“Ich bin ein Berliner”: Stories of the Berlin Wall
In June 1963, John F. Kennedy visited Berlin and gave his famous speech in which he declared: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner). The Berlin wall had gone up in August 1961, and it became the symbol of the division of Germany and the Cold War. Kennedy’s famous line defied separation and spoke of solidarity. This was not a small gesture from the president of a nation, which had been at war with Germany 16 years earlier. From Kennedy’s visit, it would take 26 more years, until the Wall came down on November 9, 1989.
The Digital Story Contest “Ich bin ein Berliner: Stories of the Berlin Wall” calls for submissions of 3 to 5 minutes long videos or photo stories about Berlin and the wall which separated the city for 28 years. How did people live there? What do you know about it? Did you study abroad in Berlin and visit the Wall and places commemorating it? Do you know people who lived there and who can tell their stories of life in Berlin on either side of the Wall? Who were the people who brought it down? You can research this topic and also draw connections to walls separating people(s) and countries from each other today. What can we do to overcome divisions in our world?
Congratulations to the digital story contest winner, Weigang Song, for his submission “Touch of Berlin.”
Weigang Song is a graduate student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University.