BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most famous symbols of the Cold War.
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Before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, artists decorated the western side with graffiti of protest, while the eastern side remained untouched. |
“The city of Berlin [which was separated by the wall] has been holding celebrations all year, leading up to the anniversary on November 9,” said Sonja Fritzsche, associate professor of German and Eastern European Studies at Illinois Wesleyan, who was in Berlin working on research at the Humboldt University in Berlin this summer.
Illinois Wesleyan University will honor the anniversary with an international film series on the wall and talk by Visiting Professor Bill Brown from Oct. 4-8, following German Reunification Day (which is Oct. 3). Details are available on the German Studies site.
The Berlin Wall amounted to more than 80 miles of concrete and wire built in 1961 under the Soviet leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. Constructed to stem the tide of emigration from the east, the city of West Berlin was encircled by the wall. In 1990, the former Federal Republic of Germany (or West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) reunified on October 3, nearly a year after the fall of the wall.
Now that 20 years have passed since 1989, it might seem as though the events of that November could be relegated to the pages of history. Like all history, however, the ramifications of an event reverberate through time.