Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾

Links:

ucl.ac.uk/drupal/site_news/sites/news/files/news220509.mp3" target="_self">Listen now

2009 marks the twenty-year anniversary of the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, and the iconic fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989.Ìý

Ahead of a conference at the Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) on 5-6 June which will look at the political legacies of Communist collapse, Professor Mary Fulbrook (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ German) describes her own memories of the period. She then discusses the social and economic landscape of east Germany in the 1980s and some of the lasting legacies of unification.

Professor Fulbrook, in collaboration with Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ students, produced a documentary film titled Behind the Wall: 'Perfectly Normal Lives' in the GDR?, the first to explore the complexity of ordinary lives in the relatively stable middle period of the GDR's history. Using extensive oral history interviews, archival sources and film footage, it portrays a more complex picture of life in the GDR, allowing East Germans to tell their own stories and inviting viewers to an informed debate on key questions of contemporary German history and identity.

Copies of the film (voluntary donation) are available from Amy Brownhill (German Department), tel: 020 7679 7120.

For more information on the 'Solidarities' conference at SSEES visit the site.