Perspectives from East and West on Germany’s recent past
Collaborative multimedia interview project of the University of Konstanz and the Berlin Wall Foundation with members of the generation born in 1975 – now taking applications
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, members of the generation born in 1975 are provided the opportunity to speak up. The project entitled “Perspektiven der Generation 75 - Mit 14 ins neue Deutschland” (Perspectives of the ‘75 generation – at the age of 14 in the new Germany) will allow people from Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, as well as East and West Berlin to tell us about their experiences in the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany and the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The approximately three-hour long interviews will not only be evaluated by researchers, but they will also be used in a video installation and for educational purposes. The project’s initiator, junior professor Dr Christiane Bertram from the Binational School of Education (BiSE) at the University of Konstanz, is inviting people from Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg as well as East and West Berlin to participate as interview partners. Interested parties can now register themselves as potential participants via an online database at uni.kn/bertram/generation-1975.
Many different perspectives
The interviewees should bring a wide range of life histories and perspectives to the table, from both the divided and reunited Germany. For this reason, potential participants are asked to provide information about their past places of residence and political orientation in the online database. “We are not only interested in people who have continuously lived in one of the three federal states, but are also looking for those who have moved from the East to the West or from the West to the East. We want to include a variety of perspectives on both the divided and reunited Germany,” says Christiane Bertram. Her study on the effectiveness of using witness interviews and testimonials in history class has been published internationally and was awarded the publication prize of the Society for Empirical Educational Research (GEBF) in Germany.
When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, those born in 1975 were 14 years old. Today they are in the prime of life and are sharing their experiences with their children. A further distinguishing feature of this interview project is the consideration of reciprocal viewpoints: from East to West and back. Thus far, researchers have almost exclusively recorded East Germans’ memories of upheaval and their experiences of a divided and reunited Germany. How West Germans perceived a divided Germany and how they experienced reunification are questions that have been rarely asked.
“Every person who participates in our interviews has the opportunity to share his or her own experiences, perspectives and messages,” says Christiane Bertram. It is important to the historian and educational researcher that people interact and enter into conversation with each other. “There is this widespread notion that a big gap exists between East and West. We want to find out if that is really the case.”
Video artists record interviews
The interviews will be filmed by the video artists Ina Rommel and Stefan Krauss, who are known for their video installation “Kriegskinder” (War Children). They will visit the interview participants at their homes. Their video recordings will become part of a video installation, which will first be presented in 2020 in Berlin to commemorate “30 Years of Reunification” before going on tour as a travelling exhibition. The video material will also be used for historical-political educational purposes in and outside of school settings.
The multimedia interview project is funded by the Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany (GDR) with 49,500 euros.
Facts:
- Multimedia interview project “Perspektiven der Generation 75 - Mit 14 ins neue Deutschland” (Perspectives of the ‘75 generation – at the age of 14 in the new Germany)
- Video interviews with 30 contemporary witnesses from Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg as well as East and West Berlin
- Collaborative project of the Binational School of Education (BiSE) at the University of Konstanz, the Berlin Wall Foundation, the FernUniversität in Hagen’s archive “Deutsches Gedächtnis” (German memory), and the video artists Ina Rommel und Stefan Krauss
- Project leader is junior professor Dr Christiane Bertram of the Binational School of Education (BiSE) at the University of Konstanz
- Interviews will be evaluated by researchers, made available to the public via a video installation and used for educational purposes
- Funded with 49,500 euros by the Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany (GDR)
- Registration in online databank: uni.kn/bertram/generation-1975
- Contact: generation75@uni-konstanz.de
