESTY, co-conceptor of the installation project for commemoration, and the testimony of Angela MERKEL Plateau in Sama SOULA.
While at a working meeting on Europe in Copenhagen (Denmark), President François MITTERRAND expressed his joy at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the borders between East and West. Declaration.
Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we draw up an assessment of the reunification of East and West. The East with its social protection, the West with its economic growth. A cross-portrait of two people who followed two opposite routes: a woman who was the victim of this reunification and a man who benefited from it. Comment on factual images and interviews Hansjurgen NELDE (CEO of Berlin-Chemie, ex-communist) and Diana ZODTNER (unemployed, ex-engineer in the GDR).
Reports in East Berlin where, on the eve of the demolition of the wall, some come to collect pieces that they sell on the fly when others use it as a giant surface of artistic expression. Comment on factual images, micro-sidewalk and interview Jacques SIMON, landscape artist-architect.
The Berlin Wall is 27 years old, it is on August 13, 1961 that the demarcation line between the Soviet sector and the Western sectors takes shape. Comment on factual and archival images.
Subject related to John Fitzgerald KENNEDY’s trip to West Berlin. It is on this occasion that he will speak this phrase that has become famous: "Ich bin ein Berliner"("I am a Berliner").
In the GDR, in order to halt the mass exodus of young Germans from East to West, the government closed its border with Czechoslovakia on 3 October and introduced a screening of the crossings between East and West Berlin. The leaders of the GDR thus intend to avoid "agitators", according to the official speech. Border guards at the famous Checkpoint Charlie crossing, the main crossing for foreign visitors, no longer grant one-day tourist visas. Comment on factual images and meet with an American tourist who confirms the facts. Plateau in situation Christine OCKRENT.