This is an article written by Marja Verburg.
On October 9th, 1989, two East-Germans guys drove in two borrowed Trabi’s, those funny East-German cars, from Berlin to Leipzig. One of them had sneaked out of his house in East-Berlin through the roof – he was scared the Stasi, the secret police of the German Democratic Republic GDR, was watching his apartment.
That evening the two guys managed to get into one of the Leipzig church towers and film the only existing images of the most important demonstration of the East-German revolution.
Still from the video 'Wir sind das Volk' as seen on 'Gedächtnis der Nation'.
Western journalists weren’t allowed to get into the city by then. More than 75 thousand civilians went on the streets, yelling: ‘Wir sind das Volk!’ (We are the people), although everybody was scared that the regime would choose the ‘Chinese solution’. But things remained peaceful and the demonstration marked the turning point of the revolution. One month later, the wall came down.
That same night, one of the East-German filmmakers took the tape out of his underwear and gave it to a West-German journalist, who hid it in hís pants. The next day, the whole world saw it.
East German journalist Siegbert Schefke about filming the Leipzig demonstration, October 9, 1989. Screenshot from the website 'Gedächtnis der Nation'.
I was told this story by the German filmmaker himself on the most fascinating online archive I know: the Gedächtnis der Nation – Memory of the nation. This online database of German history contains more than a thousand interviews with Zeitzeugen (lit: timewitnesses), that Germans are so fond of. These eyewitnesses tell their recollections of 20th century historical events in short interviews that take 5 or 6 minutes.
The personal stories of all kinds of Germans make history alive, which is exactly what the makers, historian Guido Knopp and journalist Hans-Ulrich Jörges (German Wikipedia), had in mind when they started this online database. It is made after the Shoah-project from director Steven Spielberg, who made testimonies of Holocaust-survivors accessible to the world.
The Holocaust is one of the important themes of the Gedächtnis der Nation as well, but you can also view people telling you how life was during the First World War, the Weimar-Republic and West-Germany in the fifties and sixties; or about pop-music in the GDR, the introduction of the DMark, both in West-Germany in 1948 and in the GDR in 1990 and about the German Sommermärchen, the ‘Summerfairytale’ of the Soccer World Championship in Germany 2006.
You can search for interviews by theme or event – just click on one of the images in the beautiful timeline. All clips are preceded by a short introduction video. You can watch longer interviews as well – generally about an hour – with famous German politicians, writers, scientists, businessmen and musicians, who share their personal memories of 20th century Germany.
All interviews are in German. If you start strolling through the archive, take your time. The minute you watch one clip, you’re lost and you have to watch the next one, told by somebody else, who sheds a whole new light on what the first guy just said.
If you really have to go back to work or what else it is that you are doing, then choose an interview with an East-German politician. After 5 minutes you are either bored to death or your mind gets fuzzy from the incomprehensible language and way of thinking of those people.
Don’t complain I didn’t warn you.
This is the second part of a series of Pearls, found by Pearl Divers United, a group of enthousiasts for online archives. More on this here.
