The Fall of the Wall
A Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989
Students and faculty in German Studies at the University of Florida are pleased to announce these events during the academic year 2009-2010.
Upcoming Event
Symposium: "Goodbye DDR: Memory and Material Culture"--
See below for
details.
Freedom without Walls Campus Weeks 2009
Sponsored by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the University of Florida International Center.
Gala
A Gala Event on Thursday, October 22, at 6:00 pm in the Ocora Room of Pugh Hall, with food, entertainment, and reflections on the Fall of the Wall by guest speaker Holger Teschke, author and dramatist, who was working with the Berlin Ensemble in 1989.
Contact project manager Will Hasty for more information.
Public Speaking Contest
Students are invited to assume the identity of someone who lived in the shadow of the Berlin Wall and witnessed its Fall -- from politicians to people on the street -- and to present their thoughts in a statement or short speech. Public speaking will be videotaped and awards will be made to the First ($200), Second ($100), and Third place ($50) participants. Contact project manager Professor Franz Futterknecht for more information.
Film Series in the Reitz Union Auditorium
Students are invited to free screenings of significant films placed in Berlin before, during, and after the Wall and its Fall. Contact Professor Barbara Mennel for more information.
- Tuesday, September 29 @ 7:30 pm
Gerhard Klein's Berlin - Schoenhauser Corner (1957)
Introduction: Jennifer Coenen, Graduate Student in German - Tuesday, October 6 @ 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1962)
Introduction: Barbara Mennel, Associate Professor of German and Cinema - Tuesday, October 13 @ 7:30 pm
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others (2006)
Introduction: Franz Futterknecht, Professor of German - Tuesday, October 20 @ 7:30 pm
Jürgen Böttcher’s The Wall (1989/90)
Introduction: Will Hasty, Professor of German
"Graffiti"
Students are invited to express their thoughts about the Wall and its Fall in the form of commentary and art on a student-produced replica of the Berlin Wall or on the online Wall. Students are also invited to submit exhibits dealing with the Wall and its historical significance in the form of photos, video, PowerPoint presentations, etc. for inclusion in a virtual museum that will be under construction in the weeks before the Gala. Contact student project manager Giselle Levy for more information.
Good Bye DDR: Memory and Material Culture
Symposium - Good Bye DDR: Memory and Material Culture
With guest speakers Elizabeth Mittman, Brian Ladd, and faculty and graduate
students in German Studies at the University of Florida, on Friday, November
13 in the Ruth McGown Room in Dauer Hall. Sponsored by the Center
for The Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Rothman
Fund.
Morning: Memory and Visual Culture
- 10:00 am
Elizabeth Mittman, Associate Professor (Michigan State University)
“From Good Bye Lenin! to The Lives of Others: Memory and Forgetting after the Cold War” - 11:00 am
Tim Fangmeyer, Graduate Student in German (University of Florida)
“History Written by the Winners? Post-GDR Films about the GDR” - 12:00
Lunch Break
Afternoon: Ghosts and Fairy Tales
- 2:00 pm
Claudia Schwabe, Graduate Student in German (University of Florida)
"Between Socialism and Snow White: GRD Fairy Tales" - 3:00
pm Brian Ladd, Research Associate (University of Albany, SUNY)
“Monuments, Voids, and Other Ghosts of East Berlin” - 4:00
Roundtable Discussion with Franz Futterknecht, Brian Ladd, Elizabeth Mittman, Barbara Mennel
Screening of the film DDR/DDR
With an introduction by, and Q/A with its maker, Amie Siegel of Harvard
University, on February 9, 2010, 7:00pm, Chandler Auditorium in the Harn
Museum. Co-sponsored by the Center for European Studies and the Center
for the Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Rothman
Fund, and the Harn Museum.
Part of Risk Cinema and in conjunction with the Harn exhibition “Project
Europe: Imagining the (Im)Possible”
