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00:00:01
[music]
00:00:09
As the guest of honor at the GDR's 40th
00:00:11
anniversary celebrations, Mika Gorbachef
00:00:14
arrived in East Berlin on October the
00:00:16
6th, 1989.
00:00:18
The country was on the verge of
00:00:19
imploding. The regime tried to hide it.
00:00:22
That night, 10,000 Communist Party
00:00:25
members joined a torch lit parade before
00:00:27
Eric Hanukkah and his guests.
00:00:33
October 6th, my birthday in that of East
00:00:36
Germany. I'm 43. The GDR is 40.
00:00:43
At around 11 p.m., I hear shouting in
00:00:45
police sirens. My friends and I go down
00:00:48
onto the street to check it out. Damn
00:00:50
it, I've forgotten my camera.
00:00:55
The police tell us to keep moving,
00:00:57
brutally shoving us. Suddenly, the guy
00:01:00
next to me is being beaten up by another
00:01:02
guy. [cheering]
00:01:04
I punch him in the face with all I've
00:01:05
got.
00:01:08
[cheering]
00:01:10
It turns out it's a Stazzi agent.
00:01:13
Guys in civilian clothes jump on me,
00:01:15
drag me away, and throw me in the back
00:01:17
of a truck.
00:01:20
My first thought is I'll be spending the
00:01:21
rest of my life in Siberia.
00:01:25
>> Inside the truck, everyone is terrified.
00:01:33
On October the 7th, through the windows
00:01:35
of the Palace of the Republic, party
00:01:37
officials watched protesters gathering.
00:01:41
[cheering]
00:01:43
The crowd began to chant the name of the
00:01:45
Soviet leader. Hanukkah pald. He already
00:01:48
knew the USSR would abandon him.
00:01:52
[cheering]
00:01:57
>> I'm released after 24 hours.
00:02:01
For the next few days, I'm scared.
00:02:05
The Stazzi could come back at any
00:02:07
moment. Search the house. Do what they
00:02:09
like with me.
00:02:12
Ingred tries everything to reassure me.
00:02:15
I take out my enlarger and try to forget
00:02:17
it all.
00:02:28
I met Ingred on New Year's Eve 1977.
00:02:35
At the time, a lot of people still
00:02:37
believed in the tomorrows they sung
00:02:38
along to.
00:02:41
>> Socialism would bring happiness to the
00:02:42
whole of mankind.
00:02:45
and especially to us.
00:02:50
[music]
00:02:59
>> [music]
00:03:04
[music]
00:03:09
[music]
00:03:10
>> On October the 18th, 1989, Hanukkah was
00:03:13
removed from office by the pulit bureau.
00:03:15
He was replaced by Egon Kren, the first
00:03:18
person to use the term vendor, the
00:03:21
turning point.
00:03:26
The regime showed its first signs of
00:03:28
change, albeit relative. On November the
00:03:31
4th, Berlin would see its biggest ever
00:03:34
protest march.
00:03:36
[cheering]
00:03:43
We arranged to meet up with friends for
00:03:44
the march. Ingred goes off with them
00:03:47
while I stay with Martin.
00:03:55
The TV was showing all the banners and
00:03:58
the slogans chanted by the crowd. Live,
00:04:01
the atmosphere is electric. The city
00:04:04
center total mayhem. I can't believe my
00:04:06
eyes.
00:04:12
Suddenly, I come face to face with two
00:04:14
Stazzy guys.
00:04:17
I take the picture.
00:04:20
I'm not scared anymore.
00:04:26
>> [cheering]
00:04:30
>> I take photo after photo. [cheering]
00:04:34
>> I realized that after this [cheering]
00:04:37
there's no going back.
00:04:46
>> November 9th, 1989.
00:04:49
I'll never forget that date.
00:04:53
I was over near Dresden working on the
00:04:55
track.
00:05:00
That evening, we grabbed some beers and
00:05:02
switch on the portable TV set.
00:05:08
Comrade Shabovski of the Pit Bureau was
00:05:11
talking about freedom of movement.
00:05:30
We all look at each other dumbfounded.
00:05:33
Never did I imagine it happening like
00:05:34
this so swiftly.
00:05:40
>> In the middle of the night, I finally
00:05:41
managed to get hold of Ingred. She
00:05:43
sounds drunk. Her speech is slurred.
00:05:46
She tells me that people are singing and
00:05:48
dancing on the streets and drinking
00:05:50
champagne.
00:05:52
[cheering]
00:05:56
The border was opened. A vast crowd
00:05:58
gathered before the Brandenburg gate.
00:06:01
Berlin had been split in two since April
00:06:03
the 13th, 1961.
00:06:06
A new chapter in German history was
00:06:08
about to begin.
00:06:10
[cheering]
00:06:17
>> [music]
00:06:18
>> On the train ride home, I think the wall
00:06:21
has fallen and I wasn't even there to
00:06:23
see it.
00:06:28
Ingred will blame it on my job again.
00:06:30
I'm never there when I need to be.
00:06:36
[music] Before
00:06:44
going home, I stop off at the wall.
00:06:50
I can't believe my eyes.
00:06:53
Everything looks so unreal through the
00:06:54
lens.
00:07:03
The three of us jump in the Trabent and
00:07:05
drive to Tegel Airport.
00:07:09
>> I want to show Martin what a Western
00:07:10
airport looks like and to open a [music]
00:07:12
can of Coca-Cola.
00:07:20
We spend hours watching planes take off
00:07:23
and reading the names of the world's
00:07:25
capitals we could only dream of before.
00:07:27
London, Hong Kong, Paris,
00:07:33
and I say this summer we're going to
00:07:36
Paris.
00:07:42
>> On November the 28th, Chancellor Helmet
00:07:45
revealed his government's plan to
00:07:47
reunify the two Germanies. In reaction,
00:07:50
East German artists and intellectuals
00:07:52
launched the Fur Unsoland appeal for our
00:07:55
country, which wanted freedom, but also
00:07:58
to maintain a state independent of West
00:08:01
Germany.
00:08:03
There were rapidly more than a million
00:08:05
signaturies.
00:08:07
On December the 3rd, a crowd of East
00:08:09
Germans took to the streets, each
00:08:11
carrying a candle.
00:08:18
Fork. We are the people.
00:08:22
Martin and Ingred strike a pose.
00:08:25
As I photograph this incredible scene, I
00:08:28
start humming John Lennon's imagine.
00:08:31
All these dreamers holding hands.
00:08:39
We want freedom, but we don't want to
00:08:42
see the GDR disappear, swallowed up by
00:08:45
West Germany.
00:08:47
We still believe.
00:08:58
[music]
00:09:10
>> [cheering]
00:09:16
>> We see in the new year with Christian
00:09:18
and his family. We never expected to see
00:09:21
each other so soon.
00:09:24
They've adapted well to their new life.
00:09:27
He's still a railway worker, but in the
00:09:29
West, if that term means anything
00:09:31
anymore.
00:09:36
We go out [music] for a walk and
00:09:37
inevitably end up next to the wall.
00:09:42
[music]
00:09:44
Martin takes his first photos.
00:09:48
It's crazy.
00:09:50
Being able to go from one side to the
00:09:52
[music] other so freely still seems
00:09:54
unbelievable to us.
00:10:02
My dad pays us a visit with his new
00:10:04
wife.
00:10:12
Elections were held in the GDR on March
00:10:14
the 18th, 1990.
00:10:16
The first free elections in the country
00:10:18
since 1933. They were won by supporters
00:10:22
of reunification.
00:10:24
Liz Mizier, leader of the Christian
00:10:26
Democrats, became the head of the East
00:10:28
German government. His assistant was a
00:10:31
certain Angela Merkel.
00:10:39
We lost the election,
00:10:42
but at last we're free.
00:10:46
On July 15th, 1990, we set off for Paris
00:10:49
with a couple of friends in two
00:10:51
tropants.
00:10:56
We're greeted everywhere like heroes.
00:10:59
We symbolize freedom.
00:11:02
Once in Paris, we drive the wrong way up
00:11:04
a one-way street. Nobody complains.
00:11:08
A policeman even shouts out, "Trabins."
00:11:11
And he lets us through.
00:11:16
Everything seems so wonderful. The
00:11:18
metro, the crowds, [music] the store
00:11:20
windows, the advertising.
00:11:23
Everything is so new.
00:11:29
At the Galdon, I tell a train driver,
00:11:31
"I'm an East German railway man, and
00:11:34
Martin and I suddenly find ourselves in
00:11:35
the cab of a TGV.
00:11:41
It's the most beautiful train I've ever
00:11:43
seen.
00:11:54
[music]
00:12:01
One year after the fall of the Berlin
00:12:03
Wall on October the 3rd, 1990, the two
00:12:06
Germanies became one. Wulfgang witnessed
00:12:09
the disappearance of his homeland, the
00:12:10
GDR. A page in world history turned
00:12:14
before the incredulous eyes of millions
00:12:16
of men and women like Wulf Gang and
00:12:18
Ingrid.
00:12:28
Back then, I felt as if events had
00:12:30
overtaken me.
00:12:33
Everything [music] happened so fast. I
00:12:35
remember having to compare prices,
00:12:37
[music] deal with our rent increases,
00:12:40
making our tax declarations.
00:12:43
All of that was pretty difficult.
00:12:50
Martin and Ingred adapted quickly.
00:12:54
As for me, I'm a [music] bit naive and
00:12:57
not so smart.
00:13:02
[music]
00:13:08
[music]
00:13:09
Just after the two Germanies united,
00:13:13
Ingred and Vulf gang divorced.
00:13:16
[music]
00:13:18
Martin became a musician and now travels
00:13:21
freely all over the world.
00:13:24
[music]
00:13:58
>> [music]

Description:

Through the photographs of East German railway worker Wolfgang Thomas, this film takes us inside everyday life in the GDR during the turbulent summer of 1989. Between family holidays, whispered fears of the Stasi, and rumours of an open border in Hungary, his images capture a society on the brink of collapse. While thousands of citizens flee through neighbouring countries, Wolfgang hesitates, torn between loyalty, doubt and hope for his son’s future. As protests spread from churches to the streets of East Berlin, his personal story becomes a window into the final months of the Cold War. Documentary : Snapshot of History – Wolfgang Thomas, a citizen of East Germany in 1989 Direction : Jérôme Lambert & Philippe Picard Production : Bonne Compagnie Curious about everything, an expert in nothing? Accessible anytime, anywhere, SLICE is your weekly dose of short documentaries. A slice of history, science, ecology or architecture, to discover amusing anecdotes, inventions, unusual stories, bizarre, entertaining and instructive. Be smart, have a SLICE! Follow us 👇 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser

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