A moment of freedom

Twenty years have passed since the momentous day that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall; a day which marked huge social, political and cultural changes in Germany. To join in the celebrations, we have picked out some of the best books, films and music to celebrate this historic moment.

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Writers from both sides of the wall have been inspired by its fall and for a literary overview, start with Ingo Schulze’s Simple Stories.  This collection of short stories is set in East Germany after the fall and focuses on a selection of disparate characters and the impact of reunification on their lives; not all of the changes caused by the fall were positive ones. The sensitively told stories provide a snapshot of the simple lives of ordinary people and their struggles, hopes and relationships.

For a in-depth account of the events leading up reunification, an excellent choice is Frederick Taylor’s The Berlin Wall , which looks at the social and political history of the wall, featuring the power players as well as ordinary Berliners. The Wall Jumper is a short narrative essay by Peter Schneider set in the early Eighties. This darkly funny work considers how citizens on both sides of the wall are distinct products of the governments they are living under, despite their geographical proximity.

In Stasiland, Anna Funder explores the lives of East Berliners after unification, in particular the “Stasi”, or secret police. Stasiland chronicles her eye-opening journey and the fascinating characters she encounters after she places an ad reading “Seeking: former Stasi officers and unofficial collaborators for interview. Publication in English, anonymity guaranteed.”

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The acclaimed and beautifully filmed The Lives of Others is the debut work of German director and writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The plot centres on the surveillance of dramatist Georg Dreyman and his companion, actress Christa-Maria Sieland; two prominent figures in the East German intelligentsia. The film is simultaneously thrilling, insightful, funny and tragic – it certainly deserved every single award (including an Oscar) that it garnered.

Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck in The Lives of Others

You may not have heard of Silent Country; a film by Andreas Dresen, but this sensitive film effectively captures the mood before and during reunification. Silent Country focuses on the efforts of a young theatre director in putting on a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in a provincial GDR town. While rehearsals are taking place, the theatre group is confronted with the news of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact that this has on their lives.

It might be difficult to envisage a comedy about a divided Berlin, but One, Two, Three is absolutely hilarious. Directed by Billy Wilder, the film follows the capers of Coca-Cola’s director in West Berlin (played by James Cagney) in his bid to stop his boss’s daughter from marrying a communist from East Berlin, and save his job. Other films worth watching include Good Bye Lenin! and the riotous Hedwig and the Angry Inch. You can watch trailers for all of these films on our Youtube channel.

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U2 performed to commemorate the fall of the wall, but they are certainly not the only musicians to have been inspired by Berlin’s concrete barrier, including German pop favourite David Hasselhoff, as well as the slightly more highbrow David Bowie! Bowie’s 1977 hit “Heroes“ is a track from his Berlin period and was recorded in a studio West Berlin, just near the wall itself. The lyrics clearly refer to the divided city: “I can remember standing by the wall/ And the guns shot above our heads/ And we kissed as though nothing could fall/ And the shame was on the other side”.

Another huge hit about the wall comes from Scorpions – “Wind of Change” is a slice of pure early Nineties power ballad, with numerous air guitar moments! Scorpions were one of many musical acts that joined Roger Waters on stage at the now legendary “The Wall – Live in Berlin” concert, which took place between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate in 1990. Waters staged his rock opera The Wall to commemorate the fall and artists including Marianne Faithfull, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison and Sinéad O’Connor took part in the event.

David Hasselhoff also performed at the Brandenburg Gate, headlining the new year celebrations shortly after the fall. His track “Looking for Freedom” was a huge hit in Germany and he sported a fantastically kitsch jacket adorned with flashing lightbulbs for his appearance amidst the ruins. A rather different celebration was staged by conductor Leonard Bernstein on Christmas Day in 1989 – a specially adapted version of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy) which changed the word “joy” for “freedom”.

A mini Berlin Wall playlist