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Marianne Birthler | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Berliner Zimmer

Marianne Birthler was born in 1948 and grew up in Berlin. Through her involvement in the Protestant church in East Berlin in the 1980’s, she became politically active and went on to co-found an opposition group. She welcomed the fall of communism with great euphoria and subsequently took on parliamentary posts for Bündnis 90 (the German Green party). For eleven years, she was the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic. She sees the opening of the files as a means of reconciliation with the dictatorship.

Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Germany’s official reunification on 3rd October 1990 was the final act of a broad democratic awakening in the GDR, which saw mass mobilisations in Leipzig, East Berlin and elsewhere. The date also marked the end of the division of Berlin. Thirty years later, a video project by Berlin artist Sonya Schönberger introduces people who are working for democracy in Berlin today.

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