Thursday, November 12, 2009

Ohne Mauern leben

It's been twenty years since that momentous day when the unthinkable happened: The Berlin Wall came down. I remember the first time I visited Berlin and was in awe of this monolith, this insane testament to man's warped sense of reason. The citizen's of East Berlin were told the wall was thee to protect them from the evil West.
I was obsessed with the Wall. I spent days just walking along it, looking over the into the eastern side at the tanks traps and razor wire...the soldiers staring down at me through binoculars, until i raised my camera to take their picture, which sent them scurrying away from the window of their tower.

In light of the anniversary of the Wall's demise, I'm recommending a few movies that capture some of the essence of that time;

First is Das Leben der Anderen(Lives of others). This captures the oppressive control the Stasi had over the people of East Berlin and the ultimate futility of the whole system.

Second, a comedy: Goodbye Lenin. An hilarious comedy of errors, where a son tries to convince his good Socialist mother that everything is as it always was, despite the wall coming down.

Last is only remotely related to East Berlin/The Wall, but is worth a watch: Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It's a loves story...boy/girl meets boy, boy/girl loses boy, boy/girls goes on a quest to find boy.

Here's a link from good ol' Paracelsus that shows some pics of the wall. Be sure to click on numbers 13,14 and 15 to see a Before and After...stunning.

And Sid Vicious' observations...

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