20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

 

freedom to Eastern Europe.

Join us for a week-long commemoration of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Eastern Bloc. 
Click here for a PDF of the full schedule of events or below to view activities for a specific date. 
You can also scroll down to see the schedule for the entire week.

Monday, Nov. 2nd (Vigil/Candlelight Procession / Exhibit Opening)
PDF of Monday the 2nd events

Tuesday, Nov. 3rd, 6:00pm (Film: Kolya)
PDF of Film Series

Wednesday, Nov. 4th, 9:00am-1:00pm (Symposium and Reception)
PDF of Wednesday Events

Thursday, Nov. 5th, 6:00pm (Film: The Interrogation)
PDF of Film Series

Monday, Nov. 9th, 6:00pm (Cake and Film: When the Wall Came Tumbling Down)
PDF of Monday the 9th events

To register for one or more of these events, please click here: http://berlinwall.eventbrite.com

Monday, November 2nd

Remembering Leipzig:
Vigil & Candlelight Procession

5:00-6:30pm
Die Vereinigte Kirche
1920 G St., NW

Featured Speakers:

Uta Larkey,
Professor of German, Goucher College
Edward Larkey,
Professor of German, UMBC
Peter Rollberg,
Professor of Slavic Languages, Film Studies and International Affairs, GWU
Sebastian Gräfe,
Program Director, Heinrich Böll Foundation

Procession through Kogan Plaza to Gelman 7th floor

Exhibits Opening & Reception

6:30-7:30pm
Gelman Library
7th Floor

Goodbye Comrade Revisited
Images from the revolutions of ‘89 and the collapse of communism

Comments by:
Jim Hershberg, Professor of History and International Affairs, GWU

Berlin Walls
Photograph exhibit

Comments by:
Bruce Blundell, photographer
 Mary Beth Stein, Professor, German Language and Literature,GWU


Images & Sound: Multimedia Installation

6:00-10:00pm
Kogan Plaza

To register for one or more of these events, please click here: http://berlinwall.eventbrite.com

Tuesday, November 3rd

Film Showing:
Kolya
(Czech, 1997)

6:00 pm
Gelman Library, Room 207

A comedy about men, women, children and revolution

Franta Louka is a concert cellist in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, a confirmed bachelor and a lady's man. Having lost his place in the state orchestra, he must make ends meet by playing at funerals and painting tombstones. But he has run up a large debt, and when his friend, the grave-digger Mr. Broz, suggests a scheme for making a lot of money by marrying a Russian woman so that she can get her Czech papers, he reluctantly agrees. She takes advantage of the situation to emigrate to West Germany, to her lover,  leaving her five-year-old son with his grandmother. When the grandmother dies, Kolya must come and live with his stepfather - Louka.

To register for the event, please click here: http://berlinwall.eventbrite.com

Wednesday, November 4th

Symposium on the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Collapse of the Eastern Bloc
Gelman Library, Room 207

Marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, this symposium reflects on the historic events of 1989 from today’s perspective and from the perspective of the individual geo-political players involved: USA, USSR, Eastern and Central European countries. This symposium will bring together scholars and diplomats to share their views of the events, ranging from scholarly assessments to personal recollections.

Panel 1: 
20 Years After:  Views from Eastern Europe
9:00 am – 10:00 am

Petr Kolar,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary,
Embassy of the Czech Republic

Bela Szombati
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Embassy of the Republic of Hungary

Marek Konarzewski,
Minister Counselor and Professor, Science and Technology Affairs
Embassy of the Republic of Poland

Panel 2:
The US and USSR: New Perspectives 
10:15 am – 11:15 am

Tom Blanton,
Director,
National Security Archive

Svetlana Savranskaya,
Soviet Historian and Analyst,
National Security Archive

Panel 3: 
The Berlin Wall: From its Construction to its Collapse 
11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Richard Smyser,
Professor of European Politics, German Politics and Economics,
Georgetown University

Bernd Schaefer,
Cold War International History
Project Senior Research Scholar,
Woodrow Wilson Center

Mary Beth Stein,
Professor of German Language and Literature,
George Washington University

To register for one or more of these events, please click here: http://berlinwall.eventbrite.com

Thursday, November 5th

Film Showing:
The Interrogation
(Poland, 1982)

6:00 pm
Gelman Library, Room 207

Based on a true story reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950s, Ryszard Bugajski’s harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland and only became available after the director smuggled it out of the country. Tonia (Krystyna Janda), a singer in a sleazy cabaret, is imprisoned without explanation. Days become weeks become months, varied only by the persuasion, intimidation and torture of interrogation

To register for the event, please click here: http://berlinwall.eventbrite.com

Monday, November 9th

“Tear Down This Wall” Cake Party

6:00pm
Kogan Plaza
Join us as we “tear down” an extraordinary cake made to look like the Berlin Wall.  

Images and Sound: Multimedia Installation

6:00-10:00pm
Kogan Plaza


Film Showing:
When the Wall Came Tumbling Down: 50 Hours that Changed The World
(Germany, 1999)

6:30 pm
Gelman Library Room 207


This compelling documentary shows what really happened during those perilous, pivotal hours. General Secretary Gorbachev and President Bush, the French and the British governments, Chancellor Kohl and General Secretary Krenz, foreign secretaries, ministers and high-ranking officers from both sides (some speaking out for the first time), along with journalists such as NBC News Correspondent Tom Brokaw, describe first-hand what occurred behind the scenes.

To register for one or more of these events, please click here: http://berlinwall.eventbrite.com

Global Resources Center, Gelman Library · Romance, German and Slavic Languages and Literatures ·                              Eckles Library · Friends of the GW Libraries · Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies ·  Academic Technologies · Columbian College of Arts and Sciences · Program Board · SAC

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You are also invited to the following Monday event

VLADISLAV M. ZUBOK

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO AVENGED:

THE UPRISING OF SOVIET INTELLECTUALS AND

THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

Monday, Nov. 9, 3-4:30 PM

Voesar Room, 1957 E St. NW, Suite 412


VLADISLAV M. ZUBOK, a leading Cold War and Russian historian (Temple University), author of such major works as Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev (with Constantine V. Pleshakov) (Harvard University Press, 1996); A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (University of North Carolina Press, 2007); and, most recently, ZHIVAGO'S CHILDREN: The Last Russian Intelligentsia (Harvard University Press, 2009).

Chairing the session will be James G. Hershberg, Associate Professor of History and International Affairs (GWU).

Institute of European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies

George Washington University Cold War Group (GWCW)