30 years since the Berlin Wall: events and exhibitions for a historic commemoration

Thirty years ago, the history of Berlin, Germany and the whole of Europe changed: the fall of the Wall was physical but above all symbolic, and every art form was influenced by it. These days, all around the world, the anniversary of this landmark date — 9 November 1989 — is being celebrated through events, exhibitions and public initiatives. We highlight some appointments and cultural inspiration that we consider unmissable for understanding what is happening and for not forgetting that day.

Vision in motions, a memorable installation in Berlin

The events organised for this occasion in Germany and above all in Berlin are, needless to say, extremely numerous; if you are celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on location, the advice is to consult the website visitberlin.de, where all the initiatives are listed. Once in the city, however, you cannot fail to admire the enormous installation located in the city centre in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

It is the idea of American artist Patrick Shearn: a rainbow net that floats gracefully, made up of more than thirty thousand handwritten messages, each on a streamer written by ordinary people. Many express joy and hope, others nostalgia or uncertainty about the future. The very long net stands in obvious contrast to the Berlin Wall: while the two thousand metres of streamers float freely in the wind, the Wall was made of concrete, anchored to the ground, and made ever more impossible to cross. A fine metaphor and a trail of colour embracing Berlin.

Nati dopo l'89: the travelling exhibition in Italy

Among the many events dedicated to celebrating or simply remembering 9 November 1989, we have chosen a particular project entitled "Nati dopo l'89", which opens in Rome before touring the whole of Italy. It is a new and, we believe, engaging format — but above all an authentic one: a journey in search of the post-Wall generation, in Italy and Germany. Images and words that tell the stories of twenty young Europeans born after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here, in the authors' own words, is what drove them to travel through Germany and Italy: "Thirty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since then, Germany and Europe have changed profoundly. A single Germany, a larger Europe, borders erased by history and borders opened up. And a single currency. What do young Germans and Italians born after the fall of the Wall think of this revolution? What impact does it have on their lives?" To find out, journalist Matteo Tacconi and photographer Ignacio María Coccia set off on a journey to Dresden and Bonn in Germany and Trieste and Bari in Italy, producing four reportages and an exhibition to tell the story of the post-'89 generation.

Watching Good bye Lenin! at the cinema again

Certainly one of the cult films on the subject, with the great merit of recounting a memorable event through a lens that is both humorous and nostalgic at the same time. The story, for anyone who doesn't yet know it, centres on the Kerner family of East Berlin: in 1989, the mother falls into a coma and wakes up several months later, with the wall already fallen and society transformed. To spare her the shock, her son goes to every length to pretend that nothing has happened. Among the unforgettable scenes is that of a Lenin bust hanging from a helicopter, carried away over the skies of Berlin — a symbolic and powerful image devised by director Wolfgang Becker to tell the story of the end of a world, of that city divided like its sky, of those broken families, of a country split in two. A box-office hit both at home and abroad, Good bye, Lenin! released in Italian cinemas in 2003, returns to the big screen on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the week culminating in the date of the night when everything changed between East and West: 9 November 1989. If you haven't seen it, run to the cinema. Note that on 10 November at 9:00 pm, at the Mic – Museo Interattivo del Cinema, the restored version will be screened.

3 novels for reliving the fall of the Berlin Wall

Literature is a way of reliving the events and atmosphere of those turbulent and defining years. We recommend 3 novels that in our view are useful for understanding the state of mind of a divided people.
Il cielo diviso by Christa Wolf (original title: Der geteilte Himmel) is our choice for the different perspective it offers: it was published shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall, in East Germany, and tells the story and crisis of a couple divided in a city cut in half. One of the most debated works in Germany, owing to the themes it addresses (above all, a vision quite removed from the capitalist logic of the time). Her appeal to her fellow citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), delivered on 8 November 1989, urging them not to leave the country, became famous: "…We ask you, stay in your homeland, stay with us. What can we promise you? Nothing easy. But a useful and interesting life. No quick prosperity, but with action, great change. We want to commit ourselves to democratisation, free elections, law and security."

Read also: Berlin Kombinat Tours: la vera Berlino

Il mio secolo by Günter Grass is an important text that aims to provide an ideal overview of the main events of twentieth-century Germany through 100 short stories. It is worth reading because, beyond the stories relating to the most significant years of the division of the two Germanys (1949), the construction of the wall (1961) and its fall (1989), it draws particular attention to the year 1993: in these pages, a former GDR citizen explains what changes have taken place in his homeland after reunification, both positive and negative. It is out of print, so you will need to look for it among second-hand books — but do look for it!

Semplici storie by Ingo Schulze is made up of twenty-nine episodes — stories in the form of chapters, variously intertwined — set in the provinces of the former GDR in the aftermath of the fall of the wall. It recounts small, apparently insignificant episodes of everyday life that often constitute turning points in the lives of the protagonists, without them truly being aware of it. Minimal, peripheral, mundane stories of ordinary people trying to survive in a transformed world. For those who enjoy minimalism set against a historically significant backdrop.

9 November 1989 on television

For those who want to relive those memorable days or deepen their historical knowledge of those events, television comes to the rescue with many worthwhile offerings. We begin with the Rai public broadcasters, which have put together an excellent schedule (you can find all the listings at this link). Not to be missed — whether for the first time or as a revisit — is the 2007 Oscar-winning film screening in the prime-time slot on Rai Movie on Saturday 9 November at 9:10 pm: "Le vite degli altri", directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Memories, reconstructions and stories of lived experience from 11 to 15 November, with the start of the new season of "Passato e Presente", the Rai Cultura programme hosted by Paolo Mieli, broadcast at 1:15 pm on Rai3 and at 8:30 pm on Rai Storia. The first five episodes are dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: starting from that fateful November 1989 in Germany, the account delves into the stories of five countries for which that moment signified the end of an era and the beginning of a completely new phase, with all the hopes and contradictions that characterised it.

Also Sky has put together a dedicated schedule; among its offerings we highlight that of Sky Arte, which on 9 November at 9:15 pm will broadcast Berlino Est Ovest, a two-part documentary with Manuel Agnelli. Director Enza Negroni discovers in Bologna, after decades, 50 hours of previously unseen original footage filmed in Berlin in the 1980s. The tapes were shot by a Bologna-based music manager and concert promoter, Maurizio Stanzani, during a trip with a cameraman and a journalist. That same journey is retraced today, thirty years after the fall of the wall, by Manuel Agnelli, who will seek a common thread between this remarkable archive from the 1980s and the Berlin of today, heir to that strange and now-forgotten city once known as West Berlin.